What should I buy with a r6000?

[PARSONS, CHARLES]

  If there is a FAQ list on these topics could someone send it to me?

  I have to make a quick decision on a R6000 configuration to buy and
I'm looking for some advice on what to buy/not buy. Here are a few,
I went through the last 100 letters (all that are still on our newsserver)
and found info on some of them. I know alot about VMS but not much
about unix, so unix pointers on formating disks etc are also appreciated.

  The system should be a 320 with 8plane color graphics. It will be used
heavily by 2-3 users for scientific computing.

  1. 3rd party memory?? IBM wants >$4000 to go from 8-16 meg.

  2. 3rd party disk drives? I will probably get a internal IBM 320meg
    drive and a 3rd party 1.2 gigabyte, either fujitsu or seagate. Any info
    on formating, disktab entries, etc?

  3. I can't afford the 24bit color, but should I get the 8bit '3D' board,
    or stick with the low end color board?

  4. Software. Anything in particular to get/not get? For instance the
    CD hypertext info disk?

  5. Does the field upgrade from 8bit color to 24 bit color take more
    than just memory, i.e. can I do it myself for less than $13k?

  6. Any problem with just 4 slots? I need ethernet, an external scsi
     controller and graphics. It would be nice to have 1 slot free. does
     24 bit color take 2 slots?

  7. How is the IBM 19" monitor?

  8. Any ftp sites out there dedicated particularly to r6000?


  Many thanks for any info you can  share.

				Chuck at mitlns.mit.edu