VAXstations in London

Not really, I don't find those caveats very limiting, and the VS3100/76 is a nice small lowish-power Rigel box (7.6 VUPs) that can be had cheaply. VS4000s are substantially more expensive, unless you can source them locally, and the bigger boxes have more proprietary parts that can't be hacked (I'm still trying to figure out how to get a VAX 4200 running with no drive sleds and no real SCSI) My 3176 zipps along fairly well with 32MB of RAM, a 2GB IBM disk, and a WY-150 console (I took a 6 position modular jack and shaved off the latch with a chisel. It stays in pretty well on its own, and can be taped or otherwise clipped if falling out is a problem). I've had no problems with the 1 GB limit yet (VMS is stable, I've managed to crash UNIX much more often), but I've heard that the dump option that scribbles on bigger disks can be shut off. 3100/76s (of course-they're DEC) use proprietary RAM, but on a VAX 16 MB should be O.K., especially if you aren't running DECwindows. You could take both /76s and cluster them, even, if you want more fun. The proprietary SCSI connector can be gotten around by balancing an old Toshiba on the box with the cover off. The drive plate ensures that the processor is sufficiently cooled, even with the cover off. Go ahead and grab one, I would if they were closer.