<<I don't think the situation is the same for both machines. The real
test comes when the UPS and the CPU batteries fail. Yes you can build a
better mouse trap, but the 3k has the mouse trap built in so that 10
years from now, when the CPU battery barely holds 5 minutes worth of
juice, it will still save your data and will not require you to bring
back files from backups.

NT requires a UPS for this kind of power fail recovery. If that UPS ever
looses one of the batteries (and it will) the real test begins.>>


I'm not sure they're really all that different any more. For one thing,
current boxes no longer have a "CPU battery", or any kind of reliable
internal power source under the control of and in close communication
with the processor. Also, with external disk drives powered independently
from the main processor, the old "sector atomicity" feature becomes
inoperable, and actual disk-data corruption due to power loss becomes
much more of a concern.

Sure, HP sells the PowerTrust UPS that talks to the CPU, but it is an
optional add-on, and not all systems use one (our 959KS/200 doesn't). So,
if you have an external UPS (an APC MatrixUPS 5000 in our case), no
PowerTrust in the picture (since serial UPSs are "bad", whatever that
means), and external disk assemblies, I think you're in a very similar
situation to the NT (or Unix, or whatever) box.

On a related subject, does anyone know how to make the HP talk to a
"standard" UPS? Our Matrix powers several things besides the 959, and has
lots of nice features (scheduled shutdown/startup, remote monitoring via
the network or the 'Web, and we will soon add environmental monitoring
and reporting), but it currently can't tell the 959 to shut itself down.

Steve