VOGONS


First post, by detritus olentus

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So I've been putting this all together for some time because when I work on nostalgic projects things really do tend to get out of hand. I've acquired 3 Optiplex GX1 midsize machines and matching dell monitors for them. Ive got 2 Pentium 3s and a single Pentium 2 all with varying amounts of ram due to receiving upgrades from my box of spares. The 3 Optiplexes are running Windows 2000 because I deemed it easier for software compatibility and I believe it's what my elementary school had running back in the day. To top off the whole affair I got my hands on a Compaq Proliant G1 with dual Pentium 3 600MHZ processors, 768MB of ram, and Server 2003 R2 to set up a DNS server so that I could do the old login experience properly. This took the most time as I have no experience with Windows Server operating systems which required learning how to set up DNS and make accounts and get the computers into the domain. Generally speaking I suck at networking. These Dells are great little machines because they have built in ATI rage graphics (4MB I think) that's expandable with SG ram assuming any can be found.

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My favorite computer model in my favorite form factor! One day I'd like them to have SSDs but I've only got so much cash for such shenanigans. I recently had a few friends over and had them all up and running for games of drunken Oregon Trail.

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I took the old SCSI drives out of the server and ended up passing them along to someone I thought might put them to better use. It uses a SATA PCI controller and boots from an SSD that's stashed up in front of the power supply. The SCSI array was extremely loud and I didn't trust it to keep running given the age of the computer.

I'm sure you're all tired of me posting about my love of Optiplex machines by this point but here I am again.

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

Reply 1 of 5, by oeuvre

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This might work to increase the VRAM to 8MB https://www.ebay.com/itm/314298-001-Compaq-SP … AM/232045891584

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
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Reply 4 of 5, by chinny22

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indeed you have a nice little little time capsule, all based around Slot's as well, my favourite CPU type 😀
I always liked the idea of 4 identical machines to play my favourite LAN games.
I cant remember which, but know some games allowed for a dedicated server if you wanted to find anther job for your Proliant.

I also added a sound card to my ProLiant 1600 to play period correct mp3's in the background in between games

Reply 5 of 5, by Katmai500

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Oh WOW! I totally forgot about those Dell soundbars for that generation. That's awesome! 😁 My middle school computer lab was decked out with these Optiplexes back in 1999 and I have fond memories of playing Age of Empires on them. A bunch of us also downloaded Napster on them. That school T1 line was awesome compared to the 28.8K modem I had at home. 🤣