On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, cem14_at_cornell.edu wrote:
>How can you tell one from the other? This has four horizontal front bays
>and one vertical; it is rated at 8.8A, 690W at 120V. The whole thing
>measures about 24" (height) x 13" (width) x 27" (depth)
That's a BA123, otherwise known as a "world box". VERY nice chassis; I'm
sure I'm not the only one on the list who's jealous!
>The interior is somewhat dusty, but not too much. The card edges that go
>into the slots did not look bad in terms of oxidation; I think that they
>make positive contact. I wonder if power suply failures are common
>for this machine... and if the expected lifetime of the capacitors is
>long enough.
The power supplies in those boxes are very robust...failures are not common
at all. I'm willing to bet that it'll work just fine. A case in point: I have
a BA123 containing a MicroVAX-II system that I dragged out of a mud puddle. It
had been sitting there for roughly four months. I hosed it down, then let it
sit inside for a week over an air conditioning vent. The tape drive was shot,
but everything else was just fine, and the system has been running for over a
year with no problems. VERY solid hardware.
>I have nothing against netBSD, but I'd like to learn about VMS,
>so I hope the hard drive has some version of it.
I'd suggest becoming a DECUS member (see
http://www.decus.org), then once you
have a DECUS number you can get what's known as a "VMS Hobbyist License" from
http://www.montagar.com. Then you can install VMS, all the way up to the
current v7.2. Feel free to email me privately if you have any questions about
this. It's easy and fun!
-Dave McGuire
Received on Wed Sep 15 1999 - 20:10:26 BST