In this case, you may want to consider an Ultra 1 or Ultra 2
workstation.  The Ultra 1 will be cheaper than the Ultra 5, but its
SCSI disk bus is a bit more flexible and helps offset the slower CPU.
The Ultra 2 will end up more expensive than the Ultra 5, but it
supports 2-way SMP and has SCSI disks.  Also, the Ultra 1 and 2 have
SBus instead of PCI, which will guide what peripherals you can
purchase.

There are also the older 32-bit workstations, such as the SPARCstation
10 and SPARCstation 20.  The SS10 and SS20 each can support up to four
CPUs and have SCSI disks, but it is harder to get 24-bit framebuffers
for these systems for a reasonable price.  Also, cost-effective
SPARCstation CPUs max out at 75 or 100 MHz. Faster ones can be too
expensive, and the double-CPU modules to get four CPUs are harder to
find. 

All of these workstations are supported in Solaris 8.  
The free systems, such as NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux, support the
32-bit workstations better, and 64-bit support is generally less
mature.

For better details on the hardware http://sunsolve.sun.com/ and
http://docs.sun.com/ are helpful.

Matt

ptiJo writes:
 > 
 >  well... in fact price is "what is important" :)
 >  I just want to trash my home gateway (Intel MMX-200) to some nice SUN
 > workstation.
 >  Just for the fun of playing with some new architecture.
 > 
 >  It will just do things like PF (FW&NAT), NFSd, DHCPd, HTTPd, FTPd ...
 > 
 >  that's why I pointed out Ultra5 - to have better perf than my current
 > Intel but I don't want to spend too much money in it ;(
 > 
 >  so... according to the above description, should I still keep an eye on
 > U5 or to something else (low price is the most important thing ;) ?
 > 
 > thX for answers guys,
 > 	Jo
 > 
 > PS: Matt, I'm having a look at the site... looks nice, thX !
 > 
 > On the last episode, Matt Prazak <prazak@scra.org> said to
 > port-sparc64@netbsd.org:
 > 
 > > Lubomir Sedlacik writes:
 > >  > hi,
 > >  > 
 > >  > On Wed, May 29, 2002 at 08:00:36PM +0200, ptiJo wrote:
 > >  > >	I'm planning to get an Ultra5 (or a bit more, depending on the
 > >  > >	price ;)
 > >  > >
 > >  > >	SUN doesn't seem to sell them anymore ...
 > >  > >	Is there any company that would sell them (in Europe) ?
 > >  > 
 > >  > if you'd like to have new low-end workstation (from the same
 > >  > category as Ultra 5) why not Blade 100?  it's successor of Ultra 5,
 > >  > has much faster CPU, uses standard PC133 dimms with EC, etc.  and
 > >  > yes, Sun currently sells them and it's notably cheaper than Ultra 5
 > >  > was :).
 > >  >
 > > 
 > > The CPU in the Blade 100 is relatively weak, and it is probably
 > > comparable to the higher-end Ultra 5s.  The main advantages to the
 > > Blade 100 are USB, 2GB maximum RAM, newer framebuffer options, and a
 > > smartcard reader.  Otherwise the Ultra 5 and Blade 100 are comparable
 > > with IDE disks and the typical desktop enclosure.  Used Ultra 5s are
 > > now less expensive than a new Blade 100, so budget and OS requirements
 > > would be the driving forces.
 > > 
 > >  > 
 > >  > the only reason to buy Ultra 5 for me would be if i want to run
 > >  > Solaris older than 8 for some reason.
 > >  > 
 > >  >  http://www.sun.fr/produits-solutions/materiels/stations/sunblade_100.html
 > >  > 
 > >  > hope this helps.
 > >  > 
 > >  > regards,
 > >  > 
 > >  > -- 
 > >  > -- Lubomir Sedlacik <salo@Xtrmntr.org>   ASCII Ribbon campaign
 > >  > against  /"\ ----                  <salo@silcnet.org>   e-mail in
 > >  > gratuitous HTML and  \ / ----                                      
 > >  > Microsoft proprietary formats   X  ---- PGPkey:
 > >  > http://Xtrmntr.org/salo.pgp                                  / \
 > >  > ---- Key Fingerprint: DBEC 8BEC 9A90 ECEC 0FEF  716E 59CE B70B 7E3B
 > >  > 70E2      --
 > > 
 > > 
 > > 
 >