From: CRPence
Maybe somebody has an actual experience they will share, about their
use of such a system only for development. Maybe the lease too.
I've been doing this for some time, Chuck. I actually started with a used
model 150, which was BARELY sufficient for one user. It was especially
horrible with WebSphere; restarting WAS could take 30 minutes.
When I upgraded to a model 170, I was happy, and the model 270 was even
better. In fact, I am buying the model 270 I've been leasing for several
years.
I am also leasing a model 520, which will be upgraded to a model 515 later
this year. Despite the 2% vs 1% lease price, the 515 looks to be a better
price/performance machine AND I will get later hardware (including my first
move to a non-twinax console, whoo hoo!).
In my experience, 1GB of memory and 35GB of disk (which was pretty much
standard on both machines) is too little, especially if you plan on doing
any Java work, and even moreso if you want to do WebSphere. WebSphere runs
much better if it has memory in a separate pool from the rest of the system,
and I usually like to give it at least 512MB. And 35GB of disk tends to
fill up quickly, especially if you do client projects.
With a model 515 it's hard to get less than 70GB. The base machines ($10K)
come with two mirrored 70GB drives. If you want more arms, you can go to
four 70GB drives and a RAID controller for another $2500, and it costs you
$550 for another GB of RAM.
So for $210 a month you get a 2GB/70GB machine with two mirrored arms, add
another $50/month and you get four arms and either 140GB (mirrored) or 210GB
(RAID) storage. I think you can get an express edition 520 for about $145 a
month, but that's the 600CPW version (as opposed to the 3800CPW rating for
the 515).
You makes your choices and pays your money <grin>.
Joe
midrange.com
