Yet another reason why I suggested a SPARCstation 2 or 5; of all of the machines from that time period those are ones that will at least be reasonable with power consumption.

-Henry

On Tue, 10 Jun 2025 at 23:20, Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
> Can I suggest you start with OpenSIMH - https://OpenSimH.org and try running any a simulated system.   It's a lot cheaper and while quite the same has having the the actual hardware, a lot easier to manage and most everything you could do from the old days can be done on you personal computer.   If you want BlinkenLights, get one on of Occar's wonderful PiDP11 kits - https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11  (which run OpenSIMH behind his lights and switches). Again a lot small and will meet you budget constraints.

Another side of that is power consumption. The older machines will
absolutely drink energy; OpenSIMH on a modern SBC is so much more
efficient in that regard.

        - Dan C.

> On Mon, Jun 9, 2025 at 2:08 PM Vicente Collares via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Milo,
>>
>> On Mon, 9 Jun 2025 13:38:54 -0400
>> Milo Velimirović <milovelimirovic@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > What’s your budget and what’s your level of hardware technical skill? If budget is no concern, there are occasional complete pdp11 or vaxen on eBay. Or, you could get CPU cards and interfaces to piece together a system. If you go that route a Unibone or Qbone is highly recommended for both debugging and filling in hardwar gaps via emulation. Alternatively, there are several FPGA projects to emulate -11s.
>>
>> Buying a complete PDP-11 or VAX is the dream, but it's not what I'm
>> aiming for to start. I was thinking of something like a UNIX
>> workstation. I haven't thought about the possibility of piecing together
>> a system using various cards. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll have to
>> look into it.
>>
>> Budget is a concern for me. So ideally I would like to spend around $500
>> USD on the actual computer. Is that realistic for the type of computer I
>> mentioned above?
>>
>> I'm not hardware savvy, so I would have a limited ability to do repairs
>> on the electronics. I do know someone who is though, so I might be able
>> to get some help on this project.
>>
>> I wish you an excellent week,
>>
>> Vicente
>> vicente@collares.ca