Who here has a SUN system running Solaris?

[LuckyTaxi]

Im on ebay right now looking to bid on a workstation so that I can play around with solaris.
What kind of specs should I be looking for? And in what price range? I'm more familiar with
the x86 chip, and all i see for the sparc systems are like in the 300-400mhz range for something
like $500

Also, can i hook a PC monitor to it?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Also, can i hook a PC monitor to it? >>



It depends. Some of the video cards you can, some you cant. I found a cheap sun monitor on ebay for my sparc system though. Unfortunately its not working right now.


An Ultra 5 or 10 would be a great solution for you though.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

You think something like this will do?

ebay.com

 

[Sunner]

I'd try to find a Blade 100 if I were you.

It's a more modern system than thw Ultra5/10(same system really, desktop or tower model respectively).
And they tend to be cheaper, I dont know what used Ultra5's cost in the states, but around here you can get a new Blade 100 for the price of a decently configured Ultra5.

And a good thing with the Blade100's is you can just get some Crucial ECC SDRAM for cheap and put it in there.

And yes, both Ultra5/10's and Blade 100's come with DSub 15 outputs from the GFX cards.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< I'd try to find a Blade 100 if I were you.

It's a more modern system than thw Ultra5/10(same system really, desktop or tower model respectively).
And they tend to be cheaper, I dont know what used Ultra5's cost in the states, but around here you can get a new Blade 100 for the price of a decently configured Ultra5.

And a good thing with the Blade100's is you can just get some Crucial ECC SDRAM for cheap and put it in there.

And yes, both Ultra5/10's and Blade 100's come with DSub 15 outputs from the GFX cards. >>



Its probably harder to find the sun blades on ebay or something like that. But for $1k USD they are great systems.

And that Ultra 10 would be a fine system for learning and practicing Solaris.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

<< And that Ultra 10 would be a fine system for learning and practicing Solaris. >>



Now I gotta find out if a PC monitor works with it. If not, can I just purchase ANY one of
those monitors i see listed for a SUN system? They should all be the same correct?

Also, this guy loaded solaris 8 on there. now what if i had to reinstall it. can i get solaris 8 from sun for free or wut?
i know i can d/l the binary for x86, but im clueless with sun's brand.

 

[Sunner]

Most of not all Creator cards I've seen come with the other kind of monitor connector, dont remember what it's called, something-13 or something along those lines, no?

And indeed, looking at those pictures, so does that one, look at the 3'd picture, see the card thats mounted horizontally?
Thats the GFX card, and the rather wide connector with 3 BNC like outputs and a bunch of pins, thats the monitor connector.

But AFAIK all Ultra10's come with a DSub15 card standard, so it might just have one of them too.
Better make sure before you buy anything.

And yes you can download the SPARC version of Solaris from sun.com.
Here's a link.

Oh and by the way, Sun is a name, not an acronym, so only the "S" is a capital letter

 

[n0cmonkey]

<<

<< And that Ultra 10 would be a fine system for learning and practicing Solaris. >>



Now I gotta find out if a PC monitor works with it. If not, can I just purchase ANY one of
those monitors i see listed for a SUN system? They should all be the same correct? >>



Get one with an HD15 connector. Im not sure what that is, but its not the high end 13w3 that some Suns use. It looks like a normal VGA cable (http://www.si87.com/Products/Cabling/Cables/vgacables.html), but I cant be sure.



<< Also, this guy loaded solaris 8 on there. now what if i had to reinstall it. can i get solaris 8 from sun for free or wut?
i know i can d/l the binary for x86, but im clueless with sun's brand. >>



http://www.sun.com/solaris/binaries/

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Most of not all Creator cards I've seen come with the other kind of monitor connector, dont remember what it's called, something-13 or something along those lines, no? >>



13w3



<< And indeed, looking at those pictures, so does that one, >>



It has that, but the link says it has an HD15 connector. So an email to the sellet would be a good thing.



<< look at the 3'd picture, see the card thats mounted horizontally?
Thats the GFX card, and the rather wide connector with 3 BNC like outputs and a bunch of pins, thats the monitor connector. >>



There are adaptors for that, but the monitor I got was pretty cheap.

 

[Sunner]

Those 13w3(almost remembered it, Im impressed) adapters don't always work very well, we have a bunch at work, and while they work sometimes, many times we run into synch problems.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

Ok guys...thanks for all your help.

I came across this bad boy, and i can buy it outright for $499. not bad, dont u think?
it has 256mb of ram compared to the 128 the other one was offering. and this one has
the HD15 connector.

linky

 

[LuckyTaxi]

would 128meg of ram be enough? im torn between two systems, but one has 128 and the other has 256.
obviously the 256 is like $500, about $50 more than the 128.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Check the price of 128MB ram on crucial.com for this system and make the decision yourself

 

[Nothinman]

More memory is always better, of course.

I had an Ultra1 (167Mhz 128M) running Solaris 8 and it was acceptable, although now it runs Linux =)

 

[burnedout]

lilcam: An Ultra 10 for that price with 256 MB is a good deal. Plus, it still has some upside left in it. You made a good choice.

I'm an old SPARC 10/20 user+tech. Have played around with the newer stuff and must admit that I'm glad prices are falling quicker now than last year.

One of these days I'll get a Blade. Blade 100s also accept IDE HDDs, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

I figured I could use the extra memory, but i wasnt sure if it really made much of a difference since I wont be using
the system in production anyways. I'm just going to learn solaris. Then again, 128mb chip is like $100+!!!

Now I just have to get billpoint.com to reinstate my account so i can pay this guy. He's probably tired of me cuz
I email him like 5 times already!

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< I figured I could use the extra memory, but i wasnt sure if it really made much of a difference since I wont be using
the system in production anyways. I'm just going to learn solaris. Then again, 128mb chip is like $100+!!! >>



Thats why I said to check out the prices, you would realize you are getting a deal with the 256MB ram system.



<< Now I just have to get billpoint.com to reinstate my account so i can pay this guy. He's probably tired of me cuz
I email him like 5 times already! >>



He is getting a sale out of it, Im sure he doesnt mind

 

[LuckyTaxi]

Oh crud...Just found an education discount through sun's website for a sun blade for $850.
Now what do I do. I have the money, but if the ultra 10 that i have talked about is good enough,
then we'll leave it at that.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Oh crud...Just found an education discount through sun's website for a sun blade for $850.
Now what do I do. I have the money, but if the ultra 10 that i have talked about is good enough,
then we'll leave it at that. >>



The Ultra 10 would be fine for learning. If you want a more up to date machine get the sun blade. Thanks for the info though, I guess I should go back to school at some point

 

[LuckyTaxi]

I wonder if I would get anything out of getting the newer sun blade. i saw an SGI machine running IRIX last year at school, and
it looked awesome!!!! of course i cant afford the system, but solaris looks awesome. I had it running on an intel based machine until
it crashed on me.

btw...wuts the sun appliance for? i see it going for like $200 on ebay. are they like dumb terminals?
should i try hooking one of those to the sun system i do decide to get?