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First post, by yawetaG

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I might be able to get a very cheap fully loaded IBM MCA-based server system with a Pentium processor. Pros and cons? Anything I should watch out for?

Reply 1 of 3, by yawetaG

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So the system I am eying has the following: MCA/PCI based motherboard, 3.5" 1.44 Mb FDD, SCSI CD-ROM, 2 SCSI HDD, ethernet card, modem card, MCA WiFi card (without the dongle), PCI Fast-SCSI-2 adapter, IBM sound card, all untested in a case with no apparent rust or other dirt. Shipping is likely to be kinda high (maybe 200 bucks), but is offset by a very low price of the system itself. Worth it?

Reply 2 of 3, by GL1zdA

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It's most likely the PC Server 520 - with 2 PCI slots and 6 32 bit MCA slots. It's a 2 CPU design. It's not worth $200 shipping. It's a standard 430NX motherboard with a PCI-MCA bridge, a Cirrus Logic GL5430 intergrated graphics and an Adaptec AIC-7870 SCSI controller. The WiFi card is most likely some proprietary early wireless product.

If it's the PC Server 720, then it's more interesting, because it can take 4 Pentiums and it must have some custom chipset (by Corollary), but the MCA slots are most likely still just bridged off the PCI bus.

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Reply 3 of 3, by CelGen

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Microchannel sound cards on their own are uncommon so I'm ballparking the market value (IE: not what I'd pay for one) is $150.
Pentium MCA machines WITH PCI also indicate it is one of the last MCA machines IBM made. Regardless it sounds like it's worth the gamble.

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