# My next hardware project

Over time I have collected a lot of old hardware. It was all in
working order at some point, but over time batteries and hard disks
have died or they have been cannibalised for other projects.


## The contenders

### Unnamed 4U

Dual Pentium Pro 200mhz ATX motherboard, 128mb RAM. It will hold
standard ATX components and PSU. Possible RAM upper limit of 256mb...
I took 128mb out of it for the SGI.

### Compaq Proliant 6U(ish)

Dual Pentium Pro 200mhz (with second daughter board to hold another
pair), 384mb? RAM, Compaq Smartraid 2 SCSI card with 4x 9.1Gb SCA 
SCSI disks. The turn-off for me on this is that a lot of it is
non-standard form factor.

Picture of both systems[2] stacked.


## Parts and thoughts

This week I purchased an 8Gb CF card and a CF card to 40 pin IDE
adapter with bracket[1]. I had the idea of resurrecting the 4U dual
pentium pro, using it with a version of Linux that will run in memory
and maybe a separate CF card with FreeDOS on it. I like the idea of
them being switchable ROMs of sorts so may include a separate drive
of some kind for user data.

Today I was talking to someone on IRC who has 3 Proliants and I
started thinking that there was a lot more scope for expansion with
the Proliant. I can add a lot more memory and a second pair of CPU's.
The SCSI sub system could be removed and replaced with something more
modern, maybe a pair of SATA drives... I already have a 3ware
hardware raid card and a couple of 200Gb SATA drives in hot swap
caddies.

Now I'm really in a bit of a dilemma! Thankfully there is a 
democratic way to settle this since I finished the gopher poll 
system. 

Cast your vote![3]

[1](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364016036247)
[2](gopher://gopher.icu/I/files/which-server.jpg)
[3](gopher://gopher.icu/1/poll?poll=1676405525)