[Info-vax] Prices of Microvax 3100's

[abrsvc]

On Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:58:27 PM UTC-4, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> In article
> <ff46b4ee-225b-4ae5-90cc-40bf2a1212c7 at l3g2000vbv.googlegroups.com>, AEF
> <spamsink2001 at yahoo.com> writes: 
> 
> > Went to ebay to check this out. Entered "Microvax 3100" and got some
> > interesting results. A model 90 w/ 64MB for $3183. Is this for real?
> > There's a 3100/98 system going for $3950. I see other variations
> > ranging from $49 (1 bid) to $3175. Are these things really worth this
> > much?
> 
> It is worth whatever one pays for it.  A hundred-year-old painting which 
> I think is done well but doesn't require that much skill just sold for 
> more than 100 million.
> 
> I bought one new VMS machine, a new 255/233 for about £4000.  (At the
> time, ALPHA was so knew that there were few used machines and if so
> would have cost too much; I loved the VAX but needed ALPHA for
> Fortran90, so I had no choice.)  I have occasionally paid a more or less
> token fee or traded in something (worth, to me, much less, but to the
> other side the situation was reversed), but most of the stuff I have
> been able to get for free. Roughly, a typical workstation which is 5
> years old can be had for a few hundred dollars, say, while stuff which
> is 8 years old or more can be had for free.  The system above is
> probably one of the later models, mid-90s I'm guessing, costing new
> maybe $20,000.  I would say for at least 10 years now it has been
> possible to get stuff like this for free. 
> 
> Of course, particularly rare things might go for more because they are 
> rare, especially if someone needs specific hardware.  Also, stuff with 
> warranty is worth more, but I don't see the point if one can have enough 
> spare parts, also for free, to last for decades.
> 
> These days, one can get a DS10, XP1000 etc with a couple of GB RAM for 
> free.

If you know where I can acquire a DS10 for free, can you pass that info along?  I need to do some cluster work and only have 1 at the moment.

Thanks,
Dan