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

[Christopher Purdy]

Thanks everyone!  I decided on the U5 as I found an "in original box" that
looked clean and had everything except the hdd - and I had an old type 5
keyboard and mouse in storage.  I'm going to experiment a bit on the hdd -
I know about the 120GB limit... and am going to attempt (at least see what
happens) with a SATA / IDE adapter and a 64gb ssd drive.. I'll fall back to
a 7200rpm ide drive if that doesnt work.

A bit of the backstory here:
I have an old SS2 that I pulled out of storage and attempted to get going
over the summer - and again today - it will manage getting to openboot...
and after quite a bit of playing and trying some different CDROM's I had in
storage - I decided to leave it and move on.  I could get it to recognize
its HDD (ancient barracuda drive - LOUD!), but would give a stack underflow
error when it tried to boot from it.. it also would see my CDROM's but the
first I tried (DEC model) seemed to not spin up at all... The second (NEC
Multispin 6Xi) would spin up and read the disc, but kept giving stack
underflow errors as well... I decided that instead of putting any more $$$
into this machine I'd move up to an ultra series - which leads us to my
original post.

I am curious as to what the stack underflow error is about though?  That's
a new one on me...

- Chris

On Thu, Nov 21, 2024 at 2:49 PM Lionel Peterson via rescue <
rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:

> 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
> >
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
> _______________________________________________
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>


-- 
Christopher Purdy
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