3/50 memory vs 3/60 board swap

[Bruce Samuelson]

My dept. would like to upgrade our 3/50s either by adding memory or
swapping in 3/60 motherboards.  The pros and cons I see are as follows:

	ADD MEMORY TO 3/50		REPLACE 3/50 BOARD WITH 3/60 BOARD

Pros	lower price: my best		about 60% better cpu performance
	quotes to date for educa-	on benchmarks I'm interested in
	tional prices are $820 for
	a 4MB upgrade from Solflower	3/60 board has better memory than
	(for a total of 8MB) and $1375	3/50 board: 1 megabit vs 256K bit
	for an 8MB upgrade using Helios	DRAMS; less heat dissipation;
	memory from Digital Electronic	SIMM packaging; expansion to 24
	Systems (for a total of 12MB)	megabytes on 3/60 motherboard


Cons	3/50 power supply and heat	higher price: In Sunspots 7.123, it
	ventilation system were not	was announced that Sun was offering
	designed for this; a sys adm	a 4MB 3/60 upgrade for $4950 (for a
	told me that early model 3/50	total of 4MB), an 8MB upgrade for
	power supplies can support	$6650 (for a total of 8MB) and a
	a 4MB upgrade but not an 8MB	12MB upgrade for $10,050 (for a
	upgrade; Sunspots 8.181 reports	total of 12MB).  However, these are
	a 4MB upgrade causing failures	list prices, and memory prices have
	due to overheating		fallen dramatically since then
					(25 Jan 89).

					Sun's upgrade was only available
					for 3/50 flat tops, not dimple tops


I would like to take a survey of those who have upgraded their 3/50s.
Please fill out the form below and mail it directly to me.  I'll summarize
to Sunspots.

------------ Cut Here ------------

1.  ADD MEMORY TO 3/50
1a. Number of machines you upgraded?
1b. Were they flat tops (monitor rests on top of flat surface of base unit)
    or dimple tops (monitor attached to concave depression in base unit)?
1c. Did you add 4MB or 8MB?
1d. Vendor?
1e. Phone number?
1f. Date (because memory prices are falling)?
1g. Price?
1h. Problems with overheating, power supply, increased failure rate?
    Please give details:
1i. Recommendations:


2.  REPLACE 3/50 BOARD WITH 3/60 BOARD
2a. Number of machines you upgraded?
2b. Were they flat tops (monitor rests on top of flat surface of base unit)
    or dimple tops (monitor attached to concave depression in base unit)?
2c. How much memory came on the 3/60 board?
2d. Vendor?
2e. Phone number?
2f. Date (because memory prices are falling)?
2g. Price?
2h. Did you add more memory from a 3rd party?
2i. How much?
2j. Vendor?
2k. Phone number?
2l. Date (because memory prices are falling)?
2m. Price?
2n. Any hardware or software incompatibilities going from 3/50 to 3/60?
    Please give details:
2o. Did you switch the ID PROM from your 3/50 to your 3/60?
2p. Recommendations:

------------ Cut Here ------------

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*  Bruce Samuelson, University of Texas, Arlington                     *
*  ...uunet!texbell!utafll!bruce   or   ...texsun!utacfd!utafll!bruce  *
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