a canandrum

Posted by raindropl@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 22 comments

Im rebuilding a very old Sun Sparc. And a memory module just popped out. Is VERY expensive ($500ish).

I paid for my base workstation $100. Adding almost everything is an other $300, Now…. The memory module increases ram from 64MB to 96MB. A substancial amount for Solaris.

What will you do ?

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International-Pen940@reddit

Those old OSes are much less demanding on memory (for the OS itself). Around 1995 we had a Windows NT test server running a database and the entire web application with 64MB.

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raindropl@reddit (OP)

You are right. I’ll try keeping it in Solaris 2.6, with was released on 1997

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DominBear@reddit

2.6 is almost useable with 64mb on my sparcbooks. i think you would want more if you want to run netscape or ie5 or some cad application.

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raindropl@reddit (OP)

Im going to have 96Mb :). Negotiated the module and is installed. Lets see how it runs

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DominBear@reddit

yeah. i have 50 and 70mhz ones. still cpu speed not helping much when it is swapping. and sparbooks require special cursed SIMM to go beyond 64mb ;)

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raindropl@reddit (OP)

Yeah. Swapping is the killer more than CPU speed, I have a SS20 running in dual SM71, with 512MB of ram and works fine.

And swapping is a hard drive killer.

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DominBear@reddit

oh, pls share definitive list when you have it. so far i just nuked all mail related stuff.

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developstopfix@reddit

Not exactly relevant, but throughout high school I ran a web and ftp server on a Sparcstation 4 with 32MB of RAM. That was running OpenBSD but still, I think you’ll be just fine with 64MB.

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raindropl@reddit (OP)

Yes. I’ll need a little more ram than openBSD because I plan to use it for open windows. (X)

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LousyMeatStew@reddit

BTW, it's "conundrum". Sorry for being that guy.

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gatofisch@reddit

I can't really follow what you're talking about (sbus 32mb expansion?), but SunOS or even Solaris 2.6 will do okay with 64mb.

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raindropl@reddit (OP)

The Sparc station 2 can use a spacial SBUS card with additional 3MB of ram… is all on Wikipedia

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gatofisch@reddit

Yup, that's a cool/rare card. If you have it, neat. If you are thinking about getting it, I wouldn't as that's a lot of money for not a lot of gain.

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raindropl@reddit (OP)

Is 50% more memory capacity. Way too much money

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JVBass75@reddit

which model workstation are you talking about?

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JVBass75@reddit

Bummer.. if it was an ultra 1 or ultra 5, I have a stack of ram I would have sent you.

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Useful_Resolution888@reddit

64mb to 96mb is not a big jump and certainly not worth $500 to my mind. It's price gouging and honestly I don't think anyone should be paying those sort of mad prices out of principle.

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I doubt you'd notice a great difference if you're running an older version of Solaris. What's your plan for it? I had some SS5 clones a few years ago and a couple of ultrasparcs but I've never played with anything pre Solaris 7.