Where Online can you go to buy old SPARC/Alpha Hardware? 28
Muad asks
"I was looking into buying a SPARC or alpha box to run Linux
on it.... I guess there should be some sites reselling older
hardware on the net. Can you guys point me out some?
I did not ask about SGIs because I think those are very
likely to be overpriced anyways. Feel free to coreect me!"
some sites (Score:1)
www.SolarisCentral.org has a collection of links (under "/sparc") to used/refurbished Sun machine resellers.
good luck,
ccg
sparc->10baseT: Solution (Score:1)
let the buyer beware (Score:1)
I am currently trying to find somebody with the 4x33 SIMMs necessary for a couple of old Digital Alpha boxes to get a memory upgrade. Digital doesn't even know of anyone with this stuff!
Older Sun hardware (Score:1)
www.reputable.com [reputable.com] has good SGI prices and www.deepspacetech.com [deepspacetech.com] has good prices on NeXT hardware if you're interested in it.
As an aside, I would strongly recommend against buying on eBay or online auction places in general for older non-pc hardware, as the prices tend to be absurdly high.
misc.forsale.computers.workstation is a pretty good newsgroup for buying hardware as well.
--
Kevin Doherty
kdoherty+slashdot@jurai.net
Old Alphas (Score:1)
HTH,
RBF
Alpha Sources ( personal experience (mostly) ) (Score:1)
As far as UDB(multia)'s go,
- www.cpumicromart.com [cpumicromart.com]
- Install the hdd in a working machine.
- Partition it like you would any other UDB (small (8mb or so) msdos-fs hd?1 etc).
- Install linload.exe, milo, kernel, rootdisk, etc. in said partition.
- Put the drive in your Multia.
- Fix your boot-settings to point at the stuff you installed.
- Cross your fingers and boot.
- Make sure the RedHat-CD is NFS-exported somewhere.
- When (if) the RedHat installer comes up, specify NFS for the install source.
- www.eli.com [eli.com]
On the other hand, prices on "new" equiptment is falling fast. A little while ago, LX164 systems were >$5000. Now, LX164-533 systems can be had for under $2500 and SX164-533(reduced cache) systems for under $1500. AxpLinux (despite myths to the contrary) now supports IDE, which can account for hundreds of dollars in savings... Please take note that in many of the 2.1.x and 2.2.0-pre kernels IDE is broken.You can pick up a udb+ram for ~$180. Any old 3.5" IDE drive will do.
Pitfalls
- Finding (or making) a 2.5"(notebook)ide -> 3.5"ide cable.
- Older UDB firmware doesn't understand IDE properly. You may need to flash an upgrade (from gatekeeper.dec.com), if so, you will need a floppy.
These come in two models, one w/ a 3.5" hdd mounting bracket and one w/ a pci-riser. You can still cram a 3.5" hdd into the pci-slot model, but...- won't be able to use a floppy.
:( - the hdd will stick ~2" out the front.
:(
You can install redhat (or whatever) w/o a floppy or cdrom (not for the timid)ELI has a few "new in box" systems left for ~$350. All original stuff, factory 540mg scsi hdd, etc. They even test their systems, offer warranty, fast delivery...
For ~$2200 you can pick up an 533mhz-LX164a with an ide-hdd and 2mb L3 cache.
(fyi: I have no experience dealing with microway)
Microway has a "special" going on 533mhz-SX164pc's for $1395. These boxes only have 1mb L2 cache, but they still spec_fp better than a PII-450.
eli.com (Score:1)
~Dan
RE : sparc->10baseT (Score:1)
Alpha (Score:1)
Low cost ISA bus.
heheh. Not bad deal tho.
Alpha computer (Score:1)
solaris 7. What hardware ? (Score:1)
Do Your Research, First (Score:1)
There's lots of cheap Sparc and other equipment out there if you're willing to live with the older models. (An IPX is dirt cheap these days; on the other hand, an SS5 is a lot more expensive for what you get because it's still a `current' model, even though modern PCs blow it away in terms of speed.)
However, if you want to get good deals and know what you're getting, do some research before you buy. For hardware information, the Sun Hardware FAQ [ucsb.edu] is the biggest collection in one place. Another place worth looking is under the `Supported Hardware' link at the NetBSD project [netbsd.org]; there's information there on many different systems, including Suns, and links to other sources of information. (This is also the only modern OS that runs on a lot of old equipment.)
Once you've had at least a cursory look through the resources available, spend a week or two reading through misc.forsale.computers.workstation [forsale.co...orkstation] to get an idea of what a decent price for this stuff is. There are a lot of bad (too high) prices posted there, but these usually get pointed out fairly quickly.
The last thing I'd recommend is to start cheap, to see if this is to your taste. If you decide that working with non-PC equipment is just too much of a hassle, or you get too little performance for your dollar, you're only out a couple of hundred dollars if you bought an IPX, rather than a couple of thousand if you bought an SS20.
Personally, I find old hardware quite rewarding. I currently have running at home 3 Sparcstations (two with rather nice 17" colour monitors that were dirt cheap!), a couple of Sun 3/60s (one colour, one mono, both with 19" monitors) and a VAXStation 2000, and my main mail server for cynic.net is an IPX. I've also had various other things kicking around in the past, though I recently cleaned out my collection. It's fun stuff to play with, and actually does useful work quite well in many circumstances.
cjs
Used Computer Hardware (Score:1)
site for used sparc systems and hardware (Score:1)
is www.nct-cra.com/
Where to buy old h/w in Europe? (Score:1)
Where to buy old h/w in Europe? (Score:1)
never dealt with them, but they've been advertising for years.
www.speedie.co.uk
Wanna buy some H/w? (Score:1)
DAVE
Dave.Marples@citel.com