Set up the own Unix ENvironment at home

Hello! All Unix Expert,

I just graduated from college with Bachalor degree in Computer Information System, and decided to start my career in Unix System. I am trying to set up my own unix Environment at home so that I can get more hand on experience since the class offered by unix vendors are too expensive to take as a poor student. I have installed solaris8(Intel)on my computer and practiced by myself.But,I am planing to purchase the real unix workstation(Solaris or HP) from ebay and going to set up my own unix server and network each others.please give me any tips and suggestions or share your experience with me. (How did you set up your own unix environment at home, connect to Network,etc..).Also, Which Unix Skills Should I learn to make myself more marketable in the current Unix Industry(I am currently holding the certification on Sun Solaris System Administrator).? Any information will be appreciated it.

Thank you very much!! Have a Happy Chrismas and Happy New Year!

John

The only thing I can really contribute to this is to check out eBay for a few weeks before deciding to buy something... I did this (because I'm indecisive) and ended up finding a HP9000 workstation for 25 bucks... It works wonderfully, and I managed to get a PC monitor working with it (watches the HP people in the forum cringe).

Also, you can find old Pentium machine to play with Linux, *BSD, QNX... all kinds of cheap fun.