[Info-vax] Anyone could share the used to be free and available Charon AXP NCE ( also called PersonalAlpha) Alpha Emulator? or any other which works OK

[Hans Vlems]

If you opt for real hardware then an EV6 class machine would be a good choice for several reasons. Examples: XP1000 workstation, DS10. I also have a DS15 and a DS20E but they are more noisy and power hungry. The XP1000 and DS10 support internal storage and sufficient memory to run VMS on.
I like my AlphaServer 1200 and 800 systems (both EV56) but they are large, noisy and even switched off have an expensive electricity bill. No support for gigabit ethernet cards nor USB cards either. Not sure whether they are actually supported on an EV6 system (I'm a hobbyist ...) but they do work. IIRC the DS10 and the XP1000 support the same amount of memory (2 GB) and both accept IDE and SCSI disks (68 pin SE/LVD). 
Both systems are difficult to work on, cabling and components are a tight fit inside (compared to an AS1200). The DS10 is used more than the XP1000, it is my repository for layered products and serves LD disks like an infoserver. 

FreeAXP was suggested but I cannot reliably run it on a Windows 8.1 system. It requires a fresh installation for each time I want to use it. May be an old bug may have been solved by now, I prefer real machines anyway :-)
It's a hobby, may cost money and no real work expected out of it...

Hans