----- Original Message ----- From: <Innfogra(a)aol.com> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 1:04 PM Subject: Need help in figuring out what to bid on DEC that know equipment etc. Well, I don't know what the opinion is of others out on the list, but I'd say that this whole load would easily be worth a few hundred dollars (well, to me, at least). Here's a quick breakdown as to my thoughts on some of these systems: This is an older unit, circa 1985/1986 or so. They're slow, but they're a nice old VAX to play with, and the cabinet gives you a lot of room to play around with various old QBus cards and drives, and its really easy to service, too, not to mention classy looking. The only caveat is that it, like many other MicroVAX pedestal systems, is kind of heavy. I loaded one in and out of the trunk of my car myself, but it was quite a work-out. These probably have between 8 to 12 megabytes of RAM in them, MFM drives (unless someone upgraded them along the way), and maybe a QBus Ethernet card or some other goodies like that. Nice units, probably around the middle to low end of the VAX 4000 range, which was the last real series of MicroVAX systems to be produced. I've never actually worked with these systems myself before, but they probably weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of the MicroVAX II system mentioned earlier. They're relatively speedy as VAXen go, and by extension of being newer, they've probably got larger (probably DSSI) drives and more RAM (say, 32 to 64 megabytes typically). These systems are probably the most valuable CISC VAXen in the bunch. No idea what this is, although I assume its probably the lowest-end VAX 4000 system. Couldn't tell you a thing about it. Maybe it's similar to a VAXstation 4000/60 or 4000/90? These are desktop systems based on Digital's Alpha AXP CPU. Probably somewhere in the 200-300 megahertz range. These are pretty nice systems that were in the low to middle end of DEC's second generation Alpha product line. They're new enough to still be (in my opinion) pretty competitive for doing real work, and by extension, they're probably the most valuable Alpha systems in this lot. SCSI drives and getting on to maybe 32-64 megabytes of RAM if not more. Typically PCI VGA video and it accepts PS/2 keyboards and mice. Runs OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX, and Windows NT for Alpha. This is kind of a neat system. First generation Alpha built largely using commodity parts. I've got one of these and its kind of a nice system, although its getting a little dated for heavy-duty use in X. EISA bus, SCSI drives, VGA video (typically 8-bit running at a maximum resolution of 1024x768), and it accepts PS/2 keyboards and mice as well. This system will also run OpenVMS, Tru64 (up to the latest release, even), and Windows NT for Alpha. I love the case on these systems. It's really solid, but easy to get into at the same time. Worth nothing for all practical purposes. It's just a drive cabinet, not too interesting without the drives. See if you can at least get the drive sleds for it. If you can pick those up, you'll have a nice SCSI drive cabinet around. I don't know how much sleds would cost on their own, but they're probably not cheap. This would be nice to have, too, especially if the drives are 512 byte sector DEC RRD series types. It's probably SCSI. Hope this might help you out a little bit. It sounds like a really nice load! --Sean Caron (root(a)diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net

Talking to some surplus guys last weekend they were saying the government is spooked with the latest spy guy and they are hearing that EVERYTHING (all storage media) is now to be shredded.