From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Sep 25 19:17:34 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08E0D37B401 for ; Wed, 25 Sep 2002 19:17:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: from thuvia.demon.co.uk (thuvia.demon.co.uk [193.237.34.248]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E134543E6E for ; Wed, 25 Sep 2002 19:17:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk) Received: from dotar.thuvia.org (dotar.thuvia.org [10.0.0.4]) by phaidor.thuvia.org (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g8Q2HPcF036567; Thu, 26 Sep 2002 03:17:25 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk) Received: from dotar.thuvia.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by dotar.thuvia.org (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id g8Q2HPLU019310; Thu, 26 Sep 2002 03:17:25 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from mark@dotar.thuvia.org) Received: (from mark@localhost) by dotar.thuvia.org (8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id g8Q2HOwT019309; Thu, 26 Sep 2002 03:17:24 +0100 (BST) Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 03:17:24 +0100 (BST) From: Mark Valentine Message-Id: <200209260217.g8Q2HOwT019309@dotar.thuvia.org> In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.6 beta(5) 10/07/98) To: joe@tao.org.uk (Josef Karthauser), hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Spark 5. Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > From: joe@tao.org.uk (Josef Karthauser) > Date: Thu 26 Sep, 2002 > Subject: Spark 5. > Do we run on Spark 5? Someone's selling one and a monitor for 300 UK > pounds. Is it worth getting hold of? Not for FreeBSD (sun4u only, I believe); SPARC 5 is sun4m (32-bit only). £300 is expensive - a 170MHz SPARCstation 5 goes for £75 and up on eBay in the UK (without monitor), and I think a monitor will go for about £40. The 70MHz and 85MHz(?) models are much slower due to cache, but I've heard that Linux has had problems with the 170MHz model. Solaris 9 is rather sluggish on my 85MHz system, but OpenBSD and NetBSD run OK on my 70MHz system. The 170MHz SPARCstation 5 was Sun's last decent mid-range workstation. I've bought SPARCstation 5 bits from Ian at www.13w3.com - you can get better prices on eBay if you're patient, but I'm pleased with his service. He's currently listing a SPARC 5 for £125, 17" monitor for £65. For FreeBSD you'd want an Ultra 1 at least - 13w3.com has a 170MHz model listed at £225, but there were problems with Solaris 64-bit kernels on anything less that the 200MHz model (and you have to force the 200MHz model to boot 64-bit Solaris due to a CPU bug which allows users to crash them). Also, you should get the 'E' suffix models for the fast Ethernet and wide SCSI. The Ultra 5 is more expensive and faster, but it's PC class, not a real Sun. Cheers, Mark. -- Mark Valentine, Thuvia Labs "Tigers will do ANYTHING for a tuna fish sandwich." Mark Valentine uses "We're kind of stupid that way." *munch* *munch* and endorses FreeBSD -- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message