bruce@central.sun.com (Bruce Samuelson) (11/08/89)
My dept. would like to upgrade our 3/50s either by adding memory or swapping in 3/60 motherboards. The pros and cons I see are as follows: ADD MEMORY TO 3/50 REPLACE 3/50 BOARD WITH 3/60 BOARD Pros lower price: my best about 60% better cpu performance quotes to date for educa- on benchmarks I'm interested in tional prices are $820 for a 4MB upgrade from Solflower 3/60 board has better memory than (for a total of 8MB) and $1375 3/50 board: 1 megabit vs 256K bit for an 8MB upgrade using Helios DRAMS; less heat dissipation; memory from Digital Electronic SIMM packaging; expansion to 24 Systems (for a total of 12MB) megabytes on 3/60 motherboard Cons 3/50 power supply and heat higher price: In Sunspots 7.123, it ventilation system were not was announced that Sun was offering designed for this; a sys adm a 4MB 3/60 upgrade for $4950 (for a told me that early model 3/50 total of 4MB), an 8MB upgrade for power supplies can support $6650 (for a total of 8MB) and a a 4MB upgrade but not an 8MB 12MB upgrade for $10,050 (for a upgrade; Sunspots 8.181 reports total of 12MB). However, these are a 4MB upgrade causing failures list prices, and memory prices have due to overheating fallen dramatically since then (25 Jan 89). Sun's upgrade was only available for 3/50 flat tops, not dimple tops I would like to take a survey of those who have upgraded their 3/50s. Please fill out the form below and mail it directly to me. I'll summarize to Sunspots. ------------ Cut Here ------------ 1. ADD MEMORY TO 3/50 1a. Number of machines you upgraded? 1b. Were they flat tops (monitor rests on top of flat surface of base unit) or dimple tops (monitor attached to concave depression in base unit)? 1c. Did you add 4MB or 8MB? 1d. Vendor? 1e. Phone number? 1f. Date (because memory prices are falling)? 1g. Price? 1h. Problems with overheating, power supply, increased failure rate? Please give details: 1i. Recommendations: 2. REPLACE 3/50 BOARD WITH 3/60 BOARD 2a. Number of machines you upgraded? 2b. Were they flat tops (monitor rests on top of flat surface of base unit) or dimple tops (monitor attached to concave depression in base unit)? 2c. How much memory came on the 3/60 board? 2d. Vendor? 2e. Phone number? 2f. Date (because memory prices are falling)? 2g. Price? 2h. Did you add more memory from a 3rd party? 2i. How much? 2j. Vendor? 2k. Phone number? 2l. Date (because memory prices are falling)? 2m. Price? 2n. Any hardware or software incompatibilities going from 3/50 to 3/60? Please give details: 2o. Did you switch the ID PROM from your 3/50 to your 3/60? 2p. Recommendations: ------------ Cut Here ------------ ************************************************************************ * Bruce Samuelson, University of Texas, Arlington * * ...uunet!texbell!utafll!bruce or ...texsun!utacfd!utafll!bruce * ************************************************************************