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gkl
Unread postPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 6:32 am 
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There are a couple of RS/6000 43P 150's for sale on ebay for cheap (~$50 shipped to the US) and I've been really itching to get my hands dirty with AIX. The low price has me suspicious, but the 43P is quite an older model and I understand that it won't run AIX 6.1 or newer (coincidentally, 6.1 media is all I have). I'd imagine this detracts from the resale value.

Does anyone have any experience with this model? Any caveats worth mentioning? I assume that it takes regular disks (none of that HVD stuff), and EDO RAM may be a little harder to find, but I'm very tempted to buy.

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porter
Unread postPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 11:18 am 
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I have a couple of 43p-140 and run AIX 4.3.2 and 5.1 on them. That is the closest I can compare. I like them, they just run bog standard 68pin SCSI disks. I must admit I don't max out every machine just for the sake of it, if it's an old machine I accept it's limitations.

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SAQ
Unread postPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 7:58 pm 
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43P-150 should run up to AIX v5.3.

Don't know though - it "doesn't have the Windows COA". Gotta be careful there... ;)

Note that this is a 604e box, not the POWER3.

If it were local I might consider buying one. Seems much more reasonably priced than the last one I saw up here - guys thought a uniproc F40 was worth $150.

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gkl
Unread postPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 9:26 pm 
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SAQ wrote:
Don't know though - it "doesn't have the Windows COA". Gotta be careful there... ;)

A lot of these scrappers automatically slap that on there. An Intellistation 275 that was local to me just sold today (way out of my price range), but the top question asked was "Can I erase AIX and install Windows XP?" It makes me wonder how many people actually buy up this stuff thinking they can play solitaire on it, then either throw it out or into a closet.

Quote:
Note that this is a 604e box, not the POWER3.

I'm not as familiar with POWER/PPC as I should be, but what exactly does this entail? Smaller cache and lack of full 64-bit? I realize this machine was marketed as an entry-level, and it would appear that a lot of Macs shared this 604e.

One last question--I found some AIX 5.1 media locally, but there is a listing for "AIX 5L Update V5.3" on eBay which is a 4-disc set. Did IBM ship 5.[23] as update-only media (like IRIX overlays) or should I expect to be able to install clean if I were to pick up one of these 4-disc 5.3 media sets? If I can get away with only spending $25 on a 5.3 set, it'd be nice to save myself the cost of buying the 5.1 set too.

Thanks for the advice!

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SAQ
Unread postPosted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:28 pm 
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604e was only 32-bit (POWER3 and RS64 were both 64-bit), and was the lower-performance "budget" version, though the differences weren't as big after IBM went to POWER3 (the POWER2, last of the "true" POWER line, has some noticeable differences that were later determined to be unnecessary stumbling blocks). A SGI analogy would be 604:POWER3 as R5k:R10k (RS64 was the commercial processor, more like SPARC or VAX).

I'm not sure about 5.3, as my machine won't run anything above 5.1 (MCA 370). 5.1 base system comes on 5 disks, but IBM pulled MCA/Classic RS6k support and PReP support after 5.1 so it's very possible things shrunk a bit. I will tell you that none of the AIX CDs I have look like that - mine are all much more showy with teal and aquamarine. Here's a list of part numbers for 5.3 disks, perhaps it will help: http://www.cschwab.de/AIX_Docs/AIX_5_3_ ... sheet.html

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gkl
Unread postPosted: Fri May 13, 2011 8:28 pm 
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Thanks for the clarification on the 604 vs POWER3. PPC/POWER has always been a muddy realm to me since it's rife with a lot of variations and very cryptic names, so I guess I've got a lot to pick up.

I caved in and ordered one of those systems (my friends are a bad influence on me), so I'll have to see how far I can get with my 5.1 media once it arrives. It's a 5-disc set so I should be good, and I'll just have to wait for another set of 5.3's to surface.

Now that I've spent the next few months' soda money on this RS/6000 though, I might have to sell off one of my older Suns to make up for it. Maybe I can find someone local who'll give me $50 for an Ultra 10...

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SAQ
Unread postPosted: Fri May 13, 2011 8:40 pm 
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gkl wrote:
Maybe I can find someone local who'll give me $50 for an Ultra 10...


You can always dream. I figure mine will probably wind up being giveaway when I do finally get rid of it. Though with my luck it could become a "case of beer machine" (as in giving someone a case of beer to take the thing off my hands). It's my only PCI Sun now, so I'm keeping it (just in case anyone is deranged enough to want it).

I'm wondering if those "5.3 upgrade" disks are the maintenance level/patchsets for AIX v5.3 and not AIX v5.3 at all.

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porter
Unread postPosted: Sat May 14, 2011 1:51 am 
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I was surprised about the claims for the 150 running 5.3. My 7043-260 does though, that wasn't a case of beer machine, I got it for a couple of boxes of chocolates.

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SAQ
Unread postPosted: Sat May 14, 2011 7:38 pm 
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43p-140 doesn't (PReP box, so 5.1 is the end of the line). 43p-150 does (CHRP box).

