Just wondering..

igneous · n00b Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Nashville, TN

How powerful can I expect my sun enterprise 250 to be? Someone I know is selling it to me for $50, but it's got Dual Ultrasparc II 400mhz's, and 16x128mb ram (2GB). It's rumored to have dual 9gb scsi discs, but this guy isn't 100% sure on that. So yeah.. When i get this.. Gentoo or NetBSD is going on it.. And I'm kinda leaning towards gentoo.. Basicly though, How powerful can I expect this to be? What all can It do? Will it be a decent workstation/server? But yeah, either way, this is my first sparc, and I'm totally psyched.
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The song "The Final Countdown" Is now playing in your head.

Kingmilo · Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:44 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the Jungle.

That's a very broad question, it really is only as powerful as the processes you ask it to run.
What comes to mind first to me is i would use it as a low- level server, it could run my mail server, webserver, ftp/file server etc (although not all the same services on the same machine for security reasons of course!).

I think you can also definitely run it as a workstation but you will be a little frustrated when you run into problems as the arch is not common, most workstations these days or running x86, amd because they are cheap and drivers are widely available, however the beauty of gentoo and linux for that is you can make use of almost any piece of hardware and get it to do what you want to do!

As an example i have a Intel P4 Prescott 2.8GHz, 4Gig RAM, 160Gig Sata HDD running a full desktop for +-50 users who connect via XDMCP - so anything is possible!

Have fun!
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trample the weak, hurdle the dead.. .

Ferris · Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:56 pm Post subject:

It depends on what you are used to. By today's standards, the machine is slow. But it should be a fine server, and (in my opinion) a decent workstation. Again, depending on just what you need it for. For documentation and such, it's fine. For web browsing, it's good to OK. For compiling things, it can be slow if you need g++ (but of course that seems to be true on anything).

If you need a graphics card, your best choice is probably a Creator-3D (series 3) --- ffb2+(H). All the H means is "horizontal" (I think the system is a pizza box type rather than a tower --- at least, the U2 is.) If you are putting a monitor on it, unless it comes with one, you will probably need an adapter. If so, they are readily available and you should ask again if it's not clear what you need, ask again (for example, ffb2+ uses a connector 13W3). A good source for quick answers to such questions is the IRC freenode #gentoo-sparc channel.

Good luck and have fun. You will find the gentoo sparc community to be helpful and friendly, as long as you have read the documentation we provide. :wink:

Regards,
Ferris

igneous · n00b Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Nashville, TN

Here she is. Try not to pisspants yourselves.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/271/01020301161101030320080je5.jpg
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8854/01160101040701030820080uh2.jpg
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/7977/01021001041101160520080ei7.jpg
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9762/01020301041001030020080bf5.jpg
_________________
The song "The Final Countdown" Is now playing in your head.

Ferris · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:21 pm Post subject:

Nice. I was confusing it with an E2, I think. You'll need to change my (H) to (V). :wink:

d2_racing · Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 5:30 am Post subject:

Nice in fact