hi,

i owned an Ultra 10/440 a while ago and used it as an NetBSD testbed 
(i'd like to use U2/2400, but MP is not ready yet for sparc64...).

the experiences i made show that (at least my) U10 (and the more or less 
technically identical U5) is *not* very picky on HDDs -- i ripped out 
its (original) 6,4GByte Seagate (AFAIR 7,200rpm) drive and replaced it 
with a 20Gig Maxtor and, later, a 60Gig Seagate. No problem at all :)

a few months ago there was a thread on the list on using SATA 
controllers in U5/U10 systems, which might deliver a really nice boost 
to performance ;)

(at least i kicked the U10 -- it was my last IDE machine; all others, 
even my Macs, are pure SCSI -- whatever ;)

rgds,

timo

Andy Ruhl wrote:

> I think I read somewhere that on these cheaper 64 bit Sun machines,
> like the Ultra 5 or Ultra 10, the onboard IDE controllers are sort of
> picky when connecting a hard drive.
> 
> Assuming this is the case, can I just plug in some supposedly
> supported PCI IDE adapter, hook up any drive I want to it, and then
> expect the firmware to know how to boot from it? I haven't messed
> around too much with changing the boot path with IDE devices on Sun...
> Well, I haven't done it at all. I have an Ultra5 box at work but I'd
> like to put in a bigger hard drive, this is why the question comes up.
> 
> I also might try to find an Ultra 5 or Ultra 10 for home at some
> point, and I'd like to be able to use a different drive if possible.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Andy