[geeks] Ultra 20 thoughts

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 @ 11:03 -0500, Lionel Peterson said:

> If you choose an "upgraded" model for the "free system" they show the
> list prices as "$0, $500, and somethng like $1,100" + the $1,780.20
> service contract. The list price is added to your first years payment,
> due upon order.

There is nothing free about the machines anyway.  It's your garden
variety false advertising.

> The graphics options are priced the same if you buy them with the
> system or independently.

They are also expensive.  Why can't they just let you use a $99 nVidia
card?

Does anyone know if the driver Sun ships is the unified driver that
works on all of the cards?

> There are three CPUs available 1.8 GHz, 2.2 GHz, and 2.6 GHz, the last
> two are only available as part of an upgraded configuration (for
> example the 2.2 GHz CPU can only be ordered with 1 Gig of RAM and the
> NVS 280 graphics adapter). The 2.2 GHz configuration is $1,395 which
> includes $250 of upgrades, making the CPU upgrade cost $250.

Sounds like Apple.

I've always hated limitations on configuration like that.

It really makes life painful if you are trying to repair/replace an
existing system.  You end up with a lot of stuff you don't need.

Regarding the U20, there are some things which I find lacking in
comparison to other machines in its class:

    - it has only two drive bays
    - only 33MHz 32-bit PCI: it should have PCI-X
    - only a pair of SATA ports... even on workstations I want the
      option of at least 3 drives: 1 for OS, a pair for data.

It seems like they skimped a bit to me.



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["We have nothing to prove" -- Alan Dawkins]