Just got a new computer...

[Mark_88]

A Dell PowerEdge 840 Tower Server with 4 Gigs or RAM...

no HDD or CDRW...but I happen to have both...

Anyone familiar with these computers? There seems to be two versions...on dual core and one quad core...and haven't taken the shielding off to see what processor is in there yet...

It also takes SATA drives, but it refers to SCSI...have to look at the specs again...

 

[cody93]

SCSI is danm expensive to get drives for.. 18gb scsi drives can go for 15-20$ on fleabay, compared to the worthless ide counterparts. my second computer runs 2 18gb SCSI drives, altho its only a 386... SCSI was mainly pointed towards the server and ultra hi end market

 

[Mark_88]

It took me a while, but I found the specs...

Intel 915D dual core 2.8 processor with 4 GB DDR 2 RAM
And it is actually SATA drives - 80 GB x 2 and two others...

I will post more info later...

 

[AllanD]

Intel 915 D CPU?

Consider this, that upgrading to Intel 945 3.4GHz CPU's would only cost you $60-$80.

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[Mark_88]

Intel 915 D CPU?

Consider this, that upgrading to Intel 945 3.4GHz CPU's would only cost you $60-$80.

AD

Cool...it's a single chip mobo...I haven't been able to test it yet but will seew how it performs before swapping parts...took me six years to rebuild my Ranger...so hopefully I will get the computer in service in shorter time...thanks for the tip though...hadn't thought about upgrading since my old computer is an aAMD 2000+ or something like that...runs about 1.8 Ghz...

 

[AllanD]

Cool...it's a single chip mobo...I haven't been able to test it yet but will seew how it performs before swapping parts...took me six years to rebuild my Ranger...so hopefully I will get the computer in service in shorter time...thanks for the tip though...hadn't thought about upgrading since my old computer is an aAMD 2000+ or something like that...runs about 1.8 Ghz...

Oh, it's a SINGLE CPU?

Then a PentiumD 945 upgrade will cost half that

a Single pentiumD 945 typically sells (closed price)
for no more than $30-$35 on ebay.

And the commonest of them is an intel SL9QQ

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nkw=sl9qq&_sacat=See-All-Categories

But there's a couple up now for a Buy-It-Now price of $25-ish

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Pentium-D-3-4GHz-1M-533-04A-SL9QQ-Socket-775-CPU-/130569466295?pt=CPUs&hash=item1e668bf1b7

this one the guy mis-states the FSB as 533 (an SL9QQ is actually 800mhz)

 

[Mark_88]

Checked out the links, thanks. I asked a guy in town about this chip and he said he flatly refuses to deal with CPUs at all...guess he's had some fun times with them...

 

[AllanD]

A Dell PowerEdge 840 Tower Server with 4 Gigs or RAM...

no HDD or CDRW...but I happen to have both...

Anyone familiar with these computers? There seems to be two versions...on dual core and one quad core...and haven't taken the shielding off to see what processor is in there yet...

It also takes SATA drives, but it refers to SCSI...have to look at the specs again...

http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/poweredge-840/pd

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/840_specs.pdf

http://www.revolutionpos.com/pdf/systems/840_specs.pdf

http://reviews.cnet.com/soho-servers/dell-poweredge-840-server/1707-3125_7-32490915.html

SCSI is "optiopnal" (requires additional controller)

SATA is on-board.

It requires DDR2 "EEC" Server memory


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The vasy majority of "used" pentium D chips being sold on ebay are not "System pulls"
what they are is a product of HP and Dell dumping their parts stock to surplus dealers.

the computers that these CPUs worked in are beyond the age where they are supported
for "replacement parts"

as I said a Pentium D 945 (look specifically for an SL9QQ can often be had for
less than $40 and is a decent performer.

BTW, these are LGA775 CPUs, these have no pins on the cpu that can become bent.

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[Mark_88]

http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/poweredge-840/pd

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/840_specs.pdf

http://www.revolutionpos.com/pdf/systems/840_specs.pdf

http://reviews.cnet.com/soho-servers/dell-poweredge-840-server/1707-3125_7-32490915.html

SCSI is "optiopnal" (requires additional controller)

SATA is on-board.

It requires DDR2 "EEC" Server memory


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The vasy majority of "used" pentium D chips being sold on ebay are not "System pulls"
what they are is a product of HP and Dell dumping their parts stock to surplus dealers.

the computers that these CPUs worked in are beyond the age where they are supported
for "replacement parts"

as I said a Pentium D 945 (look specifically for an SL9QQ can often be had for
less than $40 and is a decent performer.

BTW, these are LGA775 CPUs, these have no pins on the cpu that can become bent.

