[rescue] rescue Digest, Vol 83, Issue 9

[Lionel Peterson]

On Oct 15, 2009, at 10:52 PM, Chris Brandstetter  
<sirloxelroy at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:42:45 +0100
>> From: Peter Corlett <abuse at cabal.org.uk>
>> To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>> Subject: Re: [rescue] Wanted: Old Sun Hardware
>> Message-ID: <E3AC44CC-1636-49CC-AA51-A9375B553B33 at cabal.org.uk>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>>
>> On 14 Oct 2009, at 10:46, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>>> I think 'Old' has gone through several definitions - first anything
>>> 680x0-based, then anything Sun4(all flavors) or earlier, then
>>> anytimg that wouldn't run 64-bit Solaris. Soon (I fear) it will mean
>>> anything not x64-based.
>>
>> Ha. I have in front of me a slightly battered x64 Ultra 20, acquired
>> cheaply because the previous owner evidently decided it was too old.
> I have 2 of those I consider my "Current" workstations.  Nothing wrong
> with them and will have them for a couple years to come.  Got mine off
> of eBay when a guy was unloading a few w/ no hdds.

They are reasonably expandable (friend using Mr. Bill's lightly  
upgraded unit as primary desktop running Vista w/o incident), but  
upgrades are expensive relative to newer machines (DDR vs. DDR2 RAM  
costs, only two SATA drive bays, etc). This is the intersection of  
'good enough' and 'not the latest'...

RAM upgrade to 4 Gigs is $125-150 (more for ECC), and CPU upgrades are  
overpriced for performance increase. Compare that to the $25-30 (AR) I  
can upgrade a DDR2 desktop to 4 Gigs for, and the option of a $100-125  
Quad Core CPU, and the U20 is less appealing than other desktops for  
most people.

Lionel