On Apr 6, 5:07 pm, "Dave Wade" <g8...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> <mommycal...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:217fafe7-e37d-4b1d-a877-5099ab53ccfd@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > On Apr 5, 4:16 am, "Dave Wade" <g8...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> "Doug McIntyre" <mer...@geeks.org> wrote in message
>
> >>news:47f647eb$0$93289$8046368a@newsreader.iphous e.net...
>
> >> > "Rob Fraser" <FraserRacing"AT"RobFraser.Net> writes:
> >> >>Any idea when the prices of the above units will become "reasonable"
> >> >>Hopefully like the depreciation we saw in the Ultra 5 and 10 market?
> >> >>I
> >> >>was asked last night and I had no idea so I said I'd check here with
> >> >>you
> >> >>guys for your opinions. I don't see them coming down soon but I'm no
> >> >>economist.
>
> >> > The Ultra 5/10 are generations apart from the Ultra 20/24/40?
> >> > (if not all that far apart in numbering schemes).
>
> >> > I'd say the Ultra20 is pretty reasonable right now. One going for $250
> >> > right now on eBay? But Sun does still sell it new currently.
>
> >> > The Ultra 24/40 are their current Sun x64 workstation offerings?
>
> >> I just looked at those on the SUN web site. They look a horrendous price
> >> when compared with the equivalent Lenovo(IBM) tower. The IBM comes with
> >> three years warrenty, but three years silver support for SUN is as much
> >> as
> >> the IBM. Niceley made as well...
>
> >> > Gear comes down in price after its been EOL'd from the manufactorer
> >> > and everybody is dumping it to get the next greatest thing.
>
> >> > Then it comes down again after it is ancient history (like Ultra 5/10)
> >> > and isn't too usable for the majority of the users compared to other
> >> > offerings.
>
> >> Well some one gave me an Ultra-60 and its just about usable, and fun!.
> >> However why one would buy SUN AMD based workstations is beyond me. I know
> >> the hardware compatibility list for Solaris is not as comprehensive as
> >> Linux
> >> but
>
> > While I agree that the Ultrasparc is a far better choice than the X86,
> > until the next generation of Sparc's come on line Sun has little
> > choice but too offer the X86. As far as Sun versus anything else,
> > consider the build quality. THe IBM/Leveno is cheaper because it is
> > cheaply made compared to the Sun. I have 4 very low serial number
> > Ultra-24's and compared to the Dell's sitting net to the Ultra-24's
> > the Sun's have orders of magnitude better build quality. The Dell's
> > with our discount are about 20% more than the equivalent Sun's
>
> I guess as the Lenovo is made in China its "cheaply made" but that does not
> mean the quality is poor. The build quality of the ones we get at work seems
> excellant, compare to the DELLs and HP boxes that were submitted to our last
> round of invation to tender. In fact the Dells seem to be "consumer grade"
> boxes .....
>
> Whilst they are not as solid as the Ultra-60 I would say thats over
> engineered. For goodness sake you can only get two hard drives in the thing
> and its huge. Certainly in the UK the Lenovo/IBM service is still good. On
> the odd occasion we do get a faulty one its usually fixed promptly and
> expertley...
>
> And as for "dealer discount" well it must be hige looking at the list on the
> Sun site.....

A sun Ultra-60 is designed for Ultrasparc-II. That makes the machine
over 10 years old. The size is simply a function of the age of
machine. Compare the capabilities of an Ultra-60 to a Pentium-I or
Pentium-II machine. If you think that an Ultra-60 is over-engineered
you must intend to replace your Dell/HP/Levono/IBM every year or two
as they are so under-engineered it is a wonder they work at all let
alone last more than a year or two. My son is a EE major working as a
desktop support technician for the Business school. They buy 50% more
desktops than they need because they know they will have just about
50% of their desktops out for repairs. The repairs are done quickly by
the dealer, but in reality the cost is 50% higher simply because you
need replacement machines I just paid $1250 for an Ultra-24 with a
quad-core 2.4ghz Intel, 8gb of ECC memory, 500gb of disk and a dual-
layer DVD-RW. The equivalent Dell was $500 more expensive and the
build quality is crap. Yes Dell would replace the machine in 24 hours,
but the Sun would have to be replaced as it wouldn't collapse due to
poor engineering and build quality