Typical Shipment from Sun?
Going back to work on Tuesday, after being very sick, I was greeted by a large shipment. I was expecting a 1U SunFire X2100, but not a delivery on a wooden skid!

This machine was terribly over-packaged. The large white box on the top that could easily fit three of my laptops had but one laptop-style CD drive in it. The slightly smaller box on top of it had a single power cord. Every additional component came with a disposable static strap.

Additionally, the package was covered in YOW, and further browsing of the papers shows that it was air-shipped from Markham. Bizarre for such a short distance. I wonder if it would have been air-shipped to Toronto?

The real surprise came when I first pressed the power button. I immediately jumped back as the loudest sound I've ever heard from a computer came from this one. It would put a typical shop vacuum to shame. It was many times louder than my favourite "Tyan Sever." It eventually eased the fans back a little, and a setting in the BIOS setup allowed for them to be quieted further. But at every reboot it still blasts those fans like there's no tomorrow.

Nonetheless, the machine is well-built. The chassis design is good. The SATA drive trays are very nice, as the drives plug directly into the chassis rather than through an intermediate tray connector. There is no crazy purple sculpture on the front. It is a nice 1U unit.

If this is the future of Sun, cheaper and more utilitarian-looking, I'm all for it.