Whoops! Seems my reply-to in kmail is going to the poster and not the list...
---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: Re: Debian on a Sun Ultra 5 Date: Wednesday 22 March 2006 08:10 am From: "Joseph M. Gaffney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Wednesday 22 March 2006 05:58 am, Pete Clarke wrote: > Please reply to the list rather than to me personally - I do read the > posts and it allows others to benefit from your wisdom. > > >> The IDE limitation is 120GB (ish) - however, this does not mean it > >> wouldn't be a useful backup box - stick a USB card in, very cheap > >> these days, and attach an external drive. > > > > This is not fast ... > > I never said it would be fast, I was attempting to provide an alternative > to the 120GB limit with the internal IDE. I personally use an internal > SCSI card with 72GB, 15k drives for storage - quick, not the cheapest but > works "out of the box". The limitation I was referring to was the conner raid box, not the Ultra 5 - though the limit is good to know. I may put a 40gb drive in that I have laying around, I think I've only got 10gb in there right now. > >> Or pick up a cheap SCSI card - about £20 from eBay and one of the 7 > >> or 12 slot external enclosures and have yourself a nice RAID backup :-) > > > > This is not cheap ... (unless You have already some old SCSI drives, but > > those are also not fast ) > > The old SCSI drives are probably going to be faster than the internal IDE > - the U5's IDE subsystem is terribly slow. > > >> The Ultra 5's (and 10's) still make remarkable good workhorses in > >> these days of multi-core, multi-gigahertz machines .... they make > >> wonderful development boxes too... > > > > To my knowledge, the fastest and cheapest solution for an U5 is: > > By a cheap SATA card ~30 EUR with two slots, the SATA drives have > > usually similar prices to PATA for sizes up to ~200 Gig. Above SATA is > > even cheaper than PATA (as far as I've seen). There are also SATA cards > > for more than two HDD's, but those are more expensive too - don't know > > the prices ... > > I use it primarily as a server for home video files ('few hundred gigs') > > from my satellite and cable receiver. > > That would probably be cheaper, and fairly quick - does OBP recognise the > SATA controllers as bootable devices? > I haven't played with SATA so have limited knowledge in that area - SCSI > is my "thing". :-) > > It all depends on what the OP wants to use the box for - I believe that's > the question he was asking....as a developer I see some good potential in > the little U5's, and 10's - a [333/440]/1GB U5/10 still makes a bloody > good development workstation....quick enough for most tasks. > > Cheers, > > > > Pete. I think I'm perfectly fine with the decreased speeds. I don't have anything with SATA in the house, though I do have plenty of IDE drives, and a few SCSI drives. I'll have to take a look and see what I have as far as SCSI goes, I think perhaps I'll try a few things; backup, local web server/test box, and postgresql for some various db's I have. The next step will be getting a drive into my Multia and putting that little space heater to some good use - thanks everyone :-D Joseph M. Gaffney aka CuCullin -------------------------------------------------------