I dimly recall possibly hearing that you might need to do a bit of tweaking because it's only a 32-bit box and AIX 5.3 is set up to do 64-bit by default, but since it didn't directly impact me I can't recall the fix or anything else.

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gkl
Unread postPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 3:23 pm 
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As an update, I got my 43p-150 and it was in relatively good shape, although extremely dirty:

Attachment:
File comment: Dusty exterior, but all the plastic is 100% intact
blue-ext.jpg
blue-ext.jpg [ 253.63 KiB | Viewed 1841 times ]

Attachment:
File comment: I've never seen a machine with this much dust in it
blue-int-dirty.jpg
blue-int-dirty.jpg [ 435.05 KiB | Viewed 1838 times ]


It was advertised as having "NO HD," but it turns out the drive cage and crossbar to which it was screwed were all pulled out. I need to find a set of 5.25" to 3.25" adapter rails to actually mount a disk which is kind of a bummer since it's unlikely I'll ever be able to find a replacement cage+bar without having to buy a whole new machine. Oh well.

After some cleaning up:
Attachment:
File comment: It cleaned up nicely. Didn't do a complete rebuild, but came close to it.
blue-int-clean.jpg
blue-int-clean.jpg [ 436.38 KiB | Viewed 1838 times ]


Code:
glock@blue:~$ lsdev -C
L2cache0   Available              L2 Cache
aio0       Defined                Asynchronous I/O (Legacy)
cd0        Available 10-80-00-3,0 SCSI Multimedia CD-ROM Drive
en0        Available 10-60        Standard Ethernet Network Interface
ent0       Available 10-60        IBM 10/100 Mbps Ethernet PCI Adapter (23100020)
et0        Defined   10-60        IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Network Interface
fd0        Available 01-D1-00-00  Diskette Drive
fda0       Available 01-D1        Standard I/O Diskette Adapter
gxme0      Available              Graphics Data Transfer Assist Subsystem
hd1        Defined                Logical volume
hd2        Defined                Logical volume
hd3        Defined                Logical volume
hd4        Defined                Logical volume
hd5        Defined                Logical volume
hd6        Defined                Logical volume
hd8        Defined                Logical volume
hd10opt    Defined                Logical volume
hd9var     Defined                Logical volume
hdisk0     Available 10-80-00-0,0 Other SCSI Disk Drive
inet0      Available              Internet Network Extension
isa0       Available 10-58        ISA Bus
iscsi0     Available              iSCSI Protocol Device
kbd0       Available 01-K1-00-00  PS/2 keyboard
lft0       Available              Low Function Terminal Subsystem
lo0        Available              Loopback Network Interface
lvdd       Available              LVM Device Driver
mem0       Available              Memory
mir0       Available 10-b0        GXT2000P Graphics Adapter
mouse0     Available 01-K1-01-00  3 button mouse
paud0      Available 01-Q2        Ultimedia Integrated Audio
pci0       Available              PCI Bus
pci1       Defined   10-b8        PCI Bus
posix_aio0 Defined                Posix Asynchronous I/O
ppa0       Available 01-R1        CHRP IEEE1284 (ECP) Parallel Port Adapter
proc0      Available 00-00        Processor
pty0       Available              Asynchronous Pseudo-Terminal
rcm0       Available              Rendering Context Manager Subsystem
rootvg     Defined                Volume group
sa0        Available 01-S1        Standard I/O Serial Port
sa1        Available 01-S2        Standard I/O Serial Port
scsi0      Available 10-80        Wide/Fast-20 SCSI I/O Controller
sioka0     Available 01-K1-00     Keyboard Adapter
siokma0    Available 01-K1        Keyboard/Mouse Adapter
sioma0     Available 01-K1-01     Mouse Adapter
siota0     Available 01-Q1        Tablet Adapter
sys0       Available              System Object
sysplanar0 Available              System Planar


It's running AIX 5L 5.3, 375MHz PowerPC 604e, 2x256MB PC100, and GXT2000P framebuffer. I probably overpaid, but I can't really afford the $275+ price tag on every other AIX box out there.

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duck
Unread postPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:48 am 
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Nice cleanup job there, might I ask what method(s) you used to clean it?

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gkl
Unread postPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 4:15 am 
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My secret weapon on the internals is Cyber Clean. It's a green goop that you slap on PCBs, fans, etc and pull it up, and it peels all the dust off with it. I get it in Canada and I think it's available in the U.S., but I don't know if something similar exists in Europe. It's meant for electronics and it leaves no residues, so it's great.

The externals are just a standard treatment of damp paper towel + Goo Gone where necessary.


Attachments:
File comment: outside cleans up nice too
blue-ext-clean.jpg
blue-ext-clean.jpg [ 226.79 KiB | Viewed 1816 times ]

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duck
Unread postPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 6:52 am 
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Oho, I'm going to have to check in to Cyber Clean then, thanks! :-)

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Pontus
Unread postPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 12:55 pm 
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I think you can find it at "teknikmagasinet" in sweden.

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tingo
Unread postPosted: Tue May 31, 2011 10:25 am 
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Pontus wrote:
I think you can find it at "teknikmagasinet" in sweden.

And Teknikmagasinet in Norway has Cyber Clean as well. Perfect - thanks!

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