Hanamichi wrote on 2024-05-25, 15:36:

I prefer to come up with something a bit custom rackmount case are usually annoyingly deep […]
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cyclone3d wrote on 2024-05-25, 14:46:

Hanamichi wrote on 2024-05-25, 11:20:

Yes the case requirement is tricky 13 slots! pciagp13s2lg.jpg […]
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Yes the case requirement is tricky 13 slots!
pciagp13s2lg.jpg

I've purchased one of these from mercari which has modular parts of 3mm aluminium you can swap so it might work with a custom rear io plate:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060208143054/ht … tflex/index.php
SMART FLEX.png

You will need a rack mount backplane case for that PIAGP backplane but guessing you already know that.

Did the one you ordered come with the PISA board which is a requirement for the ISA slots to function?

I prefer to come up with something a bit custom rackmount case are usually annoyingly deep

Yeah brought the backplane 7 years ago! Came with something like pisa-kit-01.

Good point though the isa slots are unusable without the pisa part for potential buyers

It's gonna be fun finding an ATX case that will have clearance for the full length CPU card without having to remove the drive cage.

I really don't see how that backplane is going to fit in a regular ATX case even with customizing the back panel.

Plus you are going to need to add extra standoffs to the motherboard tray to mount the backplane.

I have multiple of these backplanes and CPU boards and the only option I see besides a rack mount case is a full tower case that will fit an E-ATX motherboard with the power supply mounted at the bottom.

And that is with some heavy case modification.

If you do get it all together in an ATX case, make sure to post a thread about it.

Also be aware that not all server cases accept standard ATX power supplies. I bought a Supermicro case some time ago with this problem. It came with what looked like a standard ATX power supply, but had offset screw holes so that it would only work with thier certified, branded, much more expensive power supplies.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-05-25, 20:22:

Also be aware that not all server cases accept standard ATX power supplies. I bought a Supermicro case some time ago with this problem. It came with what looked like a standard ATX power supply, but had offset screw holes so that it would only work with thier certified, branded, much more expensive power supplies.

True, but pretty much any standard rackmount case will take standard ATX power supplies.

Some have interchangable backs so they can take ATX boards or up to 20 slot backplanes.

Just have to make sure to get the correct type.

The PIAGP backplanes will work in standard rackmount cases.

I have a PCIe / PCI / ISA backplane that will not. I have not even been able to find any rackmount cases that have the proper standoff holes.

Not sure what a "Standard" rackmount case is. Even the ones common for audio usually have SOME oddities around them and they're increasingly approaching "unicorn" status as well. I'd also argue the right Supermicro is well worth the money, especially if you're good at eBay.

Not immediately relevant to this use case, but for low power stuff their PWS-351-1H is an almost completely silent 1U PSU that fits most of their non-redundant 1U cases. I have four of them at home, and one at work. Obviously it needs to be matched with low-power stuff that can run without additional fans; but there's plenty of use cases for that both in retrocomputing and in homelabs.

InTheStudy wrote on 2024-05-26, 01:01:

Not sure what a "Standard" rackmount case is. Even the ones common for audio usually have SOME oddities around them and they're increasingly approaching "unicorn" status as well. I'd also argue the right Supermicro is well worth the money, especially if you're good at eBay.

Not immediately relevant to this use case, but for low power stuff their PWS-351-1H is an almost completely silent 1U PSU that fits most of their non-redundant 1U cases. I have four of them at home, and one at work. Obviously it needs to be matched with low-power stuff that can run without additional fans; but there's plenty of use cases for that both in retrocomputing and in homelabs.

They are getting harder to find though more are showing up when I search for:
PICMG chassis

You can have 13 slots with the PSU at the back or up to 20 slots with the PSU mounted at the front.

I'm also seeing some crazy 6U 20 slot cases.

The brands of the cases are not going to be normal case brands.

Most of the companies that make/made PICMG backplanes and CPU boards are the ones that made the cases for them.

Got this Banshee today for a couple of Euros.

Scratches and dents all over, all metal pulled, likely for recycling.

Good news is that there are no cut traces, ripped chip legs or even missing surface mount stuff. It might actually be alive and just needs a good cleaning, new heatsink and a mounting bracket.

A few oddities found on a local flee market (likely sourced from e-recycler but in great condition... and price 😳 ) and a few donated to me by my friend.

