EDIT: Okay, SUN question answered! Thanks especially to Poof.

[networkman]

Hey,

I'm considering purchasing a system, but I'd like to get a rough idea of its RC5/S@H production level before I make the committment.

The unit in question is a SUN SparcCenter 2000 w/ 18 cpus!!

Each cpu is a SM51 MicroSPARC @ 50MHz with 2MB Cache

The system has 1.5 Gig of ram and a 6 gig scsi disk - it's located very near to me and I'm considering the price - the guy says he wants $3k for it - good price?

I am already familiar with SMP as I own an ALR 6x6 PPro system.

Can anyone help me here? Benchmarks?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Sukhoi]

I honestly think it would be bad at SETI, but that's just an opinion. Maybe it would be better at RC5 or OGR?

 

[BurntKooshie]

most risc boxes are terrible at RC5 (not as bad as the P4 though ). Older ones were even worse

 

[networkman]

Could be that's why no one has purchased it yet.

Anyways, I'm looking for some specific benchmarks too; granted the ALR 6x6 PPro system really isn't that great at RC5 compared to a decent Tbird, but I didn't get it just for the raw speed - I'm also an SMP nut. Okay, so maybe I'm just a nut too.

 

[BadThad]

I can't say 4 sure, but 3k is a lot of cash. Consider what 3k buys in terms of x86 hardware these days. That's a nice box, but I think you could get more keys/seti wu's out of 3k worth of x86 hardware. This may not be valid, but if you add up those cpu's it's only 900 MHz. With 3k I think you could generate at least 3-4 GHz of x86 cpu power.

 

[ottawanker]

Hey, networkman...

For $3000, you could buy 15 of these and put 64 MBs of ram/floppy/cheap NIC in each of them..

Cheap motherboard + AMD 800 CPU

Thats 12 Gigahertz of CPU power...

or what about 20 of these with 64 MBs of ram/floppy/cheap NIC?

Cheap motherboard + AMD 700 CPU

Thats 14 Gigahertz of CPU power...

Sure, they're not SMP systems, but still..

can you say "sweet crack rack"!! mmm...

 

[efun]

We have a couple hundred microSparc 50Mhz machines at work. I'll run in there this afternoon and load up some benchmarks.

edit: Just wanted to add that from what I have seen the sun4c and sun4m processors are horribly at rc5, I dont know about seti though.

 

[JimMc]

FWIW, that unmentionable auction place has the same type box available. Looks like a $1000 reserve? May want to watch that auction. LINK

 

[Poof]

Okay... from the Penguin lady with a 50Mhz sparc IPX....heh

For SETI, my little sparc (running the linux-sparc SETI client) does... are you sitting down? 1 WU every 2 weeks :Q

Okay there, I said it!

So... if you had 18 of those speed processors and staggered the results, the entire thing might produce something like a bit more than 1 WU/day average. Heh.

It seems that recently, the latest clients for Sun boxen have SUCKED horribly. If I were you networkman, I would see if I could find a used alpha (mine is a 1997 vintage 433Mhz Digital Personal Workstation, which gets ~2-2.5 WUs/day). For $3000, you could maybe find 2 or maybe even 3 alphas (or perhaps even a dual or quad one) that would get you some half-way decent SETI production (for their age) as compared to a Sun box. For RC5, my alpha has benched ~700,000Keys/s. Nothing to really write home about, but a contribution none the less.

Hope this helps!

 

[JimMc]

Looks like an urge to be resisted, 24/7 support available right here if you start getting the shakes...

 

[nexus9]

Yeah, that SC2000 is ancient - wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole (& what are you gonna do if it breaks?!?). Stick with x86.

Personally, I'd go with some Thunderbirds & overclock 'em. If you're really stuck on SMP (I can identify), I'd go with some MSI 694d's or abit VP6's. Nice boards - I just built 25 dual 1Ghz linux machines for a customer w/694d's.

-Nexus9

 

[poopaskoopa]

Doesn't SUN sell Blade 100 for around $1000?

 

[littleprince]

System CPU ClkMHz Cache SPECint SPECfp Info Source
Name (NUMx)Type ext/in Ext+I/D 92 92 Date Obtained
================= ========== ======= ========== ======= ======= ===== =========
Sun Ultra1/140 UltSP 71/143 512+16/16 215 303 Nov95 SunIntro

I tried RC5 on these machines....

horrible performance... at least really disappointing to me...

i dunno how much this relates to your purchase though...

personaly, i'd like something a little newer... but maybe with less cpu's...

 

[Poof]

poopaskoopa - yeah, Sun has those Sun Blades, but DrFeelGood likes them SMP machines...

Hey networkman - ifn' I was you, I'd watch this auction. Damn if no one else bids much higher and the seller relents, you'd have a SWEET dual.

 

[networkman]

Thank you all, especially that cute little penguin Poof, for your help.

Not being familiar with SUN equipment, I knew I could depend on finding someone here at Anandtech that could help me!

 

[Poof]

(/me wants some of networkman's duallies! )

 

[efun]

Poof no biggie but the IPX was a 40mhz machine. It was also a sun4c processor. The Server in question here was a 50mhz sun4m. Same kinda as a classic or lx.

 

[Kilowatt]

/me's jealously watching networkman flirt with Poof :|

 

[nexus9]

The sunblade 100 ain't that great. Only single 500Mhz with a whimpy 256k cache (I believe), and lame-o IDE hard drive. Now the Sunblade 1000 - that's another story: up to two 750Mhz & 8megs cache, scsi...

-Nexus9

 

[bot2600]

Hey networkman, any idea where I can get a decent deal on one of those 6 cpu ppro systems?

Bot

 

[RaySun2Be]

</me's jealously watching networkman flirt with Poof >

:Q

/me grabs the bushwacker and chops down all bushes he can......

 

[Poof]

efun - I originally thought mine was a 40 too until I found a few sites that had nice descriptions of all the old sparcs... And according to their descriptions of what was etched on the mobos of the different ones (in my case a &quot;Hobbes&quot; - the cartoon cat), the &quot;Hobbes&quot; ones were 50s. I think the &quot;Calvins&quot; were 40s or something. :Q

My sparc has been up for over 300 days and I'm loathe to shut it down to look again... Hell... I ended up finally having to reboot the windud 2K box last week after 215 days uptime...

And LOL @Kilowatt &amp; Ray.

/me needs to find some fake aluminum bushes made like a duck blind, to hide behind! :Q



edit: speeling