So it's fair to say that this workstation includes just about every top-end component you could expect.

The Ultra 40 came pre-loaded with Solaris 10 and all the associated bells and whistles such as Java Studio Creator, Studio Enterprise, Studio 10, NetBeans, and Sun N1 Grid Engine if you wanted to let the box play nice with others. My workstation OS tastes don't really match well with Solaris, so the first order of business was to install a few different OSes. A Fedora Core 4 installation failed within seconds, locking the box up tight, but CentOS 4.2, RedHat WS 3 (U6) And WS 4 (U2) worked fine, as did Windows XP x64.

After spending a few days with the Ultra 40, I can tell you that it's simply the fastest workstation system I've even laid a hand on. Sun touts their perf records, such as SPECfp2000 world record, Pro/E OCUS XP world record, and more. I find absolutely no reason to doubt them. This is one seriously powerful system. Not only did it excel in raw horsepower for somewhat mundane tasks like compilations and GL tests, but as a LAN party system, it simply blew all other competitors out of the water in several high-intensity games.

Almost all components are built onto the board in the Ultra 40, from the sound to the NIC, which leaves the PCI-Express slots nearly barren, so there's definitely room for expansion. Up to four SATA drives can be housed within the case, which equals 2TB of raw storage with 500GB drives, and the 16GB RAM limit (which may be 32GB in the very near future) provides plenty of headroom there. Combined with the built-in 7.1 audio and S/PDIF inputs and outputs, and you have an instant heavy-duty A/V workhorse. My only issue here is the lack of an addition 5.25" external drive bay, which limits you to the single internal DVD-RW.

The major quibble I have with the Ultra 40 is the use of the nVidia SATA RAID chipset. Though I'm no fan of the LSI controllers found in many Sun servers, the nVidia chipset doesn't even have Solaris RAID drivers. In fact, the only OS that does is Windows. Why Sun would put this controller on their flagship workstation when it's not supported on three out of four platforms is beyond me. In fact, I don't quite understand why nVidia has such stellar Linux video driver support but nothing for this product. It just doesn't compute.

Otherwise, this is the workstation that others will covet, except maybe those with brand-spanking new quad G5s. Unfortunately, I don't have a quad G5 to run against the Ultra 40, but if Apple wants to send one my way, I'd be willing to give it a shot. Until then, I find that I'm quite happy in my new home, and don't plan to move any time soon.

Posted by Paul Venezia on March 12, 2006 08:29 PM