Re: Ultra 80 a good test system for multithreaded software development ?

llothar wrote:
Thanks for the reply.

You are welcome.

Is it possible to replace the SUN fan's with some silent fan's.

I don't think there is such a thing as a silent fan!

I suspect it is if the machine is not well packed, you might be able to reduce airflow and noise. But if like mine it is full (quad processors, 4 GB ram, all PCI slots full, tape drive, floppy, two disks ... etc) then I suspect you need a fair bit of airflow.

Whilst i don't say it is always the case, a lot of low noise fans achieve this by reducing the airflow. My understanding on large fans at least, the noise is due mainly to airflow and not bearings. So unless you reduce the airflow, you can't reduce the noise.

I did
this in the U10 and it makes some difference.

I think they generate a lot less heat than a Ultra 80 that is well packed.

I also replaced the ATX
power supply unit in the U10 with a fanless - but i doubt that this is
possible with an U80 or any other SUN Server. Correct ?

The Ultra 80 does not take an ATX power supply. Some modern servers might do (I have no idea). I suspect machines designed for servers will *generally* produce more noise than a workstation. Data on noise is available from Sun in the spec sheets.

Noise and Power Consumption might be a problem for me.

It is something to bear in mind for a home machine.

But overall I think the Ultra 80 is a very nice machine and if you want to do testing on multi-processor boxes, there is not a lot of choice in cheap systems. SPARC 20 and similar are old and I am not aware of any cheap quad processor box from Sun. Things like the Blade 1000 and 2000 are I think both dual multi-processor. But I don't know much about the modern machines.

There are other non-Sun multi-processor boxes around. I have a few (SGI Octane R10000 dual processor, IBM RS/6000 7025 F50 quad processor) but both of them are pretty power hungry. The IBM RS/6000, despite being a real server (it can take 18 disks internally), does not seem that noisy, but that said, I have only run it in my garage, not in the house, so perhaps it is just the different location.

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Dave K Ph.D, MCSE (Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert).

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