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Buying Sun Sparcs for Personal Use?

Posted by Cliff on from the slashdot-does-the-sun-sparc-buyers-guide dept.

sid crimson asks: "I'm looking to add a Sun Sparc to my home setup so I can cut my teeth on Solaris/Sparc. Maybe there are slashdotters who would offer some insight as to which workstations might be best suited to a budget-minded someone wanting to learn SunOS 2.6 all the way through Solaris 7 & 8? Maybe some specifics as to the need for a 'framebuffer' and other options available for Sun hardware." If one is looking for a Sparc or Sparc Hardware, you might try looking at this earlier article which discussed online vendors that sell Sparc hardware. That article is a couple of years old, however, so I imagine the seller landscape has changed slightly. If anyone knows of other sites or shops that specialized in Sparc hardware that may not have been mentioned in the previous article, please share them here.

1 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. sunhelp.org is your destination! by nbvb · · Score: 5, Informative

    You'll want to check out www.sunhelp.org. Mr. Bill (the ever-so-gracious host there) knows his stuff and has some links to Sun equipment vendors.

    Since everyone and their brother has personal recommendations, here are mine, by category:

    Category 1 -- Some cash to burn, want new toys
    Sun Blade 100. I'd buy one of these new (less than $1000 from Sun) if I were only going to run Solaris 8. Nevermind that this thing is a PC in SPARC clothing. Hell, even the CPU is socketed! Gasp! Bear in mind that the Blade 100 can only run Solaris 8, 4/01 HW release or later.

    Category 2 -- Something Ultra, mid-range prices
    If I were to go out and buy a Sun machine today, it'd be an Ultra 2. They're a bit expensive still ($500-$900-ish), but can use 2 CPU's (on module boards), S-Bus cards, and has a UPA slot for a decent (read: Creator 3D) video board. They're also a VERY VERY solid machine. You can get an Ultra 1 for a bit less, but it only has 1 CPU (soldered to the mobo)....

    Category 3 -- Less cash, more machine.
    Here I'd recommend a SPARCstation 20. The only really acceptable configuration these days involves dual-75mhz processors, at least 128mb of RAM, and an SX video VSIMM. The SPARCstation 20 had a neat video configuration -- you could either use a TGX+ S-Bus video board (8-bit video only), or use the built-on-to-the-mobo SX (24-bit) frame buffer. The SX buffer is good, but you need to get a VSIMM to make it work (the mobo has no video RAM on it!). I paid ~$100 for my VSIMM from MemoryX. The SPARCstation 20 will run anything from Solaris 2.5.1 through Solaris 9 (yes, it works. We're a Gold Beta site... No, I can't burn you a copy! :)

    Category 4 -- Even less cash, less performance
    A SPARCstation 5 gives OK performance for a good price. Get a 110mhz SPARC 5. The standard 70mhz model is too dog-slow. The 170mhz model is weird; Linux doesn't support it at all... The architecture is just... weird. :-) You can get a SPARC 5 for $200 or so. Again, get lots of memory.

    The biggest trick to getting a decent Sun workstation is MEMORY. Don't skimp; get at least 128MB, shoot for 256MB (or anything over 192...) if at all possible.

    Also remember that ALL of the workstations above use SCSI disks. They all have SCA connectors; your standard, run-of-the-mill SCSI disk won't work internal to the case. What I tend to do is use some variety of external disk pack with the SPARCstations to fit standard SCSI devices onto it. Right now, I have my 8x Yamaha CD burner plugged into the SPARCstation 20's external SCSI bus. It works great!

    If you have any questions, please feel free to email me -- I actually enjoy answering SPARC & Sun-related questions... Email me at: dmurphy-slashdot AT nbvb DOT com.

    Thanks!

    --nbvb