Need help in figuring out what to bid on DEC

From: Sean Caron <sean_at_techcare.com>
Date: Thu Mar 29 13:51:32 2001

----- Original Message -----
From: <Innfogra_at_aol.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 1:04 PM
Subject: Need help in figuring out what to bid on DEC


> Hi;
>
> I have run across a lot of DEC that is available at a Government agency
that
> is available for negotiated sale. Unfortunately, there are some units I
know
> little about. Since it is the government there are complications with the
> hard drives that I will mention after the list.
>
> The lot is;
> one Microvax II in a BA123 cabinet
> two VAX 4000/200s small square floor towers
> one VAX 4000/100 Desktop
> two DEC 2000 AXP
> one DEC PC AXP 150
> one DEC 486 PC
> one DEC Storage works small drive tower w/o drives
> one CD tower with 3 or 4 CD drives in it, I think DEC mfg. but not sure.
>
> The limitations are no keyboards, mice or monitors. Otherwise the
equipment
> seems complete. I will not have the opportunity to list boards, drives,
etc.
> It is supposed to be working equipment.

Well, I don't know what the opinion is of others out on the list, but I'd
say that
this whole load would easily be worth a few hundred dollars (well, to me, at
least). Here's a quick breakdown as to my thoughts on some of these systems:

> one Microvax II in a BA123 cabinet

This is an older unit, circa 1985/1986 or so. They're slow, but they're a
nice old
VAX to play with, and the cabinet gives you a lot of room to play around
with
various old QBus cards and drives, and its really easy to service, too, not
to
mention classy looking. The only caveat is that it, like many other MicroVAX
pedestal systems, is kind of heavy. I loaded one in and out of the trunk of
my
car myself, but it was quite a work-out. These probably have between 8 to
12 megabytes of RAM in them, MFM drives (unless someone upgraded them
along the way), and maybe a QBus Ethernet card or some other goodies like
that.

> two VAX 4000/200s small square floor towers

Nice units, probably around the middle to low end of the VAX 4000 range,
which
was the last real series of MicroVAX systems to be produced. I've never
actually
worked with these systems myself before, but they probably weigh somewhere
in
the neighborhood of the MicroVAX II system mentioned earlier. They're
relatively
speedy as VAXen go, and by extension of being newer, they've probably got
larger (probably DSSI) drives and more RAM (say, 32 to 64 megabytes
typically).
These systems are probably the most valuable CISC VAXen in the bunch.

> one VAX 4000/100 Desktop

No idea what this is, although I assume its probably the lowest-end VAX 4000
system. Couldn't tell you a thing about it. Maybe it's similar to a
VAXstation
4000/60 or 4000/90?

> two DEC 2000 AXP

These are desktop systems based on Digital's Alpha AXP CPU. Probably
somewhere in the 200-300 megahertz range. These are pretty nice systems
that were in the low to middle end of DEC's second generation Alpha
product line. They're new enough to still be (in my opinion) pretty
competitive
for doing real work, and by extension, they're probably the most valuable
Alpha systems in this lot. SCSI drives and getting on to maybe 32-64
megabytes
of RAM if not more. Typically PCI VGA video and it accepts PS/2 keyboards
and mice. Runs OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX, and Windows NT for Alpha.

> one DEC PC AXP 150

This is kind of a neat system. First generation Alpha built largely using
commodity
parts. I've got one of these and its kind of a nice system, although its
getting a little
dated for heavy-duty use in X. EISA bus, SCSI drives, VGA video (typically
8-bit running at a maximum resolution of 1024x768), and it accepts PS/2
keyboards
and mice as well. This system will also run OpenVMS, Tru64 (up to the latest
release, even), and Windows NT for Alpha. I love the case on these systems.
It's
really solid, but easy to get into at the same time.

> one DEC 486 PC

Worth nothing for all practical purposes.

> one DEC Storage works small drive tower w/o drives

It's just a drive cabinet, not too interesting without the drives. See if
you can at least get
the drive sleds for it. If you can pick those up, you'll have a nice SCSI
drive cabinet
around. I don't know how much sleds would cost on their own, but they're
probably
not cheap.

> one CD tower with 3 or 4 CD drives in it, I think DEC mfg. but not sure.

This would be nice to have, too, especially if the drives are 512 byte
sector DEC RRD
series types. It's probably SCSI.

Hope this might help you out a little bit. It sounds like a really nice
load!

--Sean Caron (root_at_diablonet.net) | http://www.diablonet.net
Received on Thu Mar 29 2001 - 13:51:32 BST

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