The client is called the Oracle Sun Ray 3 Plus and boasts the following features:

• Low power consumption (typically around 14W)
• 4 x USB 2 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet
• SFP (all Form Pluggable) fibre optic module for use with 1000 SX, 1000 LX, or 100 FX fibre optic connectors
• 2 x DVI connectors
• 2560 x 1600 resolution for a single display or 5120 x 1600 for two displays
• Smart card reader

One big jump from the older Sun Ray 2 hardware is the gigabit Ethernet, with it’s greater transfer speeds, this makes the four USB 2 ports possible.  Clients around the globe will be very happy with that.

The standard Sun Ray 2 supported a 1600 x 1200 resolution, even the Sun Ray 2FS client only supported 1920 x 1200 or 3840 x 1200 resolutions.  The Sun Ray 3 plus has a massively higher resolution with a single monitor supporting 2560 x 1600 or a dual monitor setup supporting 5120 x 1600 resolution thanks to the more powerful graphics card and the two DVI ports.

The fibre connectors are nothing new, they were present on the old Sun Ray 2FS and, of course, the standard smart card reader.

The only negative thing I have to say about this new hardware is that it takes up around 10W more than it’s predecessor.

I like the fact that Oracle have released this, it shows that they are committed (at least in the immediate future) to Sun Ray and the Sun Ray software.  I’d love to see one of these things, they should really help push Sun Rays into the workplace as a very viable alternative to those lumps of metal on everyones desks!

So this is my new case:

It’s a nice size, you can see the six brackets for hard drives in the bottom-left of the second picture, just up from those is a seventh bracket, above that there are three spaces for DVD/CD drives or for fan controls etc.

I first fitted the psu, a 380W Antex recommended to me due to it’s 80%+ efficiency rating.

Next came the motherboard and hard drives, look how dwarfed whis Micro-ATX board looks in this case!

The hard drives are screwed into the bracket and then the brackets are screwed into the chassis.

The above picture shows all the wiring complete

Here is my DVD drive mounted in it’s bracket.  A nice black DVD drive would have been nice, but a white one was all I had to hand.

So, boxed up and all plugged in, it looks a bit like this:

And here it is, halfway through the OpenSolaris Installation:

So, for about a month now I was contemplating the hardware I should use.  After reading a few articals, which I have conveniently miss placed, I decided to opt for the following configuration:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400.  Running at 2.8GHz, it uses Intel’s 45nm architecture.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L.  Micro-ATX board with a max of 4GB RAM (2x2GB), four SATA drives and very little else.
RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR2 667MHz, not blindingly fast, but shouldn’t cause too many problems…
Hard drive: Maxtor 500GB SATA2 running at 7200RPM with 32MB of cache
PSU: Antec 380W, 80%+ efficiency.  Looking at a power calculator, I should be able to upgrade to the full four hard drives, max the RAM and still have some spare juice for a couple more fans
Chassis: EV 4U rack mount beast!

The setup was composed for power efficiency, as well as being able to be upgradable later on.

Lets start with the OQO machine. It is an ultra portable piece of kit, with a width of 1.4cm, height of 0.8cm, a depth of 0.25cm and sports a 12.7cm screen (5 inches), it even weighs less than 500g! It is shipped to you with the Windows Vista operating system, for such a small device one would expect a cut down version, however, it runs the Ultimate version of Microsoft’s latest OS!
The 5″ screen runs at a native resolution of 800×400, but can run an external monitor (through it’s HDMI port VIA an included VGA adaptor) up to 1200×720. The screen also acts as a touch screen (stylus included) and slips up to reveal a mini backlit keyboard.
Speakers are built internally along with a small microphone, this should enable users to use the voice commands in Vista (Dear aunt…).
Technical specs include a 1.5GHz or a 1.6GHz VIA Ultra Low Voltage C7M VX700 chipset, with 1GB RAM and a 60GB hard driver (64GB solid state hard drive optional), 1xUSB 2.0 and a 4500mAh battery. Networking includes Wireless, ethernet and bluetooth, with 3G capabilities on higher end models.
Prices range from £909 to £1,971.
Portability: *****
Computing power: ***
Price: ***

Next we shall take a look at the MacBook Air. It’s super thin, with it’s thinnest point at just 0.4cm! Around half of what the OQO is! It sits at around 32.5cm in width and 22.7cm in depth with a screen of 33.7cm (13.3 inches), yet it weighs around 1,360g! It ships with the latest version of Apple’s OS X, 10.5, Leopard.
It’s spacious 13.3″ screen boasts a native resolution of 1280×800 and has a micro-DVI out for an extra external monitor, presumably the graphics card can support resolutions of at least 1280×1024 as my MacBook does.
The MacBook Air comes with a nice backlit keyboard, along with a trackpad that uses the new multi-touch technology, so you can use those pinch and sweep gestures like the iPod Touch and iPhone.
Speakers are built in, but you only get mono, not stereo oddly enough. Like the MacBook and MBP, it also has an in-built microphone for those OS X voice commands. Lets not forget about the iSight either, the microphone and iSight means that you can video conference wherever you have network coverage.
Technical specs include the Intel Core 2 Duo (C2D) running at 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz (£190 to upgrade the base configuration), 2GB RAM by default (not upgradable) and a 80GB hard drive, or a 64GB solid state hard drive (high end MBA only), 1xUSB 2.0 and presumably the same 5200mAh battery that comes in a standard MacBook (should last around 5 hours). Networking includes bluetooth and wireless, ethernet is available via a USB adaptor. One thing to note is that there is no Firewire ports.
Prices range from £1,199 for the base model and £2.028 for the base solid state hard drive option.
Portability: ****
Computing power: ****
Price: ***

Lastly, we shall look at the Eee PC. Made by ASUS, it has started a craze of small, compact notebooks. It’s nice and portable, yet chunky enough to feel like it has some substance, weighing in at around 920g. Dimensions are 22.5×2.15~3.5×16.4cm (width x height x depth) and it has a 17.78cm screen (7 inches), the height of this machine means that it is thickest machine of the three. It will arrive in your palms running a distribution of Linux, but it is Windows XP compatible.
The native resolution of it’s 7 inch screen is 800×480, and it has a VGA out, though I couldn’t see what other resolutions it may support.
The Eee PC has a keyboard and trackpad, as well as a microphone in socket.
It has built-in speakers but no microphone.
Technical specs include an Intel Celeron Mobile (no speed mentioned), 512MB RAM, a 2GB solid state hard drive, 3xUSB 2.0 and a 2400mAh battery. Networking includes wireless, ethernet and a modem!
Prices start at £189 (Ebuyer).
Portability: *****
Computing power: **
Price: *****

After looking at the three machines, I can’t honestly see why someone would want an Eee PC, only reason that I can see is budget. The Eee PC would be good for a kid to do their homework on, or a business person who needs to travel. But there is little computing power there, it would be little good (in my opinion) in running Windows, and as the storage is only around 2GB (can be upgraded slightly) you won’t be playing music or watching films on it…
The OQO machine is nice, I would personally switch Vista to some form of Linux, but it’s got a nice amount of computational power, and a touch screen, along with a mini keyboard…
The MacBook Air is also a nice machine, with specs that are similar to other notebooks around. And a plus is that it runs OS X, with all the power of it and UNIX, and with bootcamp you can install Linux and Windows.

For the best of portability and power, the MBA is an obvious choice if price isn’t an option, though the ASUS Eee PC is by far the choice for those people who are working to a budget.