Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 13:26:50 -0500 (CDT) From: Joe Greco <jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com> To: ulf@lamb.net (Ulf Zimmermann) Cc: dennis@etinc.com, freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Question about Cisco 2503i price Message-ID: <199608011826.NAA26170@brasil.moneng.mei.com> In-Reply-To: <199608011747.KAA29232@Gatekeeper.Lamb.net> from "Ulf Zimmermann" at Aug 1, 96 10:47:06 am
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> Ok, one more add from me. I calculated a 486 PC, maybe not the cheapest > but modern. It's the cheapest you can buy new.. :-) However some of your prices are perhaps out of line. Seeing as how I was just doing hardware cost calculations the other day I have some fresh good numbers.. > 486DX4-100 AMD $45 DX5/133, that price. ADZ. No fan or heatsink req'd, even. > Motherboard with IDE and I/O $100 > 8 MB Simm $55 Yep. > ATI PCI VGA $80 No way Jose! Cheapie ISA VGA, $28. > 3.5" Floppy $30 > 500 MB HD $150 Thereabouts. > Case+powersupply $75 (man, these are expensive compared to .de) What!? My _nice_ Enlight cases cost $65. I can get tin cans for $35. > keyboard $18 You don't need a dedicated keyboard. > Cogent PCI ethermet $80 Kingston PCI Ethernet $55 > ETinc 2 port serial $1095 There are cheaper options, particularly if you only need a single T1-capable sync serial. That's an advantage over the Cisco. > Complete price = $1728 I count $1593. I count $1093 if you just need a sync ISDN-capable port. > Cisco 2501 with IP feature set would cost me $1756 > > not much of a difference. Pricewise? You can argue it either way :-) Featurewise? Probably VERY similar, with gated and all.. Performancewise? I suspect the FreeBSD box is set to kick some butt. Expandability? I know I can get 100baseT on the PC for cheap. Or multi Ethernets. Out of the box usability? I suspect it may be a tossup once you dig through the Cisco manuals. You probably have to do less _physically_ to the Cisco - i.e. you don't have to assemble it (although I suspect Dennis provides pre-built FreeBSD routers). Serviceability? I can get PC parts locally. On weekends. At midnight, if need be. Support? FreeBSD has mailing lists. No guaranteed responses. Cisco has full time engineers that will come out on site if needed. Cisco is compact. FreeBSD has source. Cisco has "no" moving parts. (I'll grant that FreeBSD could be stuffed on a PCMCIA flash card). FreeBSD can crash. Oh, wait, I've seen a Cisco do that too. Umm It looks to me like it's the choice between a van and a pickup. Both are good for doing the moving. Each has specific advantages and disadvantages. I'm not arguing for or against either side, although I happen to think that FreeBSD has more advantages (at least that I can think of). ... Joe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Greco - Systems Administrator jgreco@ns.sol.net Solaria Public Access UNIX - Milwaukee, WI 414/546-7968
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