Sun

XVR-4000's.

Greetings to all.

I've got the chance to purchase a fairly loaded Sunfire v880z. I initially thought it was a fairly boring v880, until I walked around to the back and noted the presence of four 13w3 connects on the /left/ hand side of the chassis... Yeah, you guessed it, dual XVR-4000's. The system is coming from a medical lab, and although the drives have all been pulled, the caddies are included and they didn't touch the RAM or anything else in the system. I *think* it has quad 1.2ghz processors and something like 32GB or 64GB of RAM, I'm not sure- the unit was apparently powering a proprietary display system of some sort, and they didn't have any 13w3 monitors to boot into OBP to check it out when I was down there.

As much as I /want/ the system, I don't know what I'd /do/ with it. I already have a metric ####ton of Apple and IBM gear, including the three racks that make up my z800, still taking up a parking spot in my garage, yet to be unwrapped. Figuring that my office breakers are pretty much topped off right now, I don't think the Mrs. would appreciate an 880z sitting in the kitchen hooked up to the 20A circuits over there (figuring that's the only other place I can pull +20A/120VAC).

They're asking around $2200 for the box, but I might be able to badger them down to ~$1600.

ATM, I'm only really interested in the XVR-4000's, because I've never /seen/ one of these in person (owned a few XVR-1000's, nice cards- though I'm told the XVR-4000 will kick the shit out of those anyday). More then likely, I'd be tossing the whole box up on Ebay or piecing it out as soon as I get it back home.

So... What are these XVR-4000's worth these days? All I can find is that the original list price was just shy of $30K/piece. As I've implied, I've never seen these on Ebay before, nor am I sure if there are even people actively searching for them. I certainly don't want to buy the box and have to stick it in my garage with the IBM gear, since I've got enough unhooked-up stuff lying around already.

$1600 seems a little high for such an old(ish) system, but again, I have no idea what the framebuffers are worth.

-DN

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I've got butterfingers!
Can't be too much, any modern ${3,4}00 video card is a better purchase for todays large video work. However, that isn't to say you wont find a collector or something willing to pay big.

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Stuff.
While you probably *could* find a buyer willing to pay more than that, I highly doubt it would be worth your time (unless you got extremely lucky), especially if you're low on space. Old computers at high prices are always a tremendous gamble unless you've got a buyer or extremely solid leads and working relationships lined up already. XVR-4000s are *very* cool cards (read Michael Deering's SIGGRAPH papers on them if you're interested: http://www.michaelfrankdeering.com/Proj ... /Zulu.html ), but the only places such old hardware has true monetary value are places that won't be buying from some guy on eBay.

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:0300: <> :0300: :Indy: :1600SW: :1600SW:
Thanks for the replies.

That's sort of what I figured. I wasn't sure if they were still worth anything (given the power of modern day cards), I just knew they were rare, having never came across one before. As I recall the XVR-1000's used to sell for a pretty penny (back before PCI Express), though these days I've seen them go for $40/pop or lower. I wasn't sure if the 4K's were in the same boat, but it sounds like it.

-DN

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I've got butterfingers!