In article <1993Nov19.192726.19281@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> liles@pat.mdc.com
(Clifton Liles ) writes:
>I called Pinnacle and found out they will trade a Clone SPARCII motherboard with
>the Weitek chip in it for your old mother board ( with CPU, but sans memory).
>I found an add which says from $1,895 (I dont't know what this is for)
>For a SPARC 1+ they want $3195.
Here's my commentary:
SPARC 2 BOARD-SWAP UPGRADE: Everyone I know who has done both agrees
that it's easier to install the SPARC POWER uP CPU than it is to do a
motherboard swap. This option is interesting mostly to people with
soldered-down processors, which is extremely common in SPARCstation 2
clones. Desoldering and resoldering 208-pin chips is no fun, and all
the shops we've gotten pricing from want serious money for the job.
Pinnacle's price ($395 more than the SPARC POWER uP chip itself) is
consistent with estimates people gave us for the same service. (Some
ships would do it for less, but on the basis of "send us your board, and
we'll rework it and send it back in a week." Pinnacle
sends you a new board BEFORE you send them your old board.)
You should check with your fellow workers first, though. Maybe
someone who's not planning on upgrading soon has a socketed CPU, and
you can swap systems with him. I know of several people who have
done this.
SPARC 1/1+ BOARD-SWAP UPGRADE: Since the single-unit price for SPARC
POWER uP is $1,500, I suppose this means Pinnacle's selling the SPARC
2 motherboard for $1,695 ($3,195-$1,500), which is also in the
ballpark for such things.
$3,195 seems like a lot of money because it is -- but you're paying
for two separate upgrades. The price-performance for this package
is actually quite similar to adding SPARC POWER uP to a SPARC 2:
UPGRADE COST INCREASE INCREASE/$1,000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SS2 -> SPARC POWER uP $1,500 11 SPECint 7.3
SS1 -> SS2 $1,695 11 SPECint 6.5
SS1 -> SPARC POWER uP $3,195 22 SPECint 6.9
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The only fly in the ointment is that, if you have 100ns memory in your
SPARC 1, you're probably going to have to buy more SIMMs, too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SS1 -> SPARC POWER uP + 32MB $4,495 22 SPECint 4.9
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is still a good deal compared to new system prices (where, after
all, you'll have to buy all-new RAM anyway, since SPARCstation 1
SIMMs don't work in any of Sun's current offerings).
-- Robert
-- Robert Plamondon * WEITEK Corporation * Home of SPARC Power uP (TM) 80 MHz clock-doubled SPARC processor upgrade for the SPARCstation 2 or IPX FAX-back info line: (800) 827-8708 or (408) 522-7525 Info by ftp: in pub/weitek on netcom.com * Info by email: cpu-upgrade@weitek.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:08:29 CDT