[SunRescue] Best Value Sun for $1000?

[Brian McCloskey]

there is no problem with the serial ports on the ultra 1's or any recent sun 
machines that i know of. however do not pay $1000 for an ultra 1. that is 
way too much. i bought an ultra 1 170e with creator 3d graphics and 256mb 
ram for $500 2 years ago (which was a phenomenal deal then, but about right 
for a purchase now). for $1000 i would be looking to try and get a lightly 
configure ultra 2. these are infinitely better machines, sport 1-2 
ultraSPARC II processors (the ultra 1's and ultra 150's use an ultraSPARC 
processor which had a not terribly serious bug regarding execution of 64 bit 
code, and the processors were soldered onboard and not upgradeable).

the ultra 5 is not a bad machine, but again the processor is not upgradeable 
and they are ide based by default, which also isn't horrible but doesn't 
allow for easy hookup of peripherals unless you add a pci scsi card. there 
is a very well supported symbios pci scsi card out there, but i think its a 
bit hard to find these days (worth tracking down though since it should be 
under $100 and sun's card is around $500 i think). speaking from my personal 
experience the sunpci card is not going to be what you want. its not too 
useful under any circumstances really, but for playing games its going to 
really suck. get a better ultraSPARC processor and run realPC when you need 
to. also the ultra 5 cannot handle anything better than the pci 32 bit 
raptor graphics framebuffer (sucks for 3d) and this isn't even the standard 
card. it will come with the 10/100baseT/rs232/24 bit framebuffer pci card by 
default. some of the ultra 1's and the ultra 2's have upa sockets for 
creator 3d graphics and the ultra 2's can handle elite 3d as far as i know.

however, it is true that prices are only going to come down on this hardware 
so i would be very careful not to let anyone pressure you into buying 
impulsively. good luck. whatever you get should be a huge jump up from the 
ipx, just don't pay more than you should.

-wu


>From: "Ken Hansen" <n2vip at bellatlantic.net>
>Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [SunRescue] Best Value Sun for $1000?
>Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 19:02:42 -0400
>
>Realize, these machines will only go *down* in value, and they are not 
>going
>to disappear any time soon.
>
>An Ultra 1 would make a nice machine at home, but I wonder about the serial
>port (for your intended dial-up usage)... Suns have had "brain dead" serial
>ports in the past, don't know about present day machines...
>
>Also, an Ultra5 may be another option, since you could then look for a
>SunPCi card, allowing you to run a *real* WinNT machine *inside* your
>Ultra5. Educational discounts put these machines at about $1200 today, and 
>I
>bet in the near term a similar offer will appear to take it's place.
>
>Just remember, old Suns never die, they just wind up on ebay...
>
>If I was to spend $1000 right now on a system, I would consider an
>Ultra1/170 a good deal, if I could get adequate RAM and a decent sized
>monitor in the deal (but that is just my opinion).
>
>Good luck,
>
>Ken
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "William Barnett-Lewis" <wlewis at mailbag.com>
>To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 6:23 PM
>Subject: [SunRescue] Best Value Sun for $1000?
>
>
> > Hello,
> > The subject says it all. I currently have an IPX (2gb/64mb &20" 
>grayscale)
> > that certainly works fun, but is Solaris 8 challenged and a wee bit 
>pokey
> > when in CDE. I'd like to retire my PowerMac 8500 and go to a Sun for my
> > primary machine. Here at home that means I need to be able to do 
>Internet
> > over dialup, word processing, light programming (Squeak Smalltalk and 
>the
> > like), possibly some 3d rendering and run my copy of Real PC for those 
>old
> > dos games I'm addicted to... ;>
> >
> > I've seen that Data Instruments has an Ultra 1/170 for that much, but 
>Mr.
> > Dikeman has warned me that they may not have any when I'm ready to buy 
>in
>a
> > couple of months (This will be my wife's Christmas present to me). So
> > failing that, what would qualify as the best bang for the buck. The 
>budget
> > may get a hundred or two higher, but not lower.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > William
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
> > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
>
>_______________________________________________
>Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
>http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

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