> In particular does X run well on this machine (I guess the video is built 
> into the mother board).  Also it appears that there is built in SCSI for
> the hard drive but I cannot tell.

"yes."


> Is 24MB enough space for a alpha (I know it is a RISC processor and has
> 64 bit words so my guess is it would take more memory than a 32 bit 
> processor).

in my opinion, 24MB is not enough.

I ordered a couple of those machines, and also got 2 16MB simms for
each.  (note that the machines have 4 SIMM slots, and the 24MB of
memory they include is split into 2 8MB SIMMS and 2 4MB SIMMS, so
if you do that, you'll end up with 48MB RAM and 2 4MB SIMMS left over.)


> Does the current alpha port of NetBSD support PCMCIA cards - I would need to 
> have a modem (ppp) and know there are PCMCIA cards - I don't see serial on 
> the board.

There is serial,  in fact, there are two serial ports, crammed into
one DB-25 cable.  A pointer to the pinout for that cable appeared a
while ago on this list -- check the list archives.


PCMCIA support currently does not exist for the alpha.


> I can get this system (without monitor) for $800 which seems like a good
> bang for the buck.  

probably without monitor or keyboard, actually.  8-)

It's an OK deal, i'd say.  They're not incredibly speedy machines.
I'd guess that an intel box would beat them in terms of
price/performance, but i can't say for sure.

I bought two, because i wanted to get a couple alphas that I could work
with at home.  I have absolutely no desire to buy intel CPUs or to buy
any variety of M$ software...




chris