VAX 780 on eBay

[Josh Dersch]

On Sat, Jan 1, 2022 at 12:47 PM Guy Dunphy via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:

> At 07:50 PM 1/01/2022 +0000, you wrote:
> >>
> >True.  But if you're trying to get > $5000 for something, it doesn't seem
> unreasonable to suggest that investing a bit in getting an extension cord
> run to the location of the machine would be a good idea.  The absence of
> that effort makes me wonder if the owner knows what the outcome of such a
> test would be and doesn't want to have to report it.
> >>
> >
> >But what would that accomplish? I think testing something like this
> requires a lot more effort than plugging it in and hitting the circuit
> breaker. To test this to see if some ODT comes up probably requires quite a
> lot of effort (locate a terminal/pc, wire it up, figure out where to plug
> it into the 780, etc. If this guy is a bulk dealer I would be surprised if
> he has the knowledge to do anything more than a power test which, again,
> would not be very useful and could even be detrimental.
>
>
> Exactly. The machine has a 3-phase 208/240V plug, they don't have such an
> outlet. Their efforts stop right there.
>
> But you're all focussed on that, and missing another important detail. The
> machine has a liquid cooling system.
> Some of the hoses look like they are Tygon, in the age-decayed brittle
> stage. Touch them and they crumble away.
> Running the machine without cooling would utterly wreck it. Even if they
> solved the mains power problem,
> they would be very unwise to actually power it up.
>

For clarification -- the 11/780 is not liquid cooled.  The seller mixed up
some photos between the TU77 listing and the 11/780 listing (the TU77
listing has photos of the 11/780's backplane in it just to make things more
fun).  Agreed on all other counts, though, powering this thing up blindly
is a dumb idea.

- Josh