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Evangelion
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 6:45 am    Post subject: Getting a Sparc-machine? Reply with quote

I have recently started to think about experimenting with "alternative computers". And two primary contenders for that (in my book at least) are Sun's Ultra-workstations and SGI's MIPS-machines (thread about that here. From what it seems, comparison between those SGI-boxes and Sun-boxes is something like this:

- SGI-boxes are cooler :)
- Sun-boxes are better supported

You can get either machines for under $500, although I have no idea how those MIPS-CPU's and Sparc-CPU's compare to each other performance-wise.

Now, I have been looking around, and it seems that my best bet on the Sparc-front would be Sun Ultra 60. It has PCI, so I could upgrade the vid-card if needed (right?), and add other functionality as well. Prices for 2x360Mhz start from under $500 so it doesn't seem too expensive. What kind of performance should I expect from those 360Mhz CPU's? I'm talking about compiling (this is Gentoo after all ;)....), and everyday X-related tasks (surfing, email etc.). Does multimedia work on those Sun-boxes? Are they noisy? Do they consume lots of power? Related to noise: Do the CPU's have individual fans? I'm asking in case I get lucky and find a cheap 4-way Ultra 80 ;). I wouldn't want the machine to sound like a wind-tunnel.

Aside from Ultra 60, what about Ultra 2? It doesn't have PCI so upgrading might be more difficult. How well is it supported in Linux? 2x300Mhz seems to be available for under $300, so it might be valid alternative as well. Is it fast enough for everyday working? Ultra 5 might be valid alternative as well. It has PCi, but it's uniprocessor only, and it has more limited RAM-support.

thoughts/opinions?
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francoisp31
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

hello,

personnaly I have bought a US5 for less than 150$ & a US10 for less than 250$ it is a good machine for everyday work but I also have one US60 this is a very good machine to do things that needs more CPU-power (vidéo assembly, 3D rendering, or to compile udge source code) I found the US60 about 375$ without disks. but with 2Gb ram.

The 3 machines have PCI slots, & can use a lots of PCI cards from PC world (under linux only).

US60 if you can find one (from ebay or any brocker) just buy it, you will not lose money.

Personnaly I realy love to work with Sun US series This are very good machines, they are now easy to find, replacement parts can be found too.
We can find them for good prices, you can modify them easely for tunning too if you want to.
The first work to do if you wanna get a US80 is to make it silencer else you 'll hear some noise. (ultrasparcstation5 also need te be made silencer buy yourself) changing the ventilator


BUT : don't forget some graphic cards are 13W3 interface & not DB15 (as PC screens) so you can need an adaptator (it costs about 4$ maximum).



I have only experience about SGI but I tryied on OCTANE2 it is well supported, but it let less possibility to upgrade, its more difficult to find replacement parts & SGI are more expensive...

hope it helps you to choose.
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Drunkula
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've got no experience with any SGI's so I can't comment there.

However I have an Ultra 2E at home. I got it completely free (legitimately but that is another story) but it was bone stock. It had only 128Megs of RAM, a cgsix video card, 1 CPU, and a cheap 17 inch Sun monitor. Anyhow I've slowly been upgrading it from Ebay auction parts. It now has 2 CPUs, a better video card (creator 3d), and 3 times the RAM. Don't let the lack of PCI bother you. It hasn't bothered me. Also this box does not make much noise at all. It was apparently designed with airflow in mind. I haven't added any fans to it but it still flows very well from left to right. If you get one don't forget to clean the dust bunnies every now and then. They accumulate rather quickly.

If I add any more hardware it will be another hard drive (it still only has a single 9 gig drive), maybe some more RAM and a 4-port NIC so I can make that box my firewall.
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Evangelion
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you both for your replies :)

Drunkula wrote:
Don't let the lack of PCI bother you. It hasn't bothered me.


It bothers me as such that I couldn't upgrade the machine with better vid-card as easily. Do any of the Sun-cards (Creator3D etc.) have DVI?

Quote:
Also this box does not make much noise at all. It was apparently designed with airflow in mind.


That's good to hear, because in the end, the machine might get relegated to server-duty (I already have two desktop-machines) with 24x7-operation. So low noise is a Good Thing (TM)
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Drunkula
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Evangelion wrote:
Do any of the Sun-cards (Creator3D etc.) have DVI?

Off the top of my head I cannot answer that with any certainty. I'm fairly certain I have seen Sun branded monitors with DV connectors so a guess would be "yes I believe at least some do."
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francoisp31
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think only some younger hardware have DVI, creator3D series don't have neither of course older SBUS cards.
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey guys, I've just bought a U2, put Gentoo with a 2.6 kernel :D It's a very good machine. I was just wondering though, someone above said that you can make SUN machines less noisy, could anyone advise me what to do to make this possible? I find the noise very off putting. Also, what sort of power is this thing taking up?

Ultra 2 Creator 3D, 2x 300MHz UltraSPARC (2mb cache each), 256mb RAM.

Thx!
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francoisp31
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

-> like PC to make them less noisy you need to eliminate mecanical parts (air cooling), to stop vibrations from harddrives, floppies & CDrom.

for example letting spaces beetwin metalic parts & disk with for example nois absorbing paper from sound technical shop...or things like that.

replace ventilators'motors by ballbearing motors etc...
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yep, I thought about this, but then I also thought that since this is quite a specialised machine, unlike anyold whitebox PC, I shouldn't think you can easily replace parts with different parts willy nilly?
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 10:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

of course you need to find parts & sometimes to modify the box but it is not a real problem. :wink:
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