Ups and downs yesterday.

Ups:
- ASUS P5P800 - works although it likely needs a new BIOS chip as the one it has corrupts itself without me doing anything. Known good RAM was used.
- EPoX EP-8KRAI - works, had to replace socket plastics as one side of the tabs were broken. Came with a Sempron 2600, swapped an XP 2400+.
- ASUS K8N - works, came with a Sempron 2800+. No CPU swap on this one as I don't have any 754 A64s left.
- Club3D Radeon 9600 256MB - works, has some strange heatsink that's twice the size of the card lmao
-2x launch Xbox 360 controllers

Downs:
- Commate S7SXB - came with a K6-2/550AGR, popped a MOSFET shortly after power on. I didn't test the CPU on any other boards so state of CPU unknown, but mainboard does not beep or POST after FET replacement.
- DFI K6BV3+/66 - same as the previous one I had except this one's ATX functions work. Other than that, no BEEP or POST whatsoever. Tested ceramic Pentium 166, MMX 233, K6-2 500AFX. None beeped or POST'd.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-05-26, 21:22:

Ups and downs yesterday. […]
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Ups and downs yesterday.

Ups:
- ASUS P5P800 - works although it likely needs a new BIOS chip as the one it has corrupts itself without me doing anything. Known good RAM was used.
- EPoX EP-8KRAI - works, had to replace socket plastics as one side of the tabs were broken. Came with a Sempron 2600, swapped an XP 2400+.
- ASUS K8N - works, came with a Sempron 2800+. No CPU swap on this one as I don't have any 754 A64s left.
- Club3D Radeon 9600 256MB - works, has some strange heatsink that's twice the size of the card lmao
-2x launch Xbox 360 controllers

Downs:
- Commate S7SXB - came with a K6-2/550AGR, popped a MOSFET shortly after power on. I didn't test the CPU on any other boards so state of CPU unknown, but mainboard does not beep or POST after FET replacement.
- DFI K6BV3+/66 - same as the previous one I had except this one's ATX functions work. Other than that, no BEEP or POST whatsoever. Tested ceramic Pentium 166, MMX 233, K6-2 500AFX. None beeped or POST'd.

I once had a Biostar MB 8500TVX that I upgrade to a K6-2 450 (6x66) unaware of how this strained the linear voltage regulator. When it blew, it took out the CPU as well.

From what I've seen, I'm not sure if the ones on the S7SXB are linear. They're CEB7030AL FETs, and the one near the socket went short quietly.
At the end of the day, it's a SiS 530 mobo so no biggie if it died. The CPU though, I'd hope it survived, at the very least.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-05-26, 21:22:

Ups and downs yesterday. […]
Show full quote

Ups and downs yesterday.

Ups:
- ASUS P5P800 - works although it likely needs a new BIOS chip as the one it has corrupts itself without me doing anything. Known good RAM was used.
- EPoX EP-8KRAI - works, had to replace socket plastics as one side of the tabs were broken. Came with a Sempron 2600, swapped an XP 2400+.
- ASUS K8N - works, came with a Sempron 2800+. No CPU swap on this one as I don't have any 754 A64s left.
- Club3D Radeon 9600 256MB - works, has some strange heatsink that's twice the size of the card lmao
-2x launch Xbox 360 controllers

Downs:
- Commate S7SXB - came with a K6-2/550AGR, popped a MOSFET shortly after power on. I didn't test the CPU on any other boards so state of CPU unknown, but mainboard does not beep or POST after FET replacement.
- DFI K6BV3+/66 - same as the previous one I had except this one's ATX functions work. Other than that, no BEEP or POST whatsoever. Tested ceramic Pentium 166, MMX 233, K6-2 500AFX. None beeped or POST'd.

The DFI boards usually need a recap before being used, I have two of the AT models and an ATX version and all three had at least one cap that needed replacing with the AT versions getting full recaps of the VRM. The boards are rock solid and great performers but they used shit caps which was not uncommon for boards of this era.

What version is yours? . .the B2 revision has the blue ATA66 IDE socket and are 100% worth recapping and saving.

