[geeks] value of PIII PC servers

[Joshua Boyd]

On Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 10:32:41AM +0300, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 12:15:36AM -0500, Micah R Ledbetter wrote:
> > just be careful of XU800 RAM boards that take RAMBUS, like mine. I'd  
> > love to get CPUs for it and boot it up... except for that :(
> > (the RAM board can be replaced without replacing the motherboard, but  
> > good like finding one.)
> 
> I'd like to toss some comments into this. I have two computers with
> similar problems. One is an Intel dual PIII motherboard that someone
> put two 400mHz PII's in. It has both wide and LVD scsi controllers,
> a 10/100 ethernet, lousy VGA, IDE and floppy controlers on the 
> motherboard. Lots of fans, the capability for a second power supply,
> etc. It takes some sort of special RAM, so it sits with less than 256m.

I had a machine vaguely like that, except it was a slower form of P2 and
it used normal RAM.  I found it to be worthwhile spending $60 on a pair
of 550mhz P3s, $50 on a GeforceFX5200, $10 on U2W SCSI card, and $30 on
a GigE card.  That's... $150 in upgrades.  I don't know where I'd find a
similarly capable machine for $150, even shopping used on ebay (I do see
some killer P3 servers for that price before shipping, but they tend to
lack an AGP slot, let alone already having decent graphics and GigE).
 
> Someone gave me an 800 mHz PIII and that takes regular 100mHz SDRAM.
> Since I don't have any wide or LVD SCSI disks or tapes, I used it
> instead of the dual PII. I was able to get three 128m sticks of memory
> for free. 

Hey, if it works for you.
 
> The second is a P4, 1.7gHz. It takes 2 RAMBUS modules. It has two 128meg
> ones in it now. To upgrade it here in Israel, is extremely expensive.
> One 512m RIMM costs as much as a NEW 2.8gHz computer with 512m DDR RAM,
> 80 gig SATA drive, etc.

Yeah, that doesn't sound much worse than trying to upgrade a similar
machine in the US.
 
> Sometimes, trying to use these old machines costs more than new ones. 
> It depends upon your abiluty to scrounge and what is around.

Of course, a broken P4 with better RIMMS might always show up in the
trash someday.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd
jdboyd at jdboyd.net
http://www.jdboyd.net/
http://www.joshuaboyd.org/