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First post, by eisapc

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For the beginning I will post some info on my Compaq Proliant 4500 I started seting up last night. Its not a gaming rig, but an ancient fileserver. Specs are as follows:
4x P100 CPU on separate CPU boards
16 slots of PS/2 memory currently holding 192 MB of parity SIMMs
onboard wide SCSI and SVGA video
SMART RAID EISA SCSI controller
Netflex 3 EISA ethernet controller
List price of this one with dual P100 and 160 MB RAM and 10GB disk space was $31,934 in 1995, I got it from company scrap for free.
It took me some time to get a working CDROM as the original one had a broken belt and the Compaq Smartstart CDs (needed to configure the box) refuse to boot on a non Compaq labeled drive. System was also picky with the CPU boards. Partnumber 163832-001 from a Proliant 2000/4000 was refused. Still have to add some hot plug disk storage, but I have all my old style disk trays stored elsewhere.
Planning to install Windows NT on it, as Linux does not support these systems, as they are not SMP but Compaq proprietary Flex-MP using a dedicated HAL.
eisapc

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Reply 1 of 6, by Scraphoarder

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Nice to see a Proliant 4500 in a tower and with quad P100. Interesting that the CPU boards are picky about the system board, but not a suprise. We are dealing with Compaq that seems to be the champion of proprietary, expensive and weird solutions. Hated that back in the days, but now i find it amusing and intersting 😊
Wish i kept the tower that mine 4500 came with. It was converted to rack by moving most parts to an old Prolaint 2000 rack case.

Reply 2 of 6, by eisapc

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For what I remeber the difference of between the Proliant 2000/4000 and the 4500 is mainly the onboard wide SCSI of the 4500 while the previous models hade only narrow SCSI. But there might be some more microcode updates as there are two labeled chips on the CPU boards, while the layout is the same. Same with the Proliant 5000; only the later revision of the memory board supports 265MB buffered EDO DIMMs, while the previous one stuck at 128 MB or even buffered FPM DIMMs. Both types of memory are still hard enough to find, only topped in rarity by the 5V buffered EDO DIMMs used in the hp Vectra XU 6/200 and some IBM boxes.
eisapc

Reply 3 of 6, by Scraphoarder

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Yes physically it seems that the only difference were the SCSI Connector on those system boards.What im trying to figure out is the difference between Proliant 2000 and 4000. 2000 were dual CPU capable and 4000 quad CPU, but the system board seems to be the same?
I think mine Proliant 4500 had 256MB ram, but put some of the sticks in a Cisco 4000 router. Still have the router so must remember to take them out before it get tossed.
Here is my 4500. This need some more love someday.

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Reply 4 of 6, by Jo22

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Beautiful machine, thanks for the picture. I just love such 19" rack equippment. ^^

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 5 of 6, by eisapc

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Scraphoarder wrote:

What im trying to figure out is the difference between Proliant 2000 and 4000.

There are two different I/O boards part numbers for the 2000/4000 listed in the pocket reference guide. The difference seems support for the 486/50 CPU boards, not the maximum number of CPUs installed. The only other difference i imagine is the CPU support; I remember vaguely owning a plastic part supporting two CPUs only. This one came with an empty 2000 case.
eisapc

Reply 6 of 6, by eisapc

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Installed NT Server 4.0 with all service packs and some standard software on the 4500 last weekend. Took me some time due to frequent file copy errors probably originating from a defective memory stick. Just have to resolve some minor issues with a dll required by the Compaq Inside Manager software. NT Srver 4.0 was the os of choice due to the Compaq Flex MP architecture and the 4 CPU support. Some pics of the bootup to follow.
eisapc