Compaq Professional Workstation 550AP \ VOGONS

Compaq Professional Workstation 550AP

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First post, by MrWeedster

Posted on 2025-05-14, 08:21

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Recently i was lucky and got a load of these workstations in pristine condition.

Most of them are single PIII 1Ghz with 256MB and a Matrox G450.
One of them was a dual PIII 1Ghz which i've chosen as one of my retro pcs.

They're looking like fresh out of the shop minus all the dust that they've collected over the years, and also the PSU fan is a bit too loud for my taste so i gave it an overhaul.

First of all the PSU fan. It's a 92mm Nidec which is turning way too fast and thus too loud

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Let's replace it with a Noctua:

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Looking good

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Next up: Assembly

Reply 1 of 12, by MrWeedster

Posted on 2025-05-14, 08:29

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After cleaning the case and board drop in the mainboard

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Cables

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CPUs and airflow guide

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Complete

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Running quiet and silent now. The CPU fan isn't too loud so i didn't replace it.

Specs:
Dual PIII Slot 1 1 Ghz
2x128MB and 2x512MB RAMBUS
Hitachi 147GB SCSI disk
Leadtek Winfast A350 FX5900XT
Floppy
Toshiba DVD-ROM

Q3 timedemo four (r_smp 1):
640x480: 115FPS
1024x768: 109FPS

Reply 2 of 12, by MrWeedster

Posted on 2025-05-14, 08:37

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And of course it's a AP550.

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Reply 3 of 12, by H3nrik V!

Posted on 2025-05-14, 11:23

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That's cool! Are they all same type of motherboard, as in, are they upgradable to dual CPU?

If it's dual it's kind of cool ... 😎

--- GA586DX --- P2B-DS --- BP6 ---

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 4 of 12, by MrWeedster

Posted on 2025-05-14, 11:31

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H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-14, 11:23:

That's cool! Are they all same type of motherboard, as in, are they upgradable to dual CPU?

Yes. For second CPU usage they need a VRM and of course a second CPU

Reply 5 of 12, by H3nrik V!

Posted on 2025-05-14, 16:08

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MrWeedster wrote on 2025-05-14, 11:31:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-14, 11:23:

That's cool! Are they all same type of motherboard, as in, are they upgradable to dual CPU?

Yes. For second CPU usage they need a VRM and of course a second CPU

Awesome!

[Edit]: how many are "a load"? 🤣

If it's dual it's kind of cool ... 😎

--- GA586DX --- P2B-DS --- BP6 ---

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 6 of 12, by MrWeedster

Posted on 2025-05-14, 17:42

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A few 😀
Do you want one?

Reply 7 of 12, by momaka

Posted on 2025-05-14, 18:26

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Nice haul!

In regards to the loud PSU fan, let me guess - that PSU was OEM'd by Astec. 😀 For whatever reason, they always set the fan controller in their PSUs to be a bit on the "too loud" side. Most likely the other stations with other OEM PSUs don't have that problem (looking at the back of the leftmost station in this picture, that one uses an SPI/Sparkle/Fortron/FSP PSU.)
Hey, at least it's full of good Japanese caps. 😀

I also like how clean out yours has come out. It's pretty close to pristine, actually - not even light scratches or wear anywhere! WOW.

Reply 8 of 12, by chinny22

Posted on 2025-05-15, 01:32

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MrWeedster wrote on 2025-05-14, 17:42:

A few 😀
Do you want one?

Dual slot 1 motherboard with RD RAM, I know I do!!
VRM's and CPU's should be fairly easy to obtain to get these bad boys upgraded as god intended.
These had that cool design where you could rotate the drive bays 90 degrees depending if you wanted it in a desktop or tower setup.

Reply 9 of 12, by H3nrik V!

Posted on 2025-05-16, 21:33

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MrWeedster wrote on 2025-05-14, 17:42:

A few 😀
Do you want one?

Wouldn't we all .. 🤣

If it wasn't that I have a Dell precision Workstation with dual slot 1 and RD RAM (expected i840 chipset) I might have had room 😉

If it's dual it's kind of cool ... 😎

--- GA586DX --- P2B-DS --- BP6 ---

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 10 of 12, by momaka

Posted on 2025-05-17, 20:17

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H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-16, 21:33:

Wouldn't we all .. 🤣

Nah. Even after all of these years in obsolescence, I still find RDRAM stuff too expensive for my taste. 🤣
I mean, I can practically build a complete retro system (or two) with what I'd pay for a stick or two of RDRAM.
That said, I do think RDRAM is cool nevertheless.

Reply 11 of 12, by H3nrik V!

Posted on 2025-05-17, 23:05

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momaka wrote on 2025-05-17, 20:17:
Nah. Even after all of these years in obsolescence, I still find RDRAM stuff too expensive for my taste. LOL I mean, I can pract […]
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H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-05-16, 21:33:

Wouldn't we all .. 🤣

Nah. Even after all of these years in obsolescence, I still find RDRAM stuff too expensive for my taste. 🤣
I mean, I can practically build a complete retro system (or two) with what I'd pay for a stick or two of RDRAM.
That said, I do think RDRAM is cool nevertheless.

IMO, RDRAM could probably do some good in dual systems, especially with i840 chipset. Didn't make sense for a normal P!!! since SDRAM excelled in being synchronous to FSB where as RDRAM on an i820 and single cpu was a mess of wasted cycles, even skipped cycles, making the faster speed totalt useless at best. But with 2 cpus and dual channel RDRAM it could make sense ...

If it's dual it's kind of cool ... 😎

--- GA586DX --- P2B-DS --- BP6 ---

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 12 of 12, by Jackhead

Posted on 2025-05-21, 08:52

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I didnt know Slot1 also work with VRAMs? Nice build, i like the case alot! And Rambus on a P3 also very cool..

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - A5x86 X5 P75 - 64MB - AHA-2842A VLB - ET4000W32P VLB - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401AT with YucatanFX
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

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