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1996 "Workstation," Build Ideas?

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First post, by athlon-power

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Recently, I've gotten the craving to get ahold of some '96 (maybe '97) workstation hardware- the enterprise stuff. I'd really have no use for a development business computer, but I find them alluring for some reason. Always have. A few things to note here:

A) I'd like it to be the best I can get for the time for its kind (more on that in a second).
B) I'd like it to cost a total of under USD $500, but prefer it to cost around or under USD $300.

I'm not sure what to do here, as sure, I could build a Pentium Pro based system (maybe a PPro 180), but at the same time, if there are workstation options for cheaper, I'd rather get those. Most PPro motherboards go for extraordinary amounts of money online, this is minus what it would cost to get a case as well, etc., so it could realistically end up being a USD ~$600 PC, and I am not spending that much money on one single build.

Architecture, brand, OS, etc. doesn't really matter in this instance. All I want is the best or near-best in its line for the time, that is available around my budget somewhere.

I may or may not actually use this machine to build the vintage network I have been planning for years. I would like to branch out from just working with vintage hardware to possibly developing (on a very small scale, of course) software that I can use for my vintage PCs/PC network. I will (hopefully) eventually have a dual x86 processor server running Windows NT 4.0 Server to host this mess.

Where am I?

Reply 1 of 39, by gex85

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If you do extend your search to 1997, you are on Pentium II territory ("Klamath" core, 233/266/300 MHz, introduced May 1997 according to Wikipedia).
Should be easier (and cheaper) to find a decent dual P2 workstation than to go the PPro route.

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Reply 2 of 39, by flupke11

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1996 Workstation equals Pentium Pro if you go for top performance, or a dual socket 7 system. The 1997 equivalent would be a dual i440LX based motherboard (66 MHz). Have Ppro's mainboards become so difficult to find? I would suspect it easier to find a dual Ppro than a dual s7.

Reply 5 of 39, by Intel486dx33

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Intel Pentium cpu.
Intel network card or 3com
64mb edo ram
Win nt4.0 workstation
Adapter scsi
Plextor cdrom
Sony floppy drive
IBM or Seagate Cheetah scsi hard drive
In-win A500 or A500s atx case or Lian Li PC-60, or enlight en7250

Brand name computers:
HP Vectra or Kayak
DEll Precision Optiplex
Intel motherboard.

Reply 6 of 39, by keenmaster486

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Probably dual Pentium Pro was the best you could find in 1996. The OS would be Windows NT or OS/2, probably. Maybe you'd have 64 MB of RAM; that would probably be a lot for 1996.

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Reply 7 of 39, by NautilusComputer

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keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-02-24, 22:22:

Probably dual Pentium Pro was the best you could find in 1996. The OS would be Windows NT or OS/2, probably. Maybe you'd have 64 MB of RAM; that would probably be a lot for 1996.

A lot of dual Pros had offboard VRM cards like some Xeons; I know that back ages ago when I was a teen and my dad had a Micron PC with a Pent Pro 180 he wanted a 2nd CPU but the cost of a 2nd VRM card was WAY too high for his liking (at the time it was in use, it was running Mandrake 5.3, whenever that came out).

Reply 9 of 39, by appiah4

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Our high school's IT department head had a Dual Pentium workstation running NT 3.51, which IIRC was the same configuration as the file and print server for the two computer labs we had. He allowed me to mess around with it but I can't remember the amount of RAM and exact clockspeeds. I do know for sure that it had no CD-ROM for example, but the computers in the library had those and ran things like Encarta so a CD-ROM would be totally appropriate for the era (even our home DX4 had one in 1996).

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Reply 10 of 39, by Intel486dx33

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Probably a Pentium Pro or Pentium ll 233mhz or Pentium 200mhz.
An old HP Kayak with Pentium ll 233mhz if you can find one.
This was one of the first HP Kayaks produced.

Reply 11 of 39, by barleyguy

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If I was looking for a high end workstation from that era, I'd probably look for a Compaq Deskpro. And possibly with a Pentium 200.

Or maybe a dual processor motherboard, like something from Abit. That was their specialty. One of those would be fun to have IMO. EDIT: Google says that the Abit BP6 didn't come out until 1999, so I guess that's not appropriate for a 1996 build. Would still be fun though.

The Pentium Pro was more common in servers, as far as I know. It was rare in desktop workstations. Also, I'm very cautious with Pentium Pros, because as awesome as they were, they were also very fragile. They had zero thermal protection, and ran hot enough to burn up in seconds if you ran them without proper cooling. I'm speaking from experience; I killed a Pentium Pro in a 1 RU Supermicro server because I pushed the power switch without the heatsink clipped down.

