Hi Chuck,

On Friday 04 January 2002  8:57 pm, Chuck McManis wrote:

> Its a fairly quick machine, _for a VAX_.
>
> Given your comment about the M38, I have to wonder what it is you would=
 get
> out of owning a VAX? If you want something that is "alternate architect=
ure"
> but still moves along like an x86 box then I suggest you skip the VAX a=
nd
> find yourself a nice Alpha machine. VAXen have a unique and hugely powe=
rful
> machine code, the ultimate expression of CISC if you will, and they are
> available cheaply.
> What they aren't is "fast" by nearly anyone's standard these days.

Sorry, possibly a bit misleading complaining about the slowness of the 31=
00 -=20
my other machines are things like P90s on the x86 side, low-end Sun 4c=20
machines (SS1, SS2, IPC), so I'm not expecting it to scream by any means.=
 =20
Essentially I enjoy taking old "proper workstation" hardware (ie not PeeC=
ees)=20
to bits, fiddling with it, and getting it running enough to do *something=
*,=20
name server, time server, log host, whatever.

Plus the the whole Wintel disposable-computers upgrade cycle just annoys =
me,=20
and I get a kick out of being able to say I'm keeping systems running on =
5 or=20
10 year old hardware.

An Alpha would be nice, but not quite so cheap (the 4000 is currently 40 =
quid=20
- ~60 USD).

> That being said, the 4000/90 (vs the 90a) is a reasonably fast for a VA=
X
> and can take SCSI peripherals which is a plus. They don't suffer from t=
he
> 1G boot drive limitation like the 3100's do. They take a non-standard D=
EC
> memory that is fairly easy to find in 4MB chunks but less available in =
the
> nicer 16MB chunks. A 32MB system (full memory of 4MB modules) is a fun =
VMS
> box.

OK, I'll see if I can check with the seller how much is in it, or at leas=
t=20
how many slots are full.  I don't think they're that sure what they've go=
t,=20
beyond what it says on the label...

> If you want to play with the weird and wonderful Qbus cards then you'd =
need
> to wait for a 4000/100 or some Qbus based VAX. Also note that you'll ne=
ed
> an AUI-10Bt tranceiver but you've probably already got one for your
> 3100/M38

=2E..and the old Suns, and some crufty AUI/BNC-only peecee cards.  Great=20
cabinets full of Qbus cards sound interesting - reading you folks discuss=
ing=20
the big hardware is one of the reasons I hang out on here, even if I only=
=20
understand half of it - but big cases are hard to justify to SWMBO ;)

Thanks for the help,
Tim.