More RAM for the SUN Ultra 2
I have a Sun Ultra 2 at home that I've been building up step by step, it's a sick hobby. There's something about old hardware I couldn't buy 10 years ago that gets me going. I bought the Sun Ultra 2 (a whopping 200MHz processor) awhile back for $19.99 US plus $14US shipping. Considering it weighs about 50 lbs the shipping was a bloody bargain!
It was advertised with 64MB of RAM, which I was sure couldn't be correct, because the RAM must be installed in quads (yes, 4 sticks at a time) and I thought the minimum configuration was (32MB x 4). As it turns out, my box had 8 x 16MB. One of the sticks of RAM wasn't seated properly.
Currently it has Solaris 9 on it, but I'm about to change that with the arrival of my new RAM. I installed Gentoo on it once before (somewhat unsuccessfully because syslog-ng was broken when I finished). I'm going to give it another go next weekend when things settle down a bit.
The gig of RAM arrived with a $9.68US duty on it. I wasn't happy about spending another $10, and then I saw the size of the package -- a foot square, just for RAM! It was packed tight with bubble wrap, and stored in unsealed anti-static bags. I suppose it was well protected enough, but the jostling could have sent the RAM into the bubble-wrap. It didn't, so I suppose I shouldn't care.
I also have a fully functional Sun Sparcstation 5 which has sat in my closet since I bought the Sun Ultra. The Ultra has been a priority up until a few days ago when I added a SB Live Platinum (I know, it's old) kit to my main box: a Pentium III 733MHz with 768MB RAM. The studio is slowly coming together...