Very Computer

by **Ian Pulsfor** » Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:36:08

Hi,

I'm concidering buying one of these to learn Solaris admin (and try some
alternate to x86 hardware). I would like to hear opinions on these
machines as a desktop client machine. I don't expect to make heavy
compiles or open dozens of apps. How will it run with 128M RAM and the
basic 2D card? What are people's opinions of the SunPCi x86 coprocessor
card? (Does it have a resource impact other than the shared ethernet
port?)

Appreciate any answers, opinions, caveats, etc.. Thanks.

IanP

by **Mathew Kirsc** » Fri, 20 Jul 2001 20:24:55

> I'm concidering buying one of these to learn Solaris admin (and try some
> alternate to x86 hardware). I would like to hear opinions on these
> machines as a desktop client machine. I don't expect to make heavy
> compiles or open dozens of apps. How will it run with 128M RAM and the
> basic 2D card?

If you haven't already, go to groups.google.com and look up the dozens of
threads that have already been posted on the system. Every possible aspect of
the system has already been discussed, and every possible opinion has been
given, about a zillion times over... No need to hash it out yet again and drag
your decision on for days.

In a nutshell: I give it two thumbs up. Good performance and a great value.

Quote:> What are people's opinions of the SunPCi x86 coprocessor
> card? (Does it have a resource impact other than the shared ethernet
> port?)

I think the current model has its own ethernet port. The hard drive is also
shared.

Quote:> Appreciate any answers, opinions, caveats, etc.. Thanks.

by **Davi** » Sat, 21 Jul 2001 01:57:57

thumbs up from me....

> > I'm concidering buying one of these to learn Solaris admin (and try some
> > alternate to x86 hardware). I would like to hear opinions on these
> > machines as a desktop client machine. I don't expect to make heavy
> > compiles or open dozens of apps. How will it run with 128M RAM and the
> > basic 2D card?

> If you haven't already, go to groups.google.com and look up the dozens of
> threads that have already been posted on the system. Every possible aspect of
> the system has already been discussed, and every possible opinion has been
> given, about a zillion times over... No need to hash it out yet again and drag
> your decision on for days.

> In a nutshell: I give it two thumbs up. Good performance and a great value.

> > What are people's opinions of the SunPCi x86 coprocessor
> > card? (Does it have a resource impact other than the shared ethernet
> > port?)

> I think the current model has its own ethernet port. The hard drive is also
> shared.

> > Appreciate any answers, opinions, caveats, etc.. Thanks.

by **G.T.** » Mon, 23 Jul 2001 01:35:32

> Hi,

> I'm concidering buying one of these to learn Solaris admin (and try some
> alternate to x86 hardware). I would like to hear opinions on these
> machines as a desktop client machine. I don't expect to make heavy
> compiles or open dozens of apps. How will it run with 128M RAM and the
> basic 2D card?

I added 256MB of memory and am much happier.

Quote:> What are people's opinions of the SunPCi x86 coprocessor
> card? (Does it have a resource impact other than the shared ethernet
> port?)

I use the built-in ethernet so the only noticeable impact is during boot
up of the SunPCi card. I ran Win98SE, NT4.0, and Win2k on SunPCi v2.0.1
and Win2k seems to work by far the best. One caveat with v2.0.1 is due
to a bug in the ethernet driver where the MAC address is
00-00-00-00-00-00 which will cause ARP problems with some other OSes. I
ended up making my Blade a router since it has no problem with 00 MAC
address so the rest of my network doesn't see the bogus MAC address.
v2.2.1 presumably fixes this but I never could get any of the Windows
OSes to run on v2.2.1 on my Blade.

Greg

--
See http://www.2fortheroad.net for ugly bikes and stale music.
"Why does a man with nothing to say, he always seems to talk?" - Marc
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