BTW, as far as network software, the dominant network software of the 90's was Novell Netware. In 1996 I believe they had about 70% of the market. By 2000 they had lost most of it to a split between Windows NT and Unix/Linux.

Reply 12 of 39, by jade_angel

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wiretap wrote on 2020-02-24, 13:00:

You can also look at early Sun Ultra workstations with an UltraSPARC 143MHz - 200MHz.

Or a Silicon Graphics Indigo2 R10000/IMPACT, but while those are decently common, they're often expensive.

For Sun, yeah, it would have been the Sun Ultra 1 (single-CPU, narrow SCSI, 10Mbit ethernet), Ultra 1 Creator (single-CPU, fast/wide SCSI, 100Mbit ethernet) or the Sun Ultra 2 (dual-CPU, otherwise like the U1Creator, much more upgradeable).

HP and DEC both had something competing in this field, too, but I'm not sure what it was.

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Alas, I'm down to emulation.

Reply 13 of 39, by chinny22

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If you want a dual CPU NT4 box, I'd say just build that. Realistically duel CPU will be overkill no matter if its PPro, P2 or whatever but it's definitely more fun.

Slot1 will be much easier to find and within budget. You may also be able to get a full server as demand isn't as high as PC's I know off the top of my head for Compaq you are after the old naming convention eg
Compaq Prolient #### vs Compaq Prolient ML### Dell, IBM, HP were also the big guys back then

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-03-11, 04:59. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 14 of 39, by douglar

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I did a trading floor with 25 dual Pentium Pro, SCSI drives & 256MB EDO in early 1997. NT 4.0

Compaq Professional 5000 workstations. They were $10K each. It was a "they can't blame us if we spent as much of their money as possible" project.

The onboard NICs ended up fighting with the 100MBs switches when they upgraded from hubs. It was a really strange headache. Had to go back and request money for PCI NIC cards.

You might be able to find one of those old motherboards cheap because they had a proprietary case.

I like what this guy did with his: https://www.applefritter.com/node/9502

Reply 15 of 39, by RetroSilicon

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My vote is on the Pentium Pro. I'm overhauling a project I started a few years back: built a full New-Old Stock Pentium Pro workstation. System features an Intel PR440FX motherboard, dual Pentium Pro "Black Top" 1MB Cache processors, 512MB RAM, 3x Seagate 40GB IDE 7200rpm drives, and an nVidia Riva TNT PCI graphics card. The system is running Debian 8 "Jesse" with a fully customized kernel to maximize the limited RAM and the processors. The system was a tribute to the ASCI RED supercomputer, for those who wish to research it... I'll share my story in another main post, and not hijack this one. Photos attached, and a research paper is available upon request.
IMG_20210714_231450.jpg
IMG_20210714_235815.jpg

Reply 16 of 39, by megatron-uk

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The question is x86/Windows or just "the best damn workstation possible in 1996"?

If the latter, then you're talking:

- Sun Ultra 2
- SGI Indigo2
- SGI Onyx2 deskside (just scrapes in, being introduced in 1996 as a side-by-side replacement to the original Onyx)

By a long way the Onyx2 would have been the most powerful and expensive workstation you could have bought in 1996.

There's also various boring PA-RISC systems from HP, but I never got the impression that they were anything but niche by that time - compared to the much broader market penetration of Sun Microsystems and the technical wizardy of SGI graphical workstations.

If you waited another 12 months or so, then SGI would release the Octane in 1997 which was a far better all-round system.

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Reply 17 of 39, by wiretap

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Most PA-RISC systems I've seen (and used) were used in control system interface type applications. I actually saw one still in service last week when I was at another nuke plant in Louisiana on a benchmarking trip. They were in the process of removing their HP PA-RISC systems when I was there, going with new Intel based systems running ESXi to virtualize it all.

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Reply 18 of 39, by BitWrangler

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DEC Alpha.... nah they're more ridiculous on eBay than PPros. BUT keep ears to the ground in local IT circles and you can score stuff like that for negative two or three hundred bucks as long as you turn up in a box van and take the whole lot (They pay you)

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 19 of 39, by wiretap

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Alphas are pretty hard to come by. Luckily my work was scrapping a bunch of DS10's last year so I grabbed some. This year we are scrapping the DS20E's. I'll probably only grab one of those since they're freaking huge and weigh as much as a bag of Quick-Crete.

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