The Dumpster
by Coral1
Some people might say that what follows is proof that Hardware geeks are crazy. People that know me, will say it doesn't prove a thing. I was already crazy. I just think of it as a way to make use of old hardware. And good practice for when you want to do something with the latest and greatest parts, down the road.
Bright Idea in the Night
I've had several different projects floating around in my head, that I have been trying to do for a couple of years now. But I just could not seem to get them off the "back burner". Things like setting up a Linux box to play with again. Maybe one for WinME and/or Dos/Win3.11, for referencing. One for playing with Raids. One just for ripping my lp's to cd's. Putting together a network to tinker with.... Finagle knows I have enough old pieces and parts stacked up.
Ever since that time I ran a SlotA rig spread out across the desk for several months, waiting for a larger case to find its way to me, I have been itching to build a system in something strange. Like a gutted out console TV cabinet, or a mini-refrigerator. The pics the mags have been running lately with people putting hardware in all kinds of "custom" enclosures, makes me wish I was not such a big time procrastinator (it seems I have a lot of great ideas, that somebody else gets the credit for).
Then, the other night, while I was laying in bed waiting for the coffee to wear off enough so I could fall asleep, it hit me! I could combine several of these into one, Over the Top, project! Yeah... that sounds like fun.
I have an old Dell 4050/XE Server someone gave me, that I was really wanting to do something with. But this thing is HUGE. It's 26 inches front to back, 12 inches wide, and 20 inches tall (65cm x 30cm x 50cm). The average mid-tower is 17 x 8 x 17 inches (42 x 20 x 42cm). I mean it is on wheels! It will give you a hernia, if you don't lift with your legs trying to get it up on the workbench. I bet I could figure a way to get Two separate systems in it. Oh, yeah... this is definitely going to be fun!
Let's see... First I need to define a basic project outline. This can be tweaked as I go. But to start:
- I need to decide what mobos I am going to use.
- I want to test and use as many SCSI drives as I can, on at least one side of it.
- Network them together, and to my main system, with one of the ethernet port switches that are just gathering dust.
- Put Linux on one of them.
- Include a 1.2meg 5.25 floppy drive.
And there is definitely going to be some case carving involved! Muwhahahahaha.... Sorry about that. I will try to restrain myself better.
Decisions... Decisions... Decisions
The case I have already decided on. The Dell 4050. It came with a 83MHz Pentium OverDrive CPU. For those of you that don't remember these, it was a Pentium that was made as an upgrade for the 486 socket 3 mobos. Four sticks of 72pin memory, adding up to 24 megs. And three 1 gig SCSI HD's.
Believe it or not, it still works. After a fashion. The proprietary daughter board with the primary SCSI controller on it, seems to be dead, but I got it to boot from the other add-on SCSI card. Windows 3.1, with a custom password menu for logging on (something to do with it being used by the government). It took twenty minutes to find my old, tool disks; and another ten after that to remember how to use them. But I got past it. Ahhhh... fun memories.
A $25,000 dollar system, when it was new. Oh,well. Out comes the mobo.
Hmmmm.... What to replace it with?? How about a pair of Intel 200MHz MMX's? Overclocked, of course. If I remember correctly, they will do 225 with no trouble. Besides, I have several already on removable mounting trays. Lets toss them up on the bench, and see if two of them still crank up. Maybe we will get lucky and let the smoke out of one! I haven't done that in a while.
I can always upgrade the mobos later. After all the major surgery is done.
Besides the drives in the case, I have a pair of Seagate 9 gig SCSI 5.25 full height drives (CDRoms are half-height), and they weigh almost 3 pounds (just over a kilo)...Each!
IDE's are not a problem. A good way to do something with some of these sub-10 gigs taking up space.
Can't forget about the CDRoms. Something in the 8x to 24x range will work nicely. Maybe a burner. There's a 2-2-4x around here somewhere.
What am I forgetting?!?
Oh, yeah! Memory. How about.... 32 megs of 72 pin EDO per mobo? Maybe 48 megs would be better. 64 megs? Better wait until I see what I have in the bag, first.
Sound, network, and video cards are easy. There is a box of ISA and PCI stuff to pick and choose from. Just need to find drivers. That should be good for a few hours of web running.
I also need to figure out if I want to splice the PSU's into one switch, or leave them separate. Yes, I know I could just use a power strip, but where is the fun in that?
I know! If I use ATX's, I will splice them together. An easy hack, and not dangerous. If you ever turned on a switch with crossed-wired 110 volts AC, you know what I mean.
Hmmmm.... Maybe I could stuff the SCSI's into a mini-tower case and make a NAS (Network Attached Storage) out of it. Maybe later. Let's take it one headache at a time.
What works... What doesn't
As I expected, the two SCSI 9 gigs, had been in a RAID. I used KILL DISK on them to break the RAID, so I could do a fresh Fdisk and Format. Those full sized SCSI's sure are loud. The first one cleaned up nice, but the spindle bearings on the second one seems to have locked up. When I rebooted after I wiped it, it would not spin up again. Maybe if I put it on the "Fix with a Hammer" shelf for a few days, it will decide to play nice again.
Plenty of working 72pin ram. EDO and Fastpage. 60ns and 70ns speed. That should even work on Super7 mobo's running AMD K6/2 OC'ed up to the 400 - 600 MHz range, with a 100MHz FSB. If not, I have some 16 to 64 meg PC100 SDRAM sticks not doing anything.
I might use those Super7's instead.
The only way to OC the P200's to 225, is to bump the FSB up from 66 MHz to 75 MHz. I forgot their multipliers are locked at 3x. I can get 250 MHz out of them by going to a 83 MHz FSB, but then the stuff in the PCI and ISA slots, start complaining.
At 83 MHz, the PCI bus is running at a hair over 41MHz, instead of the 33 MHz it is rated for. It runs at half the cpu bus speed.
The ISA is running at over 10 MHz, instead of the 8.3MHz it is rated for. It runs at 1/4 the PCI bus speed, so unless the BIOS has a setting to let you change the clock dividers, this is only good for toasting hardware.
That's enough of boring you with info that is rapidly becoming obsolete. And I need to get back to checking that box of sound cards and network cards to see what I can use, and download drivers and manuals for them. I still have a few more mobo's to test, also. Surprisingly, everything I have tested so far, still works. I even fired up a dust covered 386 that looked like the dog had buried it in the back yard. There was one mobo that the CMOS battery in it was dead....
A quick update on the SCSI drive that locked up. It decided to play nice again. It has been Fdisked and Formatted, and spins up every time. That "Fix with a Hammer" shelf works pretty good.
Projectus Interruptus
Seems like my main computer is getting jealous, and is wanting some attention. She has developed some minor, but irritating, idiosyncrasies. Looks like this project has to be returned to the "back burner" temporarily, while I sort this out and get her happy again. Sheesh. You'd think we were married or something....Don't worry we will finish this in a follow up article.
NS,NR!!
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