Which SUN machine is your favourite and why?

[Irinikus]

My favourite for now is the V880z, as it has plenty of expansion options and graphics capability in the XVR-4000.

I am still busy troubleshooting my Tezro (Dallas chip and Snaphat battery), so my V880z will have to wait for the moment.

Before I fire it up, I would like to get a proper SUN mouse and keyboard, a PCI card (X86 on a PCI-X card), a 10GB NIC, a sound card, a stuffy drive and a tape drive for the machine.

The money that I spent on the quad 1GHz node board for my Tezro delayed the setting up of this system, as a considerable amount of money still needs to be spent here before this system is ready to go!

[johnnym]

Limiting the selection to machines I actually own, I'd say - for the moment - that my SPARC Enterprise T1000 is my favourite Sun machine, although I do not use it much recently (to some degree because of its noise).

Reasons? Well, main reason it's so small and still offers a lot: up to 32 threads for example. Yeah sure, those are lightweight, but combined these beat e.g. the two threads of an Intellistation POWER 285 with single-core 2.1 GHz POWER5+ with ease:

Code:

<i>
</i>root@power-285:~# time 7z b

7-Zip 16.02 : Copyright (c) 1999-2016 Igor Pavlov : 2016-05-21
p7zip Version 16.02 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,2 CPUs BE)

BE
CPU Freq:  1027  1031  1031  1031  1031  1032  1032  1031  1034

RAM size:    1862 MB,  # CPU hardware threads:   2
RAM usage:    441 MB,  # Benchmark threads:      2

                       Compressing  |                  Decompressing
Dict     Speed Usage    R/U Rating  |      Speed Usage    R/U Rating
         KiB/s     %   MIPS   MIPS  |      KiB/s     %   MIPS   MIPS

22:       2224   148   1464   2164  |      28845   198   1242   2463
23:       2144   152   1434   2185  |      28514   198   1245   2468
24:       2081   159   1410   2238  |      28148   198   1247   2471
25:       2037   162   1436   2326  |      27844   198   1250   2478
----------------------------------  | ------------------------------
Avr:             155   1436   2228  |              198   1246   2470
Tot:             177   1341   2349

real    0m45.381s
user    1m12.655s
sys    0m0.659s

Don't mind the wrong CPU clock measurement, I often see this for POWER or PowerPC gear when used with the 7z benchmark. Either the CPU is clocked down during the measurement (which I don't believe for a POWER processor) or 7z is just plain wrong.
EDIT: Reduced font size, because 85 came out huge after the migration from the old forum software.

Code:

<i>
</i>root@t1000:~# time 7z b

7-Zip 16.02 : Copyright (c) 1999-2016 Igor Pavlov : 2016-05-21
p7zip Version 16.02 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,32 CPUs BE)

BE
CPU Freq:   949   949   949   949   949   949   949   949

RAM size:    7958 MB,  # CPU hardware threads:  32
RAM usage:   7060 MB,  # Benchmark threads:     32

                       Compressing  |                  Decompressing
Dict     Speed Usage    R/U Rating  |      Speed Usage    R/U Rating
         KiB/s     %   MIPS   MIPS  |      KiB/s     %   MIPS   MIPS

22:       4479  2021    216   4358  |      64980  2926    189   5542
23:       4819  2080    236   4910  |      66559  2947    196   5759
24:       4795  2098    246   5156  |      47476  2811    148   4167
25:       4584  2087    251   5235  |      32741  3143     93   2914
----------------------------------  | ------------------------------
Avr:            2071    237   4915  |             2957    157   4595
Tot:            2514    197   4755

real    6m3.025s
user    120m38.812s
sys    0m43.018s

And who would have thought that? :-D We won't talk about floating-point performance, the UltraSPARC T1 was not meant for that. In addition you can use up to 32 GiB of memory and a maximum of two SATA/SAS HDDs or SSDs. Plus the T1000 supports hardware partitioning. More than enough for playing around. Coming back to its small form factor (1 rack unit high and about as deep as an Ultra 10), I mean look at its system board (e.g. here), small but loaded with goodies (remote control (via ALOM), four 1 Gbps NICs, one PCIe x8 slot). Yet this seems to be the only UltraSPARC Tx driven machine of such small size ever released, which is a real pity (a T3120 sadly was never released). I'd say the T1000 is a dream machine for web serving. Use in loud environments only. ;-)

[commodorejohn]

Of the ones I've owned, I'd have to say either the Blade 2000 (no need for KVM adapters, plus a fair bit of horsepower while still remaining just quiet enough to pass as a workstation) or the Sparcstation 2 (plain ol' SCSI disk interface, non-proprietary RAM, and capable of running SunOS, Solaris, or NEXTSTEP as you please.)

[thunderbird32]

Out of machines I've got, the SPARCclassic is really nice. Tiny machine, standard RAM, nice case design. Out of machines I don't own, I'd love to get my hands on a SPARCserver 630MP or similar form factor system. Those VME based tower systems are pretty cool.

[opcode]

My favorite sun system has to be the enterprise 3000 line. I love the look of those.

[johnnym]

My favorite sun system has to be the enterprise 3000 line. I love the look of those.

As an owner of an Enterprise 3500 I can fully understand this view. They just look powerful and the module concept is intriguing, though I never tried to replace a CPU/Memory board during operation although that is actually supported I believe. I once had the chance to also bring an Enterprise 3000 home - "free" from the garbage - but at that time thought "I already have an E3500 so can pass on on this one". Geez, what a waste...

[escimo]

Sun 4/75. It's a cute beast of a sun4c, easy to maintain (mainboard, power supply) and even w/o Weitek Power µP powerfull enough for all my needs.

[CiaoTime]

The SPARCStation Voyager is the only Sun machine that makes me salivate. A large part of the reason I got into Silicon Graphics machines was because of the history and nature of the work they were used for back in their prime: 3D graphics, flight simulators, game development, stuff that gets me excited. When I think of '90s Sun products, I think of... e-mail servers.

The Voyager's the exception to the rule. It's unique! I've had the image of the Voyager burnt into my mind since I'd first seen one on exhibit, and sooner or later I'll find the means to add one to the collection.

[thunderbird32]

The SPARCStation Voyager is the only Sun machine that makes me salivate. A large part of the reason I got into Silicon Graphics machines was because of the history and nature of the work they were used for back in their prime: 3D graphics, flight simulators, game development, stuff that gets me excited. When I think of '90s Sun products, I think of... e-mail servers.

The Voyager's the exception to the rule. It's unique! I've had the image of the Voyager burnt into my mind since I'd first seen one on exhibit, and sooner or later I'll find the means to add one to the collection.

Oh yeah, the Voyagers are really cool. One of Sun's most aesthetically pleasing systems for sure.