Subject: Re: Ultra 5 supported hardware ?
To: None <port-sparc64@NetBSD.org>
From: Blaz Antonic <blaz.antonic@siol.net>
List: port-sparc64
Date: 01/23/2004 13:51:25
Hello,

The answers i got on the list or in direct correspondence have led me to
believe the best idea would be to purchase a SCSI card instead of
relying on internal IDE controller. Now i'm under the impression that
ANY Symbios 53c875 based SCSI card will work just fine and be recognised
by the firmware so computer can boot off of a SCSI drive; is this
assumption correct ? More specifically, woudl a cheap SCSI controller
like the one in this auction work:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2781277210&category=12834

It apparently has PeeCee BIOS, will that hamper its functionality in
Ultra 5 in any way ? I can get a new 18 GB 10k rpm SCSI drive instead of
(also new) 80 GB 7.2k rpm IDE one for roughly the same price it seems. 

Size-wise this doesn't seem exactly like a bargain, especially since i'm
not a speed freak with networked boxes (data will be coming in via 10 or
maybe 100 mbps ethernet and possibly 1 mbps broadband conenction) but
people say IDE is *REALLY* *THAT* *BAD* in Ulta 5. Then again 18 GB
might be more than i need in that box anyway, unless i retire my current
data storage (with 80 GB drive filled about 80%).

Ultra 5 cn accomodate only 1 3.5" HD, right ? What if i remove the
floppy, which is unsupported anyway (if box has one in the first place,
haven't seen it yet) ? Is air flow inside the chasis good enough to
allow me to hook up another disk ? Can i use a PeeCee plastic bezel to
cover a hole after removing a floppy ?

Another question i forgot before: would generic PCI VGA graphcis cards
work under X ? What about console ? I take the answer is yes for the
former and no for the latter, just want to make sure. I'm asking because
of limitations of built-in Mach64, which i might replace with something
newer (= faster).

Blaz Antonic