[rescue] Sparc LX Wanted

[Bryan Gurney]

On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:23:47 -0500, Mike Nicewonger  
<twmaster at twmaster.com> wrote:

> On Feb 26, 2006, at 12:18 PM, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 2006-02-26 at 11:36, Mike Nicewonger wrote:
>>> On Feb 26, 2006, at 11:15 AM, Dan Williams wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 26/02/06, Sevan / Venture37 <venture37 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Hi Guys
>>>>> Are there any members from the uk who've got a Sparc LX they'd like
>>>>> to
>>>>> get rid of??
>>>
>>>> I have probably got an ipx if you want one, they are slightly faster.
>>>> But the hard drive will probably be small. I'll see if I can dig one
>>>> out, most of mine have dead nvram though.
>>>
>>> Uh. No. The LX is faster than an IPX.
>>
>> Guess that depends on what you are doing with it...
>>
>> The LX is 50Mhz while the IPX is 40MHz... but...
>>
>> Don't try to run WABI on it... the IPX will do much
>> better.... the Classic and LX suffered from lack of
>> cache (it was way to small).
>
> While this may be so for -most- uses the IPX is not a fast as the LX.
> Not even the same class CPU. And since the opriginal posted made no
> mention of intended use my original comment stands as true.
>
>> It is quite possible that an IPX with a Weitek PowerUp
>> might even be faster all around than an LX.
>
> That would be peachy but nobody mentioned a PowerUp...
>

Anybody take a look at the Obsolyte description?  
http://www.obsolyte.com/sun_lx/

 From what I see, it was the fastest Sparcstation lunchbox, base config  
(and apparently the IPX plus Weitek beats it out a little:

"The 50Mhz Microsparc is decent for lightweight use, but these early  
Microsparcs were notoriously slow -- an IPX, even though it's a earlier  
machine, can almost keep up with the LX, and an IPX equipped with the  
Weitek Power-Up will outperform an LX.

"However, with it's built-in framebuffer, which provides decent graphics  
speed, the LX is a very useable machine with nothing in except the  
mainboard. You really don't need any Sbus cards in it to make effective  
use of it."

But from some images on the net, it seems to have 50-pin SCSI, which  
severely limits the size (and youth) of hard drive that you can use in  
it.  I have to ask: why is the original poster seeking this when they  
could easily find a Sparcstation 5 with a CG6 SBUS framebuffer card  
installed?  It could have double the CPU speed (my SS5 has a 110 MHz  
TurboSparc), lots more than the 96 MB maximum memory (mine's maxed out at  
256 MB), and SCA-80 connectors so you can go buy a reconditioned 9 GB or  
18 GB Seagate, instead of desperately searching around for the largest  
50-pin SCSI drive made?

I fully understand if you specifically want the LX (for the onboard ISDN  
interface for instance), or if you want the fastest of the lunchboxes.   
But if you're concerned about speed, I'm seeing plenty of Ultra 5's and a  
few Ultra 2's in the online classifieds for cheap.