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Xref: sserve comp.unix.wizards:26455 comp.unix.bsd:3413 Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!constellation!apple!agate!ames!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!decwrl!infopiz!lupine!mellon From: mellon@ncd.com (Ted Lemon) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: Have $8000, what to buy? Message-ID: <MELLON.92Aug11123706@pepper.ncd.com> Date: 11 Aug 92 19:37:06 GMT Article-I.D.: pepper.MELLON.92Aug11123706 References: <RG.92Aug10111713@nymph.msel.unh.edu> <1992Aug11.004404.21923@panix.com> Sender: news@NCD.COM Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards Distribution: comp Organization: Network Computing Devices, Inc. Lines: 41 Nntp-Posting-Host: pepper In-reply-to: tls@panix.com's message of 11 Aug 92 00:44:04 GMT >Maybe a Personal DECstation, a.k.a "maxine". Nice open bus, decent graphics, >R3000 upgradeable to R4000, and fairly cheap. I think it has ISDN on the >motherboard, too, but I'm not sure. It's got sound, too. I'm not too fond of >DEC these days but the machine itself isn't too shabby. The R4000 upgrade isn't available yet, to the best of my knowledge. I wouldn't count on being able to get it until it ships. The graphics are okay, but don't get the standard DEC monitor - it's an utter piece of crap. The good news is that I think it's VGA or SVGA compatible (maybe some DEC person can verify this?), so you should be able to get a good one that will work. It does indeed have ISDN on the motherboard. The sound capability is part of the ISDN capability - you can't necessarily use both at the same time. I'm rather fond of the MAXine (also known as the DECstation 5000/25 or /33). However, I must say that it's probably not a good deal in the $8k range - you'll have trouble configuring all the things you'd want, getting a decent monitor and a big disk, and still being able to afford the CD-ROM and so on. Instead, I'd have to recommend that you use some sort of PC-clone configuration and run BSDI's product on it. I'm pretty sure that you can get a really fast 486 box with enough memory and disk for on the order of $5k to 6k, and you can get BSDI's UNIX offering for $1k, including source. This will probably give you performance at about the level of an IPC, but with more peripherals. BSDI can probably recommend a configuration for you. If you want to do the system part on the cheap, you can probably do even better with Bill Jolitz's BSD386 release; the only problem is that you'll have to hack to bring it up, and I don't know if they have EISA support yet. _MelloN_ -- mellon@ncd.com Member, League for Programming Freedom | To learn how software patents could cost you your right to program, contact the LPF - league@prep.ai.mit.edu