NeXT
Veteran Member
I'm being egged on to buy what looks to be a Nova 4 and another mysterious chassis and a disk drive in a rack on ebay. I guess why the heck not since PDP-8 machines are no longer affordable.
The two declined offers were in 2012, so it's been there for a long time.
I asked for more info about it and all I could get was that there was a pack in the drive and the front panel(s) were included, just not pictured. No additional info regarding documentation or anything. :|
Going to be honest here. I'm a DEC person. Spent the last 15 years being told they were the only common name in minicomputers and everyone else was pretty uncommon. At $650 though for a CPU and disk drive it's already more than half what any similar PDP-8 would cost but still, is this auction for two computers for one? It's hard to tell what that second chassis is without the front panels. I can find next to no information or detailed photos of the Nova 4 (or a nova 3 without the front panel installed, just in case that what it is) so as far as I can say it's an expansion chassis. Also, the only details I could find for the disk drive was that its fragile. Nothing regarding the rarity of packs or parts.
Is it even worth it at all? I mean, it's been sitting at $650 for two years and nobody has pulled the trigger. The only catch I could find was that it was local pickup only (and if there is anyone in Minnesota who would like to help save it if necessary, please chime in
). If I decided to bite not only would I need to find a local person to get it but said person would have to pull it out of the rack, strap it to a skid and freight it north (a place where I'm told Novas are (were?) common as dirt but I've never seen one).
The two declined offers were in 2012, so it's been there for a long time.
I asked for more info about it and all I could get was that there was a pack in the drive and the front panel(s) were included, just not pictured. No additional info regarding documentation or anything. :|
Going to be honest here. I'm a DEC person. Spent the last 15 years being told they were the only common name in minicomputers and everyone else was pretty uncommon. At $650 though for a CPU and disk drive it's already more than half what any similar PDP-8 would cost but still, is this auction for two computers for one? It's hard to tell what that second chassis is without the front panels. I can find next to no information or detailed photos of the Nova 4 (or a nova 3 without the front panel installed, just in case that what it is) so as far as I can say it's an expansion chassis. Also, the only details I could find for the disk drive was that its fragile. Nothing regarding the rarity of packs or parts.
Is it even worth it at all? I mean, it's been sitting at $650 for two years and nobody has pulled the trigger. The only catch I could find was that it was local pickup only (and if there is anyone in Minnesota who would like to help save it if necessary, please chime in
). If I decided to bite not only would I need to find a local person to get it but said person would have to pull it out of the rack, strap it to a skid and freight it north (a place where I'm told Novas are (were?) common as dirt but I've never seen one).