[rescue] IBM IntelliStation POWER5 9111-285

[Mark Benson]

On 28 Jan 2012, at 22:25, mail at catsnest.co.uk wrote:

> Oh nice, I never got to play with AIX  other then supporting a few already
> installed apps.
> I have had a quick look at the docs on IBM but am a little lost what kind
> of memory does this use...
> It says " DDR-2 533 MHz ECC memory:" but is there anything special needed?
>
> Im guessing it comes with 2x512's in it...

Yes, because it's

The RAM is a bit individual. It's 276-pin DDR-2 533MHz Chipkill RAM. Pretty
unique to IBM as far as I can tell. The only possible stopper on getting one
of these remaining ones is the RAM is in short supply. I and a couple of
other
people scraped some used 1GB sticks up from SCS (eBay scs_eric) in the USA
cheaply but generally that RAM is really expensive. People are breaking up
POWER gear of this era (which in itself is both sad and astounding) so RAM
does
pop up for p5s from time to time.

Same goes if you want 2 more drive trays. I spent a good hour looking and
eventually
found some pretty cheap in the USA.

GXT4500P and GXT6500P graphics cards come up relatively cheaply though. I
think
mine set me back all of 25 quid. I guess because they don't work in anything
but
RS/6000 and pSeries they aren't a lot of use second hand unless you've got
one.

If you intend on running Linux get a GXT4500P, not a 6500P. 6500P's only work
with
Crux PPC Linux and frankly it's rather basic, as in it's Linux from 1999. Now
you may
like that but I prefer a package system that at least does you the decency of
*trying*
to find the dependancies :)

Best idea is do some research and get all the part numbers of IBM RAM that
fit
the machine and setup eBay searches for them worldwide on 'email when they
come
up' and wait on some coming up.

At the price the machine I'd grab it while it's going cheap and sit on the
RAM
issue personally, but it's up to you :)

--

Mark Benson

http://DECtec.info
Twitter: @DECtecInfo
HECnet: STAR69::MARK

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