On Sun, Oct 10, 2004 at 06:39:41PM -0400, Ken Campbell wrote:
>
> I?m looking to acquire my first VAX system. I?m a youngin? who?s been
> cutting his teeth on OpenVMS through HP?s TestDrive program, and would
> like to have a box of my own.
A good aspiration.
> I?d really like to track down a VAX 4000 unit, preferably a /300 or higher.
> I?m not too picky about internals, I just need something to get started on
> (hardware collecting wise).
I'm not well versed in variations in the 4000 series, but as long as you
get something with native SCSI, you should be OK.
> If I?m being insane, hoping to have a 120lbs unit shipped, let me know..
> Should I be just looking for the cards / drives separately, and try to
> find the case locally instead?
I would think that finding an entire system would be easier than trying
to locate the boards a few at a time. But having said that, don't turn
anything down. That's the best way to get a system (and spares).
I personally wouldn't mind a newer Qbus box, but I have enough toys that I
am going to stick with local/driving-distance rescues, not shipping. My
main VAXen are an 8200/8300 (depending on if I install both CPUs or not),
and a uVAX-II in a BA23 (originally purchased new as a uVAX-I and upgraded
for $20K by its original owner, a former employer of mine). I have some
Unibus hardware in storage, but I don't run those on a regular basis. I
suppose that if I had a Unibus SCSI card, I might.
Speaking of which, uVAX-IIs aren't that hard to find, but they have a
hard 16MB memory limit, and, as shipped, depend on (small by today's
standards) MFM drives. SCSI is an option, but you might as well grab
a newer system with integrated SCSI, like a uVAX 3100 or the like, if
VAX binary compatibility is the overall goal (as opposed to wanting to
run obscure Qbus peripherals like a COMBOARD).
-ethan
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Received on Sun Oct 10 2004 - 20:59:15 BST