Created attachment 351948 [details] Proposal Proposal to fund the purchase of rails and RAM for an AlphaServer ES47 to replace our existing ES40.
I'd be interested in Infra's opinion on the hosting. I'm really not well-versed in Alpha hardware costs so I can't really speak to whether spending $700 on upgrades (mostly rails) vs trying to obtain something else makes more sense. I imagine prices are driven down by the fact that this stuff is fairly obsolete, and driven up by the fact that anybody who still needs one will probably pay anything to get one.
Proposal looks good. Lets see what Infra has to say on the matter.
(In reply to Richard Freeman from comment #1) > I imagine prices are driven down by the fact that this > stuff is fairly obsolete, and driven up by the fact that anybody who still > needs one will probably pay anything to get one. The latter has been outweighing the former for quite a while. While yet-older Alphas can be found (AlphaServer 1200 being a common one), they are _way_ too slow for a multi-user development machine. A DS15A, which is basically the workstation companion to the ES45 (note; _not_ the ES47, its successor) currently is on ebay for US$3500: http://www.ebay.de/itm/DS15A-Alpha-1-GHz-CPU-W-1GB-Memory-76Gb-HDD-graphic-card-/190574983280 Note that this is an older and much smaller machine than what Matt is offering, even if we didn't get the Memory/CPU upgrade.
In the interests of not having this item that depends on the item not getting sold out from under us done without waiting for the next meeting, can all Trustees go ahead and vote on this now, or indicate what further information is required to vote? My main concern is that we're basically spending money on Matt's personal property. That is really only an issue if Matt quits in a month or something - as long as Gentoo gets reasonable use out of the hardware for a year or two/etc I think we're getting our money's worth (especially considering the free hosting/etc). My vote is aye for allowing up to $800 in expenses for this proposal. Others, please vote or indicate what info is required. If additional info surfaces before we get up to a majority I reserve the right to change my vote. :)
My vote is aye for allowing up to $800 in expenses for this proposal.
I'm game, so aye. Now, here are my questions: Matt: 1) Will you need the Foundation to purchase this directly OR can you make the purchase and be quickly reimbursed? 2) What is the likelihood of this machine dying anytime soon and what will the cost be to resurrect it? 3) Will there be any ancillary cost associated with hosting? Thanks
(In reply to Matt Summers from comment #6) > I'm game, so aye. Three ayes constitute an approval. Obviously important to get your other questions answered, though this approval does not include anything beyond the ~$800 in expenses in the proposal. Honestly, as far as it breaking goes - unless these things are known to break I'm not sure what can be said. The fact is that things can break, or being his property he could fickle out, but I based my aye on the fact that Matt has been with us for a while now and doing good work - if it fizzled out in a year I'd say we've gotten decent value out of it, though I'm hoping we'll get more than that. Maybe look at this like a rental period where the duration is set by dice-roll. :)
(In reply to Matt Summers from comment #6) > I'm game, so aye. > > Now, here are my questions: > > Matt: > > 1) Will you need the Foundation to purchase this directly OR can you make > the purchase and be quickly reimbursed? I'll make the purchases and give receipts to the trustees for reimbursement. > 2) What is the likelihood of this machine dying anytime soon and what will > the cost be to resurrect it? I hope the likelihood is very low, but I cannot make any kind of accurate guesses. Anecdotally, I own a number of alphas much older than this system and none of them have died. > 3) Will there be any ancillary cost associated with hosting? I do not believe so. I'm going to spend today getting Gentoo installed on the ES47 to ensure everything is in working order before spending any money. Trustees: Thanks! This will help us a lot!
Created attachment 353110 [details] Proposal modification Rackmount kit will cost more than expected. Attached is a proposal modification to verify that the Trustees are okay with the additional cost.
Ok fine by me.
Works for me.
aye from me
Created attachment 353412 [details] Receipt for ES47 rackmount kit
Created attachment 353414 [details] Receipt for ES47 RAM and VRM
Closing, reimbursed.
