15 Sep
1999
15 Sep
'99
1:10 p.m.
On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, cem14(a)cornell.edu wrote:
How can you tell one from the other? This has four
horizontal front bays
and one vertical; it is rated at 8.8A, 690W at 120V. The whole thing
measures about 24" (height) x 13" (width) x 27" (depth)
That's a BA123, otherwise known as a "world box". VERY nice chassis;
I'm
sure I'm not the only one on the list who's jealous!
The interior is somewhat dusty, but not too much. The
card edges that go
into the slots did not look bad in terms of oxidation; I think that they
make positive contact. I wonder if power suply failures are common
for this machine... and if the expected lifetime of the capacitors is
long enough.
The power supplies in those boxes are very robust...failures are not common
at all. I'm willing to bet that it'll work just fine. A case in point: I have
a BA123 containing a MicroVAX-II system that I dragged out of a mud puddle. It
had been sitting there for roughly four months. I hosed it down, then let it
sit inside for a week over an air conditioning vent. The tape drive was shot,
but everything else was just fine, and the system has been running for over a
year with no problems. VERY solid hardware.
I have nothing against netBSD, but I'd like to
learn about VMS,
so I hope the hard drive has some version of it.
I'd suggest becoming a DECUS member (see http://www.decus.org), then once you
have a DECUS number you can get what's known as a "VMS Hobbyist License"
from
http://www.montagar.com. Then you can install VMS, all the way up to the
current v7.2. Feel free to email me privately if you have any questions about
this. It's easy and fun!
-Dave McGuire