> But, I'm unsure where to start. I mean, getting hardware in the micro
> realm is a matter of chance stops at the Goodwill store or something...plug
> it in, see if it works, etc. No doubt in areas which have businesses which
> throw away minis the same is the case. However, it looks as though places
> like Ebay et al will be my source for such things.
>
> I don't know how the hardware follows conventions. I mean, in the micro
> world, there are a lot of standards: ISA, PCI, VGA, etc...so it makes some
> parts interchangeable and such. I would imagine when you get into micros
> and such the parts aren't all that interchangeable, and some are downright
> nasty to obtain.
>
> For example, I was looking at this auction today:
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=469865813
>
> It's a VAXstation 3100. I know nothing about it, but that doesn't mean I
> can't learn. But it looks like it doesn't come with a monitor, keyboard,
> etc, so I'd have to get those. And, of course, for the life of me I don't
> know what they take. So, if I were to bid on it, I'd be getting something
> I didn't know about, get it home, and then watch it collect dust.
>
Few quick thoughts.. Your right about this item. If you are just getting into
collecting, things like this are good if you can get them real cheap and have
a place to stash them. After about a year you start getting enough different
parts to put things together.
I was at the same point as you about a year and a half ago. After some
seaching I started running across stuff and now I'm considering getting
a storage place for some of it. Sellam has written a good intro on finding
stuff on www.vintage.org. Be persistant and piles of cheap stuff will
turn up.
You may also consider paying a larger sum for a fulling working system with
disks, docs, etc to get you going for now. It took me over a year to boot
my first PDP which was annoying.
Kirk
Received on Wed Oct 18 2000 - 14:35:14 BST