blast from the past

[TAZ]

hehehe, i just got a little piece of history handed to me in the hope that i could do something with it.

it's a 2000 build Dell Precision 620 MT

-Dual 933MHz P3 Xeons
-4GB PC800 RDRAM

not sure of the GC but it has DVI & VGA and i know it's an
AGP PRO slot.

at the moment it tries to boot windows NTserver V4.0 and fails everytime, so my big question is, after a full format will this machine work with XP-pro or am i stuck with 2000-pro for 1-2proc's?

i'm not exactly sure what's gonna happen to it once i get it fixed up but it's server days are over as it's been replaced so i may soon be looking for alternate uses for it...

once i get a boot on it i'll run CPU-z and let ye all know exactly what's inside it.

________________________________________________________
know your limits, and never stop trying to exceed them!

 

[Guest]

Thats one nice litle server, question is: why would a PIII run with RDRAM?
I think I rember having a Asus P3C-L for a really short period and it supported RDRAM on a P3 not quite sure.

The machine should work with win2k no problemo, the onyl real question is why its not booting in NT4, if its not hardware, it will work in XP. Also if it runs 2k, it will run XP. You might have to use that special switch in the bootfile to enable over 2 gb suport(anyone).

Finnally a good use would be to seel that rdram its pretty expensive nowadays hehe

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[ChipDeath]

why would a PIII run with RDRAM?

I know you could get PIII boards which supported RDRAM. A guy here where I work bought one years ago for "future upgradability".. He still has that system, and he'd still got SDRAM in it.. :lol: ..

And that's not really "a little piece of history"... It's almost the same spec as the server we use here at work, and we only bought that a year or two ago! (though not new of course)

don't forget that if you're doing a clean install you'll need the drivers for the HDD controller, assuming it has some SCSI RAID array or something.

---
<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[TAZ]

hehehe... yeknow i was just thinkin' exactly that! and if i was such a evil b*st*rd that's exactly what i'd be doin'.
2gb's of the 4 would never be missed, and if it is you could always say that XP wouldn't handle it of some other such crap...
however, on this occasion i think i'll be nice...

i did wonder about the whole P3 & RDRAM thing but figured it was just something that i was missing, anyone care to shed some light?

surprisingly, the HD's are actually just standard PATA's running off IDE 1&2, don't know if they are in raid or not but don't really care either.

anyway's i'm doing the reformat bit tomorrow and assuming it all still works ok (i'm replacing the PSU fans at the mo.. dust!) i'll CPU-z it and run a few benchmarks to see what she can do, any recommendations?

________________________________________________________
know your limits, and never stop trying to exceed them!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TAZ on 06/30/05 12:21 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Make sure its not running on a raid controlelr altough I doubt it. You can probly see it in the bios. If it does indeed run on a controlelr you'll need the drievrs and to press F6 in the beeginning of the install.

As for the P3 & RDram I rember haveing a board(briefly) thats had a DIMM Riser that allowed you to connect SDRam into the RDRam slot and it was ****** slow, thats hwy I sold it didnt loose to much money I remebr buyinmg a CUSL2 afterwards I dont remebr the chipset.
I think the P3+ RDram was an attempt to make the RDram transition more smooth because the P4 really benefited from that expansive ram as the P3 didnt... Crashman will surely enlight us in time =).

Otherwise I beleive 2gig would be enough for almost anythign you can throw at her so have fun!

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[TAZ]

teehehehe... i just got another machine dropped in for a reformat, it's another precision, 2001 build, P4 1.7GHz and 2GB RDRAM!

so by my figuring, i currently have €6000 worth of ram sitting in the lab!! :O

________________________________________________________
know your limits, and never stop trying to exceed them!

 

[Crashman]

How soon we forget!

i820 was Intel's first 133 bus PIII chipset. It supported RDRAM ONLY. When people whined about prices, Intel added MCH for SDRAM, and we saw how THAT turned out!

The i820 was a handicapped version of the i840 small server/workstation chipset. i840 was never given MCH, so it HAD to use RDRAM. That means the ONLY Intel chipset supporting dual processors and 133 bus PIII was the i840!

Now, did Dell ever use VIA chipsets? NO. Why? Dell makes better computers than you. Sorry, but their standards, as low as they are, are higher than most people in here, because they refuse to use cut-rate chipsets.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

XP will work fine so long as the machine hasn't developed a hardware problem. Since it's an Intel board, it probably uses top-quality Nichicon capacitors, nearly eliminating the most common cause of board failures.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

RDRAM is cheep now. One of the Deans where I work bought a 933 when they first came out. He got 4 sticks of 128 meg rdram. They cost $945 each.

 

[TAZ]

dunno what they cost over there, but i just priced them online from the uk and a 1GB pair (2x512MB) is still £940 including taxes!!

________________________________________________________
know your limits, and never stop trying to exceed them!

 

[Guest]

Oh right it was a i820! Thanks for the info usefull as always crash. I never used VIA chipset either so NO dell doesnt make better computers than me

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0