VOGONS


The Compaq Systempro LT

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First post, by Scraphoarder

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After 386_junkies posts about his Systempros i could not rest. I have a special love for SMP systems and Compaqs aswell, so i had to see if i could get one. Last year i found some parts like the systemboard, a 486 CPU card, memory board and a PSU so the vital parts came easy and cheap. After spending countless hours on the web i concluded that a case or complete system would be impossible to find. I began to see if any other cases could be used, but i gave up getting the real deal and better hope a miracle would occure in the future.
The trend for most of the recyclers online seems to only stock internnal parts for servers older than 8-10 years. Very few complete systems can be found and its understandable that the sheer bulk and size of a big server isnt attractive to let occupy the shelves for an infinite time. My advice is if you are eyeballing something, act before its too late. As a Compaq/HP server fan i see that anything older than the Proliant G3 are mostly gone now on eBay, but maybe they can be sourced other places. There are some older rack Compaq Proliants on eBay, but the asking price and shipping cost are too much.

Fast forward to threee weeks ago and i searched for some old Compaq and EISA stuff on eBay and there it was! A complete Compaq Systempro LT with a 386 dx33 CPU, WTF! My heart almost stopped and i had to act fast. The price were ok, but shipping was more than the server. I sent a message to the seller about the shipping and had to painstakingly wait till next day to get an answer. The answer was worth waiting for and the shipping cost was under half than eBays auto generated quote. After correction the deal was closed and i begged the seller to pack it carefully. After watching videos on how parcels are treated i could expect the worst even if the old Compaqs are built like tanks.

Yesterday i picked the package up on the post office and to my suprise it was undamaged and the weight and size was also lesser than expected. Got it inside my hous, but waited till today to open the package so here it is in all its glory!

Systempro LT 1.jpg
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Systempro LT 2.jpg
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Systempro LT 3.jpg
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Systempro LT 4.jpg
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Specs for this Systempro LT:
Intel i386DX-33 MHz CPU
2 x 8 MB EDO memory on memory board
Compaq Qvision VGA Card EISA BUS 
210 MB Conner CP3201G Hard disk IDE ATA
3.5"' 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
5.25" 1.2 MB Floppy Disk Drive Slim Mitsubishi
3Com ASSY 8772-01 ISA Network card

As mentioned earlier i got the orginal Systempro system board that can take two CPU Cards, but as for now i will not use it. Also i have to wait to later to play more with this server as i sadly got no room and time at the moment.

Last edited by Scraphoarder on 2018-10-28, 15:50. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 1 of 30, by Robert B

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AWESOME stuff bro 😁 Socketed DALLAS battery, memory card, all the parts original, A W E S O M E !!!

I'm glad you found it! I myself am waiting for a few White Whales to pop up so I can relate to your situation 😁

When you have the time, post detailed info about how it is assembled, what problems you have ecountered and what are you using for.

Are you going to clean it and take it apart?

Reply 2 of 30, by Scraphoarder

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Robert B wrote:
AWESOME stuff bro :D Socketed DALLAS battery, memory card, all the parts original, A W E S O M E !!! […]
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AWESOME stuff bro 😁 Socketed DALLAS battery, memory card, all the parts original, A W E S O M E !!!

I'm glad you found it! I myself am waiting for a few White Whales to pop up so I can relate to your situation 😁

When you have the time, post detailed info about how it is assembled, what problems you have ecountered and what are you using for.

Are you going to clean it and take it apart?

Thanks my friend 😊 Its actually standing on another "White whale", an Unisys Aquanta HS/6 (ALR 6x6) in the living room at the moment 😊
I think i will do a proper clean later, but it is not bad as it is now. Want to maybe use the dual CPU capable system board, but getting the 386 CPU boards to that seems difficult. I dont think the current 386 board is compatible. A dual 486 is not the plan since im trying to build a Proliant 4000 for that, but looking for a case for that aswell and an extra 486 dx50 CPU board.

Reply 4 of 30, by Scraphoarder

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I bought my 6x6 last year from an official Unisys system partner in the US that cleared their NOS inventory. They had probably some of them and they showed up on eBay for a while. Got the second last and another dude from Europe bought the last one. They came with 6x Ppro 200/1MB, 3 PSUs and 256MB simms.

Reply 5 of 30, by chinny22

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keys and all! The tilted top always makes me think of McDonald's bins
http://www.australiasigns.com.au/gal/index.ph … =picture&id=945

I still want one though! (SystemPro not bin)

G5's seem to be the earliest servers still in use that I come across and not many of them so anything much earlier is probably not that desirable for professional sellers.
Even I'm getting a nice stockpile of servers and a G5 is my oldest of "currant generation" servers

Reply 6 of 30, by Scraphoarder

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We still use a DL380 G4 at work, but with Windows 7 as a data collector with a modem. Its days are over soon and it can get retired so it can rest with the other G2, G3 and G4 on the shelves. Almost a dozen G5 rack and blade servers are still running with a cluster of 4 BL680c (quad CPU) beeing the beefiest loaded with ESXi 6.5.

