Rich Teer wrote:
> On Sat, 1 Apr 2006, Dave (from the UK) wrote:
>
>
>>I've got a pair of Pentium II 450 MHz here which I removed the fans and a Sun
>>PCI card from which I have also removed the fan. In each case I removed them
>
>
> WHat SUn PCI card did you remove the fan from? I gave a SUn PCi IIpro, and
> removing the fan seems like a good way to get rid of some of its noise.
>

#include <disclaimer.h>
#include <warning.h>

Rich, looking back it was almost 3 years ago (back in May 2003) I reported the
Sun PCI II pro fan removal on comp.sys.sun.hardware.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/com...543c4cccbfb294

Someone wrote their web pages about it back in June 2003

http://www.sunwizard.net/html/articles/gt007.html

where he had a Blade 2000. I assume he would have removed the pages had his Sun
PCi II pro card died.

What is the chance of one of those fans failing in 3 years? Pretty high I would
think. If the fan fails, all the plastic will stop convection leaving only
radiation to cool the CPU.

#include <disclaimer.h>
#include <warning.h>

--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:47:52 -0600, Dave Uhring wrote:

> Horsefeathers! My Ultra 60 is quieter than any of my tower PeeCees even
> with two 10K rpm drives in it.

Just got a used 2 CPU Ultra 60. I can hear it two rooms away. If those are
standard 120mm/90mm fans I'm gonna be swapping them out very soon!!

Lordy

On Sat, 01 Apr 2006 03:48:14 +0000, Lordy wrote:

> On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:47:52 -0600, Dave Uhring wrote:
>
>> Horsefeathers! My Ultra 60 is quieter than any of my tower PeeCees even
>> with two 10K rpm drives in it.
>
> Just got a used 2 CPU Ultra 60. I can hear it two rooms away. If those are
> standard 120mm/90mm fans I'm gonna be swapping them out very soon!!

I guess we all have different tolerances for noise. I used to be a
development test engineer for helicopter gun systems then spent over
twenty years running a ready-mixed concrete business. My ears are
probably less sensitive than yours.

Still, the U60 is quieter than the PeeCees.

Dave Uhring wrote:
> On Sat, 01 Apr 2006 01:56:48 +0100, Dave (from the UK) wrote:
>
>> Dave Uhring wrote:
>
>>> Horsefeathers! My Ultra 60 is quieter than any of my tower PeeCees even
>>> with two 10K rpm drives in it.
>> Do you have the low-noise kit installed in that machine? They are not easy to
>> find on the used market. Of course, you could get lucky (as I recently did) and
>> buy one with it in, despite it was not advertised as such.
>
> No idea about the kit. The 120 mm. fans are quiet as are the Seagate
> Cheetah drives.
>
If that were entirely true Dave, I might not have needed to do this last
week: http://www.classiarius.com/pics/w2100z/acoustic/

I still may cut out the 120mm case fan grill guard as it creates a bit
of turbulence at almost 100 CFM. If that isn't to my liking, the case
fan may even be swapped as a last resort. The Seagate's are not silent
due to high frequency bearing whine.

On Sat, 01 Apr 2006 05:53:11 +0000, Wes W wrote:

> Dave Uhring wrote:

>> No idea about the kit. The 120 mm. fans are quiet as are the Seagate
>> Cheetah drives.
>>
> If that were entirely true Dave, I might not have needed to do this last
> week: http://www.classiarius.com/pics/w2100z/acoustic/

Comparing 1U servers and tower workstations is somewhat ridiculous.

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:06:34 -0600, Dave Uhring wrote:

> I guess we all have different tolerances for noise. I used to be a
> development test engineer for helicopter gun systems then spent over
> twenty years running a ready-mixed concrete business. My ears are
> probably less sensitive than yours.
>
> Still, the U60 is quieter than the PeeCees.

My hearing is shafted due to too much loud music in my youth. I hate
meeting softly spoken people because I cant pick up the slight sibilance
that helps distinguish many words. But my U60 is much louder than any of
my PCs are or any I've had in the past! It could be the bearings in the
fans though. but it sounds more like pure 'wind' noise than mechanical
noise.

