Re: cobalt raq4

[Chuck Yerkes <chuck@snew.com>]

Quoting Chris Hedemark (chris@yonderway.com):
> Forget the cobalt.
> 
> If you want a 1U rackmount that will run OpenBSD, you'll get more bang
> for your buck from someone else.
> 
> http://www.einux.com has for $795 a 1U rackmount with Duron 800MHz,
> 128MB RAM, 20GB HDD, ethernet, VIDEO (a foreign concept to Cobalt owners).
Video: a bad idea for servers.

> If you are buying it for the Sun warranty, forget it;  as soon as you
> blow away Linux 2.2 you are on your own.
Well, no. You put it back if the hardware smokes.

> Athlon XP 1900+ (1.6GHz), 512MB DDR, 20GB UDMA/100 HDD, intel 10/100
> ethernet (expandable to 4 ports), 1U rackmount.  I don't know if it has
> room for another HDD or not but you've saved a lot of cheddar here over
> the Cobalt box and can afford the 160GB HDD you know you want.

Why Cobalts and the like?  Cause I want boxes at CoLo's that
DON'T need video or keyboards.  Right now, I'm using some older
Suns. My SPARC 10 is 3000 miles away, I've never touched it,
never seen it.  A friend plugged it into the serial console
into another SPARC there, and I did a diskless boot, configured
the disk, installed the OS and have run it for 3 years.

My options for good systems like that for < $1000 are an
underpowered Netra X1 running NetBSD (which I can even POWER
DOWN and BACK UP via serial port and an ARM powered LOM).

I can buy Intel boxes and put RealWeasel's in them - for $300 more.
I can buy a new compaq with the Remote Insight board in it ($$$$).

Or I can take computers intended to be Unix boxes and use them.

Were I buying for an OpenBSD box, I might contact Hawk Computers
who I've seen on this list.  They BUILD 1 and 2U boxes with OpenBSD.
The folks are pretty smart (the big cheese has been running Unix
for a long time).  hawk.com, I think.

What would I like?  Well, if a PC vendor ever dumped BIOS and put
in an real Boot Prom and serial access, I might be more impressed.

I'd look at Apples (Open Boot Prom) for servers, but they killed
their serial ports.  Doh!