Beginner's questions on getting a home Sun

[Michael A. Justice]

[Please -- reply by mail;  I'm going to be away for a few days, and Chinet
only keeps articles around for two days.  I can be mailed at either
justice at chinet.chi.il.us   or at   ccmj at buita.bu.edu   Thanks!  --
Michael.]

If y'all can humor a bunch of "dumb beginner's questions". . . .

I'd like to get a Sun SLC for home use;  can anyone who's bought a Sun for
the home tell me what I'm getting into? :-)

The hardware I have in mind is:

	SLC
	Hard drive(s)
	Tape backup (150Mb)
	Modem (Trailblazer)
	Universal power supply (may well be necessary)
	Some sort of floppy or cartridge-hard drive (eventually....)

For software, X11R4 and maybe Sunview are about all I have in mind at the
moment.

Questions:

Sun's prices on peripherals (drives/tapes) sound extremely expensive.  Are
they just profiteering, like IBM does, or are their units of exceptional
quality?  Do they have particularly good warranties?

How much disk space will I need?  Are two small drives better than one big
one?  (I'd like to keep large chunks of X11R4 around, and I'd need enough
space to set it out and compile it to begin with.)

Any tips on removable-media hard drives?  Can they be mounted/unmounted
without shutting down the SLC?

What are average and good prices on cartridge tape drives?  Can the 150Mb
drives read 60Mb tapes?  (An optional feature?)

The power at my apartment fluctuates like you wouldn't believe, and I've
seen notes in the Chicago-area newsgroup that claim ComEd (the power co)
runs the line voltage high (142 volts).  A UPS which isolates the SLC from
the utility line is just about mandatory, I figure.  (Not the sort that
kicks in in 1/10000 of a millisecond, rather the sort which continually
charges a set of batteries on one side, and drains them on the other.)
Which ones are good, and how much can I expect to pay?  How well do these
isolate the computer from the utility?

			Thanks in advance,

			-- Michael.