Alpha AT motherboards?

Joe Barrera (joebar@MICROSOFT.com)
Wed, 28 May 1997 14:36:29 -0700

I've been trying to track down a cheap Alpha motherboard to build a
system around. (This is just for me, not the lab.) Now I'm used to $75
motherboards w/o processors, $35 for a cheap processor (AMD K5/75), $100
for a more up-to-date processor. (I have enough spare parts lying around
- graphics cards, SCSI adapters, etc - that there's usually little point
in buying more than just the motherboard.) I know an Alpha motherboard +
processor will cost more. But I've been really hard-pressed to find
places that sell Alpha motherboards at all - most want to sell complete
systems for several thousand dollars. The places that do sell
motherboards usually want at least $1000 for them, e.g.,
http://www.garply.com/mall/alpha/Motherboards.html . The absolute
cheapest place I've found is http://www.itsinfonet.com/APCI33-oi.htm ,
which offers e.g. a board with 21066/233 CPU, console ROM for Windows NT
(yes, that's what I want to run), and PS/2 keyboard connector for $545.

So I guess my questions are:
1. Is this the cheapest I'm likely to find?
2. Is this too cheap? In other words, is it likely that these guys
(ITS) will actually deliver me a working board and CPU for $545?

- Joe

Joseph S. Barrera III (joebar@microsoft.com)
http://research.microsoft.com/~joebar
Phone, Office: (415) 778-8227; Cellular: (415) 601-3719; Home: (415)
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