mustish1
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Cost of AS/400 Server
Hi guys: How much to cost to buy as400 machine on which I can do all my programs at home (RPG, ILE, JAVA ETC) and not very expensive.
Thanks
Thanks
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@mustish1 - You are very welcome and I was happy to help. Good luck in your search.
For $500 you can only get a very old, out-of date system. Additionally, shipping these large, heavy systems can cost several hundred dollars, too - more if you have to ship internationally.
Systems in this price range are often sold without disk drives, which will create all sorts of challenges for you - you'll need to acquire compatible disk drives, you may need to acquire operating system installation media, then you have to install and configure the system from scratch. You'll only be able to run older versions of the operating system, and if you have a problem, you are on your own - you'll have to diagnose it and solve it yourself - you won't be able to get IBM support on these old systems.
Systems in this price range are often sold without disk drives, which will create all sorts of challenges for you - you'll need to acquire compatible disk drives, you may need to acquire operating system installation media, then you have to install and configure the system from scratch. You'll only be able to run older versions of the operating system, and if you have a problem, you are on your own - you'll have to diagnose it and solve it yourself - you won't be able to get IBM support on these old systems.
It's both cheaper and more expensive nowadays. Back a few years ago (after V5R3?), IBM changed their licensing terms for transfers. Someone such as Gary probably stays up on details. If you buy an older system with V5R3 or earlier, you can get one with compilers, etc., without much concern. But it'll be an older system with older OS and other system software. Much has changed since that time. It'll definitely be cheap, as far down as 'hundreds' of dollars.
If you buy a system with currently supported versions, you have to buy at least at i 6.1 (and maybe it's 7.1 now). That means newer hardware to go along with newer software. Although the retail costs of the newer systems has dropped dramatically compared to costs in earlier years, the used prices are naturally much higher than for systems that ran V5R3. Not only is the hardware physically newer, it's also more capable and, of course, more desirable for the market. That drives your cost up by maybe an order of magnitude at least.
It's usually possible to find equipment from individuals, and sometimes businesses, "outside the market" if you look hard enough long enough. That can bring costs way down, in some cases to the point of carry-it-away. But it's outside of and often in violation of license agreements with IBM. You're effectively on your own in such cases, though internet newsgroups and forums can give quite a bit of technical/diagnostic help.
It's possible that an on-line account is really all that you need. Gary's suggestion above is a good one. It has both public access to V5R3 and paid access for newer systems that can be inexpensive.
Tom
If you buy a system with currently supported versions, you have to buy at least at i 6.1 (and maybe it's 7.1 now). That means newer hardware to go along with newer software. Although the retail costs of the newer systems has dropped dramatically compared to costs in earlier years, the used prices are naturally much higher than for systems that ran V5R3. Not only is the hardware physically newer, it's also more capable and, of course, more desirable for the market. That drives your cost up by maybe an order of magnitude at least.
It's usually possible to find equipment from individuals, and sometimes businesses, "outside the market" if you look hard enough long enough. That can bring costs way down, in some cases to the point of carry-it-away. But it's outside of and often in violation of license agreements with IBM. You're effectively on your own in such cases, though internet newsgroups and forums can give quite a bit of technical/diagnostic help.
It's possible that an on-line account is really all that you need. Gary's suggestion above is a good one. It has both public access to V5R3 and paid access for newer systems that can be inexpensive.
Tom
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