How good/reliable are the new SUN 330 fileserver ?

[ginosko!cg-atla!weber at cs.utexas.edu]

In article <1879 at brazos.Rice.edu> you write:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 149, message 5 of 10
>
>Does anyone out in netland has/use a SUN 330 fileserver ? How good are
>they?  Are they reliable ? Should we be looking at a SUN 4/280 instead ? 
>
>The configuration we are looking at currently is :
>
>      SUN 4/280 or 4/330
>       at least 16 Meg of memory
>       1 Gigabyte of disk, expandable to at least 5 gigbyte
>       timesharing for 16 users via terminal server.
>
>Please email your replies and I will summarizes them. Thanks

	I think you better read your Sun catalog a little closer....

	The 4/280
		* 12 slot card cage
		   (8 after CPU/Memory/SCSI/SMD boards are installed)
		* 19in Rack
		* 72in High
		* Requires 230VAC for more than 2 SMD drives
		* Max 4 SMD Drives
		* 10MIPS
		* ECC Memory
		* Max memory is 32MB

	The 4/330:
		* 5 slot
                   (3 after CPU board is installed)
		* Deskside workstation
		* 115/240VAC
		* Four 327MB(f) (from Sun)
		* 16 MIPS
		* 8MB on CPU board
		* Expansion memory on Sun built memory board
		* Max memory is >32MB

For a fileserver you want the fastest disks, controller and VME bus you
can get.  The CPU speed is an even smaller piece of the picture in a
fileserver than it is in a normal workstation.

These machines aren't close to being similiar.  To compare them is like
comparing a 2 seat sportscar to a heavy duty stationwagon.  Reliable?  I
would say that the 330 is no more/no less than any other Sun system.  The
software breaks much more often than the hardware does (given that its
properly installed and maintained).

					Jeff Weber