Lordy

Lordy wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:47:52 -0600, Dave Uhring wrote:
>
>
>>Horsefeathers! My Ultra 60 is quieter than any of my tower PeeCees even
>>with two 10K rpm drives in it.
>
>
> Just got a used 2 CPU Ultra 60. I can hear it two rooms away. If those are
> standard 120mm/90mm fans I'm gonna be swapping them out very soon!!
>
> Lordy

All this talk about noise on the Ultra 60, one needs to state whether it has the
low-noise kit fitted. The U 60 I have now is quieter than the other U 60 I have
without the low noise kit. Years ago I fitted a low noise kit to another Ultra
60 and was less impressed - I did not feel it was worth the £100 it cost me new
from a Sun reseller. This

If fitted, there is a black device about 35 x 25 x 8 mm (I'm only guessing the
size as I can't be bothered to open mine up) that houses the electronics that
sits near the top of the case. There is also a sensor.
--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.

On Sat, 01 Apr 2006 12:11:51 +0100, Dave (from the UK) wrote:

>> Just got a used 2 CPU Ultra 60. I can hear it two rooms away. If those
>> are standard 120mm/90mm fans I'm gonna be swapping them out very soon!!
>>
>> Lordy
>
> All this talk about noise on the Ultra 60, one needs to state whether it
> has the low-noise kit fitted.

Without looking, I'm quite sure it hasnt got any kind of noise reduction!
It sounds like a server that you put in a rack in a server room, not
something that should be anywhere near a desk

Lordy

Dave Uhring wrote:
> On Sat, 01 Apr 2006 05:53:11 +0000, Wes W wrote:
>
>> Dave Uhring wrote:
>
>>> No idea about the kit. The 120 mm. fans are quiet as are the Seagate
>>> Cheetah drives.
>>>
>> If that were entirely true Dave, I might not have needed to do this last
>> week: http://www.classiarius.com/pics/w2100z/acoustic/
>
> Comparing 1U servers and tower workstations is somewhat ridiculous.
>
True. But are not the Ultra 60 and W2100z both workstation towers?

ewaguespack@gmail.com wrote:
> Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>
>>ewaguespack@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I have a sparc station model 544, but I dont think it's going to run
>>>solaris 10.... what would you recommend as a cheap server that will run
>>>solaris 10 (sparc).
>>>
>>>I would like to spend at the most 200-500$
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>
>>If you just want a Sun box that will run Solaris 10, Sun Ultra 10s are
>>dirt cheap on e-Bay. You'll pay a little more for the "Creator-3D"
>>versions but the better graphics may be worth it. Even the Creator-3D
>>shouldn't cost more than $100 US.
>>
>>If you really need a "Server", you might try for an Enterprise 250. Or
>>just search e-Bay for "Sun Server" and see what pops up.
>
>
>
> no, I don't need a "server" I was using the term incorrectly and
> generically, I need a sparc workstation that will run solaris 10.
>
> Thanks.
>

Then I believe that you can find happiness with an Ultra 10. I bought
an Ultra 5 for the same purpose about four years ago. I have since
added three Ultra 10 Creator-3D machines to my stable. The Ultra 10
uses the same mother board as the Ultra 5 but has a larger power supply,
space for two hard drives, space for a high performance graphics card
and space to accomodate 256MB DIMMs without needing to remove the floppy
drive.

The capacity for two hard drives lets you play with Solaris Volume
Manager if you are so inclined.

Ultra-10 Creator-3D 440MHz =< $100 on e-Bay
2 80GB IDE drives ~$70 each from PC Connection
4x256MB DIMMs ~$200 (Optional)
Solaris 10 Media Kit $40 from Sun

You'll want a minimum of 256MB of RAM (4x64MB DIMMS) but more is better;
how much better depends on your intended applications.

At some point you will probably want a second machine in order to play
with NIS and NFS.