AD

Thanks again...I just read the spec sheet and it has SAS drives (Solid Axles???...lol) and explained as Serial Attached SCSI...now I'm going to go look that one up because it's new to me...

From HowStuffWorks...

All of these SCSI types are parallel -- bits of data move through the bus simultaneously rather than one at a time. The newest type of SCSI, called Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), uses SCSI commands but transmits data serially. SAS uses a point-to-point serial connection to move data at 3.0 gigabits per second, and each SAS port can support up to 128 devices or expanders.


So...now I'm going to have to look at the connectors again...I thought they were hard wired into the MoBo...they have a IDE type connector on going from the board to the 4 drive bays and then up into the spare CD bays (no drives at all right now).

I almost bought the 2 WD 80 GIG drives but backed off when I realized they may not be compatible...

I was also thinking of just connecting a regular HDD to the cable on the Master side and a CD-DVD RW drive on the slave to see if that worked...

Just kind of busy right now trying to get my business going...so this may take a few weeks...lol

 

[AllanD]

a conventional SATA drive can be directly connected to an Serial Attached SCSI backplane and it will function.

But SAS drives require the SAS backplane.

But SAS drives have other advanteges in server use tha make them worth it for
enterprise applications.

Probably not so much for home use.

I should note that my 2-1/2 Year old HP desktop is compatible with the newer
SATA 6.0GB/sec drives.
Though I only have ONE of those drives in the computer, the 500gb WD "black"
drive I use as a system drive, my two 750gb "Data" drives are only 3.0g drives.

For short writes (4-10gb) I don't really see a difference.

The only time I can actually see that speed advantage is when doing sustained
writes to the drive, which essentially means that when I clone TO that drive
the operation goes about 70% faster than when I clone OFF that drive to
... actual transfer speed during the cloning operation hovers around 4.7gb/sec

frankly you'll likely find that your new "Server" computer is about as fast
as a typical C2D/C2Q machine of the same clock speed, because
the socket 775 Zeon CPUs are basically re-labled C2D/C2Q CPUs.

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[Mark_88]

I found a 180 GB SATA drive the other day...now that I've moved I can start playing with this computer...will be getting a Windows XP disk soon...just need a keyboard and mouse (why do I give these things away...lol)...

Hope to see how this performs soon...then I can look into upgrades...

 

[Mark_88]

Removed the RAID controller and installed the SATA drive and CD drives...taking it to where I can plug in a monitor and keyboard to boot...crossing fingers and eyes...the unit sat outside in a shed for a few months so l let it sit for a week inside...already a bit of corrosion on the heat sink...not sure if it was like that...didn't think to wrap it in plastic...doh!

 

[Mark_88]

I finally got it hooked up to the monitor and booted...no video...????

I checked for jumper switches on the MOBO but could not see any...I hope it's just disabled like they do on some servers with remote access...but now I may need to find a video card...it looks like an AGP port in there but I can't remember...lol...been too long since I cracked open a case...

Hmmmm...maybe a case of beer would be easier...

 

[Mark_88]

Dang...the video seems to be pooched and there is no suitable slot for a video card...looks like I'm computer hunting again...lol...

Oh, my friend who works for a big computer manufacturer offered to get me a discount on a used laptop...think that's the way I'm going to go...I could easily dump $200 into this to make it work and still not have the mobility that I want...so..>

Anyone need a RAID controller...or ECC RAM??? gonna part it out if I can...

 

[AllanD]

Dang...the video seems to be pooched and there is no suitable slot for a video card...looks like I'm computer hunting again...lol...

Oh, my friend who works for a big computer manufacturer offered to get me a discount on a used laptop...think that's the way I'm going to go...I could easily dump $200 into this to make it work and still not have the mobility that I want...so..>

Anyone need a RAID controller...or ECC RAM??? gonna part it out if I can...

Frankly I wouldn't mind playing with it, but I don't want to play with it badly enough to pay shipping on the whole computer from NC to PA, so I guess I'll pass.

What EEC ram does it have? because a friend is trying to ressurect
an AMD server MoBo (That we aren't even sure works) and it
requires EEC ram to operate and the only server ram I have here is
RAM made specifically for a Dell 390/690 Poweredge machine
(it's DDR that is uniquely keyed to fit only ta small selection of MoBos)

is this the SAS raid controller? What kind of card slot does it fit?

BTW, what kind of video card slot do you have, because I've got a
respecfully large box of AGP video cards, I used to have a lot more but I recently sorted and discarded most of them... anything that didn't have
a DVI connector on the card went bye-bye. (I tossed all the D-sub only cards)