31 May
2013
31 May
'13
4:30 a.m.
On Thu, 30 May 2013, Jerry Kemp - other wrote:
My reflection on e4500 ownership.
Back in 2004, I won an eBay auction from anysystems.com for a Sun E4500
for $1300.00. Eight processors. Eight Gb of ram.
No drives, or any place to put one, but I had a Sun D1000 JBOD loaded up
with drives, and that worked great. It also allowed me an easy way to
experiment with different ZFS raid configurations, back when ZFS was new
in the world.
Anyway, the one thing it didn't have was a 24 bit frame buffer, and, at
least at that time, a 24 bit frame buffer for the E4500 would have cost
me more than I paid for the e4500. But that was OK. From there, I got
my start working with SunRay thin clients. An awesome technology that I
still use to this day.
So anyway, when I got it, I ran it in my home 24x7 probably for the
first year. It wasn't the power consumption that got me as much as the
noise and heat. I am located in north Texas. I know that that is no
where as bad as south Texas (it snows up here :) ), but it still gets
pretty warm and with the heat coming off the e4500, the AC had problems
keeping up in that part of the house.
Personally, I find the noise of the Sun Fire V480 comforting. ;)
It's in the basement here in Central Ohio...so it'll be 95F one day...and
a blizzard the next.
Anyway, after the first year/summer, the 24x7 thing went away and I only
powered it on when I was at home.
This is one of those "master of the obvious" comments, but I am going to
make it anyway. The e4500 moves a lot of air to keep cool and mine was
no exception. It really belongs in a data center. No matter how clean
you keep your house, dust will find its way to the insides of your
e4500. I ended up putting my e4500 on a cart, and disassembling the
major components outside once or twice a year and cleaning them with air
from my air compressor. Its just me and my wife living here alone. No
dogs or cats. Just a couple fish in an aquarium. If you think you live
a neat and clean life, the E4500 will prove otherwise.
All that aside, I owned the E4500 for several years before passing it
off to someone who would love it more. I had a great time with it,
hardware issues or anything like that. A great, solid box that the Sun
of old was well know for. On the other hand, memories of living with
the E4500 at home do temper me and allow me to hold back every time an
E10K pops up in the wild.
I hope this provides some value to you as someone who has already walked
down that path.
Jerry
On 05/30/13 12:35 PM, geneb wrote:
--
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net/ Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Experiments
On Thu, 30 May 2013, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 05/29/2013 09:14 PM, Andrew Hoerter wrote:
Ahh yes, the "Be careful what you wish for!" segment of the program. :)
g.
I still have this crazy notion of someday
acquiring an Ultra
Enterprise 3x00 or 4x00 to run at home for real work, though.
Where are you located?