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What Should I Build in this Old Server Tower?

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First post, by tegrady

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So I have this old (mid to late 90's) Addtronics 7890A Server Tower case sitting around.

I bought it new over 20 years ago. It has been out of service for about 15 years.

I recently became interested in it again and I am looking for suggestions of what to build inside it.

I am torn between doing a period correct build and doing a modern sleeper build. I am leaning more towards a modern(ish) sleeper build because I have a ton of period correct Windows 95/98 machines and I don't think a late 90's server build would be much use at all, other than to just be cool.

This thing is enormous, so I am looking for the innards to be epic! Obviously it will not be an RGB build as you can't see the inside.

I am attaching the official stock image of the case for reference. The chassis (not the outer panels) on mine has started to lightly rust, so I have taken it apart and am readying it for paint and there is not much to look at now.

Any suggests would be appreciated! Thanks!

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Reply 1 of 15, by brostenen

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How about some dual CPU Slot1 or SlotA? Matrox G400-Max, Vooodoo2-SLI and a good ISA Sound Card?
This will be an epic machine, that are compatible with stuff like BeOS as well.

You know... Build for max speed. Still retain compatibility with as many operating systems as possible.

EDIT:
And finally slam as many different drives as possible into it. To be able to read as many media types as possible.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

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Reply 2 of 15, by eisapc

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Perfect housing for a dual P2, P3 or Xeon setup. Could be combined with some nice SCSI Raid to a retro workstation or fileserver running NT4 or Windows 2000/XP.
Owning a similar case housing a dual Celeron 500 and a raid 5 array of SCSI disks.

Reply 4 of 15, by Intel486dx33

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Pentium-3 Motherboard
Filled with CDROM , DVD, and Sound Cards , IDE SSD, Hard-drives, and a great AGP video card.
Windows 2000 Pro

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  • vp6-retro-pc-update-03.jpg
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Reply 5 of 15, by RaverX

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tegrady wrote:

I am leaning more towards a modern(ish) sleeper build because I have a ton of period correct Windows 95/98 machines and I don't think a late 90's server build would be much use at all, other than to just be cool.

I'd also go for the sleeper build with a HEDT EATX motherboard and custom watercooling. Or a nice NAS, you will be able to put a lot of 3.5" HDDs there. With native HDD bays and 5.25" to 3.5" adapters I think you'll have at least 10 HDDs, but with some modding much more.

Reply 6 of 15, by SpectriaForce

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Nice case for a year 2000 system. Intel PIII Coppermine CPU, Asus motherboard, Geforce 256 graphics card, small SSD, DVD-ROM, CD-RW. It doesn't have to become very expensive.

Reply 8 of 15, by tegrady

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SpectriaForce wrote:

Nice case for a year 2000 system. Intel PIII Coppermine CPU, Asus motherboard, Geforce 256 graphics card, small SSD, DVD-ROM, CD-RW. It doesn't have to become very expensive.

A PIII system would definitely be most "correct", but I want to actually be able to use it for something other than just vintage gaming, and I already have 3 working PIII systems.

I'm leaning more towards a modern sleeper build.

I think I will see if Ryzen prices fall in the near future when the next gen Ryzens are released in the near future...

Thanks.

Reply 9 of 15, by brostenen

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Or you can just do a crazy thing, and install a RaspberryPI in it, and play a bit with it. Then take out the PI and build a real x86 based machine. 🤣

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

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Reply 12 of 15, by bofh.fromhell

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luckybob wrote:
*COUGH* […]
Show full quote

*COUGH*

NFoC6Oum.jpg

*COUGH*

Recently snagged on ebay I presume ? =)
Gz =)
Personaly I prefer the 1MB ppros, but you just can't deny the bling factor of the OD's =)

Reply 13 of 15, by luckybob

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Those are 1MB pentium pro chips.

The boards have been hitting ebay lately, so OP's massive case should be a optimal match.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 14 of 15, by Scraphoarder

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I vote for a sleeper with something like this...

Supermicro X8QBE-F.jpg
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Supermicro Quad socket 1567 with a crapload of DDR3 REG ECC ram slots.. CPUs are dirt cheap and up to 10 cores per CPU.
Just be prepared for the power bill 😊

Reply 15 of 15, by chinny22

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It'll still be ok but airflow will be crap which will limit how epic you go
But yeh, Duel sockets while awesome don't offer much for any gaming rig, did I mention they are awesome though?
My Duel P3 600 with 2 Voodoo 2's (SMP/SLI build) makes me happier then my 1Ghz P3/Voodoo 3

Scraphoarder wrote:
I vote for a sleeper with something like this... […]
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I vote for a sleeper with something like this...

Supermicro X8QBE-F.jpg

Supermicro Quad socket 1567 with a crapload of DDR3 REG ECC ram slots.. CPUs are dirt cheap and up to 10 cores per CPU.
Just be prepared for the power bill 😊

"affordable" Quad... Interesting...

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