In <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:

> > Why not look at 925, 935, 948's?
> > These boxes are almost free in the used market.
> > You don't need blazing speed for development work.
> > The money saved can be applied (over several years) to
> > support.
>
> How much is almost free?

As mentioned, someone was offering a 925 free to  a good home recently.
I've bought an entire 925 system from a broker as a crash-and-burn system
for about $2000. Memory, discs, dat, and console; plugged it in and booted
it up. HP was also selling (very UNDERCONFIGURED) remarketed 917LXs as late
as last year (may still be doing it?) for about $7200 (40Mb memory, 1.3gb
disc, 1.3gb dat). Brokers often have them somewhat cheaper - and note that
if you're thinking about buying a 40Mb 3000 - don't. Pay a couple hundred
extra $$s for some more memory. 4.0 will groan along on 40Mb, any OS later
than that will grind to a stop.

Quite a change from when we bought our first 3000 back in 87(?)... a 3000/37
that cost about $10k. 4 whopping Mbs of memory in that puppy. (It *still*
runs today, though we don't use it for much - our office lease includes the
power bill, so we just leave it runnin for fun. ;-) )

Even hardware support for the newer boxes (917+) isn't too bad, though I
agree with others that you don't really need it for a development system.
They don't break too often, and when they do, spare parts usually end up
being cheaper than a contract would have been.

Software support and software costs are the big problems. $500 per month
for response center support for a 917-type system blows away anything you
saved being thrifty on hardware. At $3k-$6k for each compiler you rack up
quite a bill just to be able to write software (and [much better] pc compilers
sometimes break the bank at just over $100?).

        -Chris Bartram