I just got done reading the the timely thread on the Sony AIT LIB-81
changer, as one of our HP DDS changers just died. We are looking for a
changer that'd cost around $4,000 or $5,000, store at least 6 tapes,
each tape with at least a 40GB capacity native.

Oh, and they need to work with FreeBSD.  :)

The two changers that we found were the 8 tape Sony AIT-2 LIB-81/A2
for about $4,600, and Dell's PowerVault 122T DLT VS80. I was really
leaning tward the Sony changer until I read the recent comments.

We really like our HP changers, we've got both the DDS-3 (DAT 24x6)
and DDS-4 (DAT 40x6) changers as internal boxes, and they are
great. The tape size of the DDS-4 was getting to be a little small,
but still bearable.

While we liked the internal HP changers, I think we've outgrown what
we can get as internal changers. Table top v/ rack mount doesn't
matter a bunch, although rack mount is a little nicer. We aren't tight
on rack space, but we are kinda tight on money.  :)

Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions?