[rescue] Machine valuation; Was SGI files Ch11 again, bought by Rackable for $25M

[Jonathan J. M. Katz]

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 12:25 PM, JP Hindin <jplist2008 at kiwigeek.com> wrote:

> So this brings up a question I have pondered over the years, as I've
> picked up new gems for the basement (or brother-in-law's garage, in this
> case, woe as me) - I'd like to know what the original value was.
>
> For example, in particular I'm thinking of my Sun E10000, 64GB RAM, 64x
> 466mHz processors. I've seen suggestions that have ranged from $5m to $10m
>

I don't know if the wayback machine has store.sun.com in its archive. At
least there you could find list prices. As far as list prices, you're
probably right about the $5MM range. If you had a serial number and a friend
at Sun you may be able to look up the original PO. There was hardware cost,
service cost for the 1st 3 years, and SunPS services, and site assessments
for installation usually bundled into the cost of one of these, and some
storage, and the SSPs, so a figure of up to $10MM may almost make sense if
it included those non-physical assets at LIST PRICE.

But no-one ever paid list price for Sun gear. Ever. Usually 20-30% of list
was average and good customers likely did better than that.

I have to check my basement. I may have an old binder with a Sun price list,
but I have no idea of its vintage (late 90s, early 00s, or whatever.) I may
have trashed it. If I do have it, I can look that stuff up for you.

-Jon (ex-Sun employee 4/2000-11/2003, SunPS and Indiana SE.)