Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 03:17:24 +0100 (BST) From: Mark Valentine <mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk> To: joe@tao.org.uk (Josef Karthauser), hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Spark 5. Message-ID: <200209260217.g8Q2HOwT019309@dotar.thuvia.org> In-Reply-To: <mailpost.1032995630.14658@thuvia.demon.co.uk>
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> 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 <mark@thuvia.co.uk> <http://www.thuvia.co.uk>; "Tigers will do ANYTHING for a tuna fish sandwich." Mark Valentine uses "We're kind of stupid that way." *munch* *munch* and endorses FreeBSD -- <http://www.calvinandhobbes.com>; <http://www.freebsd.org>; To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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