On Wed, 1 Dec 2004, Ferris McCormick wrote:
> Specs are wrong, because they were written before larger disks were
> available. 2x18 works fine, and I think you will find people on this
> list who use larger.
>
> No, I don't use raid, but again, you will find people who do.
>
> Except for the M-for-G slip on memory, what I wrote is correct. (Specs don't 
> allow for CDRW instead of CD, but the hardware
> doesn't care as long as it's SCSI, and Linux supports it.)

Ferris is correct - SCSI is SCSI is SCSI.  It's not uncommon to find 
people with two 72GB drives in their U2's.

I want to comment on this because I have just done a similar comparison in 
looking for a good desktop box.  I hope that this helps.  Note: I own all 
these boxes (or multiples thereof) and have spent way too much time 
tinkering with them.  Happy to answer any questions regarding these boxes 
+ Gentoo.

Ultra1: Well built, cheap on ePay, very quiet.  Excellent in a server 
capacity, "so-so" in workstation configuration.  Gentoo LOVES these boxes. 
Decent expandability for a single proc box.

Ultra2: Best built, cheap on ePay, but LOUD.  In a 10x10 office, it gets 
old.  In a larger room with other boxes, you may not notice.  Excellent in 
a server capacity, also excellent in workstation with 2x300/2M or faster 
procs.  Hands down the best box Sun ever made. VERY expandable.  Gentoo 
just zooms on this box.  Excellent SMP operations.

Ultra5: PC-quality case, slow PCI, onboard graphics poor.  Louder than 
average PC.  Good as a stackable single-use server.  333/2M is best proc 
for overall, IMO.  Not real expandable.  Gentoo works.

Ultra10: OK case, but the implementation of the "lid" is poor.  Quiet. 
Crappy IDE/PCI.  Decent as a workstation, ok as a server. Gentoo works.

Ultra30: Built like a tank - Heavy!  Lots of room inside case.  Almost as 
loud as an U2.  Good as a workstation or server.  Probably tied with the 
U60 as the second best machine Sun ever made.  Gentoo loves this box.

Ultra60: Solid case - very similar to U30 except that you can have two 
processors.  Very fast.  Good graphics options.  Loud as U30.  I'm on this 
box right now - running Gentoo!

Blade 100: Nice to look at, but case is VERY flimsy.  Power supply is 
LOUD.  All USB peripherals.  Onboard gfx suck.  You can barely squeeze a 
SCSI card/drive into the case.  Case fan is loud.  Good luck trying to get 
anything but Solaris to work as a workstation with this thing - especially 
if you are using an Elite3d card.  *puke*  Gentoo works on every machine I 
have BUT this machine.  Decent as a workstation if you're running Solaris 
or basic server functions.  No idea why these things are still going for 
$300 a pop on ePay.  Buy a U2 instead.  I run Solaris on this box.

If you really want some excitement in your life, put an e250 under your 
desk.  ZOOOOOM!  Loud, but very fast and very expandable with procs, 
memory and storage.  Highly recommended - and Gentoo just rips along.

Okay, enough of my rant.



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