B2, already recapped it with 2008 Nichicon HMs and no change. Mine didn't have any bulged Teapo caps prior to recap, though.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-05-27, 06:54:

B2, already recapped it with 2008 Nichicon HMs and no change. Mine didn't have any bulged Teapo caps prior to recap, though.

hmm odd, Im guessing you already reflashed the bios too, shame if it is dead they really are great boards.

Indeed, used the latest BIOS available on TRW, hotflashed with Flashrom on a Soyo 6BA+IV. Same behavior.

HanJammer wrote on 2024-05-26, 21:09:

A few oddities found on a local flee market (likely sourced from e-recycler but in great condition... and price 😳 ) and a few donated to me by my friend.

Your VLB Controller contains a very early chip for the IDE side of the card: a MERVIN CT9000. There is almost nothing to find about this chip.
I have found references in a VLB card manual with this chip to a driver called "ct9000.sys", but i was no able to find a copy of it.
If you you should be more lucky, please upload it to the VOGON driver library.

Double post -> deleted

HanJammer wrote on 2024-05-26, 21:09:

A few oddities found on a local flee market (likely sourced from e-recycler but in great condition... and price 😳 ) and a few donated to me by my friend.

You really have good flea markets in your area.
You can only get sports Xbox 360 games and 20" 16:9 crappy LCDs in my area

Nice Fury Maxx. Your's have soldered bios and jumpers in the top right corner. Mine and most i've seen have socketed bios and no jumpers. Which motherboard/chipset do you plan to use for testing ?

The industrial machine I bought arrived today.
P2b 1.12 (posts)
64MB ram (posts)
Ati rage xl - untested for now
3com pci - untested for now
P2 450MHz, no life 🙁 the cooler mount plastics had disintegrared during shipping, so the cooler separated from the cpu. Will require new mounting hw IF I get it to post 🙁
Oh and a working psu.
The case might be chopped up to be a testbench

Nexxen wrote on 2024-05-25, 14:37:

Karbist wrote on 2024-05-25, 12:55:

Got a box of six motherboards for 15 bucks. the interesting ones are Asus p3b-f, Epox nforce 2, giga 8vt800, the rest are meh. w […]
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Got a box of six motherboards for 15 bucks. the interesting ones are Asus p3b-f, Epox nforce 2, giga 8vt800, the rest are meh.
will they work or they all are junk. 🤣

A.jpg
B.jpg

Violet one is so messed up it's going to work 100% 🤣
Good luck and post back for the curious bunch.

Here's the update for this junk box,
Asus p3b-f: dead super IO chip, dead clock gen crystal, it's been fixed.
Epox nforce 2: cracked solder joints under the south bridge, reflowed the chip, works fine.
Gigabyte 8vt800: corrupted bios, programed the bios, works fine.
ECS 845GV: works fine.
Asrock m266a: missing caps, blown mosfet on the memory rail.
MSI am2 board: missing caps, dead pwm ic for the memory rail. it's a custom ic called MS-11PQV, so that's a wrap for this board.

Karbist wrote on 2024-05-27, 16:00:

Here's the update for this junk box, Asus p3b-f: dead super IO chip, dead clock gen crystal, it's been fixed. Epox nforce 2: cra […]
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Nexxen wrote on 2024-05-25, 14:37:

Karbist wrote on 2024-05-25, 12:55:

Got a box of six motherboards for 15 bucks. the interesting ones are Asus p3b-f, Epox nforce 2, giga 8vt800, the rest are meh. w […]
Show full quote

Got a box of six motherboards for 15 bucks. the interesting ones are Asus p3b-f, Epox nforce 2, giga 8vt800, the rest are meh.
will they work or they all are junk. 🤣

A.jpg
B.jpg

Violet one is so messed up it's going to work 100% 🤣
Good luck and post back for the curious bunch.

Here's the update for this junk box,
Asus p3b-f: dead super IO chip, dead clock gen crystal, it's been fixed.
Epox nforce 2: cracked solder joints under the south bridge, reflowed the chip, works fine.
Gigabyte 8vt800: corrupted bios, programed the bios, works fine.
ECS 845GV: works fine.
Asrock m266a: missing caps, blown mosfet on the memory rail.
MSI am2 board: missing caps, dead pwm ic for the memory rail. it's a custom ic called MS-11PQV, so that's a wrap for this board.

Good that you got many of them working, the two dead ones now become donor boards for any good parts they still have !