Reply 8 of 30, by Scraphoarder

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Errius wrote:

The DL380 G4 can take dual core Xeons I believe.

Yes up to two Irwindales. All Proliant 800/1600 and newer at work were bought with dual CPUs after experiencing the hideous pricing for getting an OEM CPU kit later. Remember we had a Proliant 4500 with a single P166 that was on a CPU Board that needed more prcessing power. Got a quote on another board that then had became a spare part only and the price was insane! The soluton was to get a Kingston Turbochip with an AMD K6 366 and replace the original CPU and it did wonders for it. Seeing that went well we did it on two Proliant 1500 also.

Reply 9 of 30, by eisapc

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Congrats, to the LT.
You know the CPU board and memory board are the same as the Deskpro/M series?
Probably upgrade is possible up to P60, but can´t confirm as my one and only P60 board is broken.
Memory is PS/2 with parity up to 64MB total and up to 8MB/Simm.
Still have to post the group picture of my Systempro, Systempro LT and Systempro XL next to each other.
And 386_junkies is still waiting for my spare case.
eisapc

Reply 10 of 30, by Scraphoarder

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eisapc wrote:

Congrats, to the LT.
You know the CPU board and memory board are the same as the Deskpro/M series?

Thank you 😊 Yes the Deskpro/M series CPU boards have the same part numbers as for the LT. Not checked the memory board, but its nice if it could be used aswell.
Got an IDA controller today, but its useless if i need HDDs with a special Compaq firmware. Tried finding info for that and read that it were a proprietary system.

Looking forward to see the group picture. Was the XL case the same used for the Prosignia?

Reply 11 of 30, by eisapc

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If I remember right it needn´t be the original Compaq branded drives as long as the geometry is identical to the Compaq drives. I successfully used somecompatible seagate drives (ST660A?). I found it much harder finding the original cable (layout); connecting two 40 pin IDE drives to a single 50 pin connector. The 50 pin connector is used to be mistaken for a SCSI port by lots of ebay sellers.
The XL case looks the same as the Systempro. It just has two rows of 4 HDD activity LEDs on the front. Just found a review of the XL in PC Mag 26. Jan. 1993: With 486/50, 16 MB of RAM, Ethernet and 1.05 GB SCSI drive list price was 14769 USD; not bad for a 486.
Prosignia 486 has the same case as as the first Proliant, at times Proliant was just a dumb SCSI disk storage without any CPU. The first Proliant featuring a CPU was the Proliant 1000 with 486 or P60 (with FDIV bug).
Just setting up a Proliant 4500 myself, I recovered from company scrap.
eisapc

Reply 12 of 30, by detritus olentus

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My mom picked me up a few PC World magazines from 1990 while getting a sewer bill sorted out (of all things) from a freebie pile in their office. Its not a 386 but I figured you would find it amusing anyhow.

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gWSJi23.png
https://archive.org/details/@detritus_olentus
Philly Burbs.

Reply 14 of 30, by Scraphoarder

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eisapc wrote:

If I remember right it needn´t be the original Compaq branded drives as long as the geometry is identical to the Compaq drives. I successfully used somecompatible seagate drives (ST660A?). I found it much harder finding the original cable (layout); connecting two 40 pin IDE drives to a single 50 pin connector. The 50 pin connector is used to be mistaken for a SCSI port by lots of ebay sellers.

Tried to find any technical documentation on this online without much luck. Would be nice to get the IDA contoller work with some IDE drives, but will not hunt down old drives just for this. Finding the correct cables seems to be difficult aswell.

Reply 15 of 30, by eisapc

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So finally the announced photo of my Systempro collection:

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More detais to come in the system specs thread, after I removed this printer from the top and open the cases.
eisapc

Reply 16 of 30, by Scraphoarder

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Awsome! All models in one shot. You are a lucky guy to have those now rare servers. Not many external differnces except the logo badges and the extra lights on the XL as you mentioned before. Looking forward to se more of them.

Reply 17 of 30, by 386_junkie

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The Systempro club grows! 😁

I'm glad you found her and in such good condition too!

It is good to know that the buyer is a fellow Vogon'er... as all too often, rare and interesting computer history fall's from the face of the earth into a collection where no light can reach. It's good we are able to share... immortalizing the Systempro!

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 18 of 30, by Shadow Lord

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Hi Guys,

I have an almost NEW Systempro XL with original box, all the paperwork, etc... My issue is that the PSU on the system died and I have not been able to effect any repairs. I have a copy of the Systempro (original) Tech Ref Guide but was wondering if anyone has one for the XL, or a schematic of the XL PSU, or better yet a working XL PSU? Thanks.