31 May
2000
31 May
'00
10:08 a.m.
I'm actually talking about the fact that for what a nice used Dual Processor
Sparc 20 would cost I can go out and buy a far better NEW Dual Celeron system
(probably a better PIII system, but I've not priced that). The going price
for a Ultra 1 or a Dual Sparc 20 is going to be in the $600-1200 range,
depending on the configuration (and if it includes a monitor).
Sure an Ultra 80 Quad 450MHz would be nice, BUT what's the price performance
to a top of the line Dual Pentium III or Quad Xeon?
Also in both examples I'm talking about using *good* parts, not el'cheapo
trash.
At one point Sun's made sense. However, for home use, and in some/most cases
for business use, they're a horrible value. You can get so much more for so
much less that it isn't funny. Any idea how a 450Mhz Ultra2 CPU compares to
something like a 700Mhz Pentium III? The main reason I can see to go with
UltraSparc is if that's what the apps you need run on, or you need a 64-bit
CPU today.
Trust me, I've argued with myself a *lot* on this :^) The end result is
both Sparc and x86 boxes will run Solaris, so unless you can get a *killer*
deal on a very nice Sparc system you're going to be better off building a
nice Celeron or Pentium III box to run it.
Zane
I don't know, those Ultra 80 Quad 450MHz CPU Boxes
look niiiiccceee. You're
right about the overall cost/performance ratio of the older hardware, but
you also have to take into consideration how stable the machines are. Take a
$100 low end SPARCStation and $100 of used pentium hardware. You'd probably
get a faster Pentium machine (Maybe a P-90) but take a close look at the
craftsmanship of the machine. Sun's run FOREVER, they just don't fail due to
shoddy hardware designs. Early Pentium designs were REALLY buggy, even the
later models had nasty bugs (f00f anyone?) I know several companies that
kept their 486 servers, even when they were terribly out of date, because
the 486 design had been battle tested for so many years. Keep in mind that
the performance in price/performance also includes multitasking and
stability concerns.
Well, I didn't just buy it for that, I got it
when that's about what they
were worth. The only reason I payed as much as I did was because of the
SCSI S-Bus card in it.
I *really* want a SS20 w/dual SM71's or SM81's, and something like 192MB
RAM, but then I look at what I can get in an x86 box for that price and
just
shake my head. I might like Sparcs, but x86 is
the only platform Solaris
makes sense on!
Of course my dream Sparc would be a Dual Ultra 2 :^)
Zane