[rescue] Ultra SPARC purchase

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

>Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 18:44:38 -0500
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Ultra SPARC purchase
>From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>On Sunday, March 30, 2003, at 06:31 PM, Steve Sandau wrote:
>> 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 wouldn't bother with the Ultra5 or Ultra10...they work, but they're 
>not what I'd call great machines.  I'd avoid them.  The Ultra30 is *by 
>far* a better choice, and not much more expensive these days.

While I won't argue that the Ultra30 isn't a better machine than a U5 or
U10, I have used a few different U10s, and if you pick the right proc in
them, they are quite nice machines (pick the procs with fatter L2 cache
even if they are at a slower MHZ).  I really like the U10 440 I have.
For many things I've done with it, it is almost as fast as my U60.

>
>          -Dave
>
>--
>Dave McGuire             "I've grown hair again, just
>St. Petersburg, FL           for the occasion."       -Doc Shipley
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-- Curt