[rescue] Getting back into Sun - Blade 100 or Ultra 5?

[Lionel Peterson]

I think the deciding factors of which system is 'best' comes down to a handful of factors (in no particular order):

Cost
Completeness
Noise
Size
Power

The U5 and SB100 easily meet any reasonable noise, size, and power requirements. Cost and Completeness are dependent on what's available when you're shopping. Be careful not to just assume missing memory, drives, etc are easily available verify availability of needed accy before committing to a system.

(My favorite system was the Ultra 2, but that's because I worked with them.)

I'd suggest focusing on a system that has maximum RAM and can accept a cheap 2nd and maybe 3rd NIC to help with various networking demonstrations you want to provide.

A current browser would be tough, not sure of options there...

Literally anything from a Sun4c or newer would be fine for your purposes, IMHO.

Good luck,

Ken

> On Nov 21, 2024, at 11:39, Christopher Purdy via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
> 
> After a long hiatus, looking to get an older Sun to show the kids for our homeschool computer class..  Leaning toward the Ultra 5, but not sure.  Planning on an older Solaris 7 or 8 install - possibly a BSD flavor down the road.
> 
> Pro's and Cons of each?
> 
> I've read about the anemic cache on the Blade... but wasn't sure about the actual performance differences..  Mainly just planning to set up a web server so they can get a feel for networking and such..  It would be nice to have some sort of viable web browser for simpler pages and to get software so I can show them installation and compiling, etc..
> 
> Main reason for selecting these two is the 'bay has them relatively cheaply - but any of the higher end workstations are 2-10X more expensive..  the days of cheap SUN goodies are gone it appears.
> 
> On that note - if anyone has some decent SUN kit in the Detroit / Flint area let me know, I'd prefer not pay shipping on these beasts.  In a perfect world - an Ultra 30/60 with working SCSI drives would be perfect... 
> 
> --
> Christopher Purdy
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org