Re: sparc power efficiency, but also reliability.

I agree that the Sun hardware is more robust than
the chaos of PC hardware vendors.  At first I searched for an
inexpensive and low power Sun to fill my requirements, but I don't
see anything from Sun capable of 300GB sata disks for
less than $500.  I don't run mission critical services at home
so I have gone the path to reduce expenses (we didn't get
a raise this year, while living expenses are rising).

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Craig Dewick
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I keep using my Sun systems over PC's for one simple reason - reliability.
> My most power-hungry Sun box is an E450, but I'm also hosting a Compaq
> ProLiant 800 Dual P3-450 system as a server for the non-profit networking
> organisation I'm a member of and it's very expensive on power (so it's going
> tobe replaced with a Dell GX-xxx system soon!).
>
> My SB1000 is a great system - quiet, not expensive power-wise, and it runs
> FCAL disks which have more capabilities for management. The most
> power-hungry item in the machine is probably the Elite-3d m6 framebuffer
> card. 8-)
>
> But I will not throw out old Sun systems unless they are actually broken or
> have a lot of steel corrosion. I run an Ultra 2 as well as the E450 and
> SB1000, plus an SS20 and a Cobalt Raq4 (the web server that the SunShack
> site lives on). Discounting the Compaq which isn't actually my machine, the
> Cobalt is the only non-Sparc system I run myself. There is a PC down the
> other end of the house for the kids to use though. 8-)
>
> My Sun systems run without interruption except for maintenance every 6
> months or so (to clean out dust from power supplies, etc.), or when the
> mains power from the street suppply fails and doesn't come back within 5 to
> 10 minutes (which is about as long as my two 3 KVA UPS's will keep
> everything going for).
>
> I would never consider using PC's in any of the 'production' systems I'm
> running, especially not in place of my E450 and Ultra 2 systems as they're
> my two core servers and need 24/7 dependability. Can't get anything like
> that with a PC, though that's in a large part the fault of the poor-quality
> Microsoft OS most people run on their PC's.
>
> Craig.
>
> --
> Post by Craig Dewick (tm). Web @ "http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick".
> Email 2 "[email protected]". SunShack @ "http://www.sunshack.org"
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