Workstation resellers?

[Kira Denise Tree]

Could anyone point me to what they would consider a reputable dealer
in used workstations?

My company (non-profit) has agreed to purchase a workstation for use as an
Xterminal to our rs6000 - which has X11R6 compiled (by me) on it. It will
also be used as a stand-alone workstation. My choices are between a used
workstation and a new Linux box, both of which I am considering; budget
is about $2k.

I have seen used Sun 4/370's and such... with 19" color displays for very
reasonable prices and that is one reason why I am gravitating toward a used
Sun or DEC. A 19" color display for a Linux box itself would cost at least
$1500 and a killer display is one of the prerequisites for the machine. I am
not *too* familiar with the performance of the older machines though - I
have used recent SGIs (woo woo!), rs6000s, and older DECs (5000-200) as well
as 486 and pentium based Linux boxes with great displays and fast S3
based graphics.

Any advice, of any type, on buying a used workstation is greatly appreciated.

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Kira
sysadmin, DBA, developer, Janitor
Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems