Bob,

> > I run two MVII's in BA23's here.  Both have NetBSD. 
> > The only major caveat is that the puppy is REALLY slow compared to
> > most anything else on the planet.
> 
> I am not all that worried about speeeeeeeed, but mostly the reliability
> and maintainability of the box.

Mine have clearly proven themselves reliable.  As far as maintainability, 
I can't really judge since I've yet to have a problem with the hardware
in the 6 months I've had them.  I do have a third that I keep around
in case I need to swap a board out or something.

> I was reading in the decvax journal on one of the archives that
> there was a rather ugly problem with power cabling and connectors
> buning on some 11000 of the machines.  Is that likely to be a problem?

I read that as well.  None of my DEC associates have ever actually
seen this happen, and it was indeed a concern of mine.  After regularly
poking around at the wires and checking for warmth and discoloration,
I've since become unconcerned with the issue--at least with the units
I have.

> How does it compare to a MIcroVAX 3100 in speed?  I sense they
> are about the same order of slowness.

I don't have any MicroVax 3100's, but from the information at
http://www.netbsd.org/Library/Hardware/Machines/DEC/vax/full.html,
it indicates that the low-end 3100 is 3 times the speed of the MVII.

Do let me know how your endeavours go, and if I can help with my own
Carnal Knowledge of the MVII's :D

regards,
-skots
--
Scott G. Akmentins-Taylor     InterNet: staylor@mrynet.com
MRY Systems			        staylor@mrynet.lv
    (Skots Gregorijs Akmentins-Teilors -- just call me "Skots")
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