[rescue] Ultra SPARC purchase

[Steve Sandau]

I've decided (with my wife's help ;) ) that it's time to graduate to an Ultra of some sort. I currently use, as workstations, a 110MHz SPARC 5 at home, and a dual 85MHz SPARC 20 at work. They're just a little too slow for some things, and I'm tired of 8-bit color. I'd like to try SMC on Sol9 without it taking so long that I forget what I was doing by the time I can take the next step...

I have seen Ultra 5s on eBay for $200 BIN with 256M (or more) and a 4G drive. For basic workstation use (mail, browsing, light compiling and possibly a test installation of Oracle) is it worth spending more money to get a 10 or a 30??

I know that the 5 is IDE only and I hear that not just any SCSI card will work in it. I have a couple of Adaptec 27xx cards, but don't know if they'll work, or even if I need SCSI in it right off. I'd like to be able to use SCSI peripherals some day.

It also appears that the factory framebuffer config will only to 24-bit color at 800x600. Not good enough for me. Worth upgrading the video, or should I just buy a 10 instead??

Opinions? I think wome of this had been discussed here fiarly recently. Forgivce the repetition, but I didn't have any money then. ;)

Steve