Intel PR440FX motherboard

[scharfshutze009]

Here is my Intel PR440FX motherboard

and here is a picture of the case I used for it.

The specs

The PR440FX motherboard supports dual Intel Pentiumâ Pro processors operating at 180 MHz or
200 MHz. Other features include the following:
· Custom ATX form factor
· Two 387-pin Socket 8 type processor sockets
· Four DIMM sockets for up to 512 MB EDO memory
· 256 KB or 512 KB second-level cache memory in Pentium Pro processor
· Intel 82440FX PCIset
¾ PCI and Memory Controller (PMC) and Data Bus Accelerator (DBX)
¾ 82371SB PCI/ISA IDE Xcelerator (PIIX3)
· Two Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces
· Three PCI slots and one shared slot that can support a PCI or ISA add-in card
· National Semiconductor PC87308 integrated I/O controller
· Intel EtherExpress™ PRO/100B PCI LAN subsystem
· Adaptec† 7880 SCSI controller
· Crystal† CS4236 audio subsystem
· Independent voltage and fan speed sensing for each processor
· Desktop Management Interface (DMI) included in BIOS

I currently have 512MB of EDO memory installed that came with the board along with two Pentium Pro 200MHz processors and a video card when I purchased it on ebay several years ago for about $95, but currently there are two Pentium II 333MHz overdrive processors installed.

 

[eddieck]

Mind trading an i7 for that?

Just kidding....

 

[Siorus]

I still have a couple of these, and 4 200MHz/1MB Pentium Pros, and 2 PII Overdrives. One of these days I'm going to do something with them and with the quad P-Pro ES board I've got.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Mind trading an i7 for that?

If you act now you can get this motherboard with about 256MB of EDO RAM and processors on ebay. Besides the quad core core i7 with support for up 24GB of RAM and an ARECA SATA/SAS RAID controller would make a better server than this.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Turns out I may just sell this computer on ebay, but I'm not sure for how much or if I really want to go through with it considering I really wanted to see this computer work and that it might be valuable computer hardware. The reason it might be valuable is because the Pentium Pro and Maybe the Pentium II Overdrive contain a lot of gold, but also because there extremely rare especially the Pentium Pro considering it's made of ceramic and probably one of the last processor not made on an esembly line or mass produced. I may want to sell these though because the software for something this old is almost non-existant now especially an Operating System, I need the money, and I can't afford to complete the project at moment if anytime soon. Also, it wouldn't even prove to be that useful of a computer because most of the pre Valve steam games I own are scratched or need a Pentium III at least if not a Pentium III 1 GHz or faster. Steam requires a 1 GHz processor at least, so using steam on it or using it as a steam game server is out of the question. One last thing with File planet and Fileshack gone there's almost no feasible way to get patches for games as old as the Original Tribes, Quake II, Quake III Arena if it could even possibly run on this, or anything else around that old.

 

[dexvx]

FYI, vintage hardware in working order is worth $$. The Pentium II Overdrive (for Pentium Pro) alone are worth over $100 each, conservatively. If you're short on money, but not on time, you can try eBay. Since the supply (and demand) is quite low, just put in a high starting price (but lower than the other people), and wait it out.

As far as usefulness is concerned, I have a PR440FX sitting in a box. For Windows 9x era retro PC, having a 440BX is way cheaper and can do everything. For DOS, a Socket 7 with regular Pentium, Pentium-MMX can do the same.

 

[scharfshutze009]

FYI, vintage hardware in working order is worth $$. The Pentium II Overdrive (for Pentium Pro) alone are worth over $100 each, conservatively. If you're short on money, but not on time, you can try eBay. Since the supply (and demand) is quite low, just put in a high starting price (but lower than the other people), and wait it out.

As far as usefulness is concerned, I have a PR440FX sitting in a box. For Windows 9x era retro PC, having a 440BX is way cheaper and can do everything. For DOS, a Socket 7 with regular Pentium, Pentium-MMX can do the same.

Thanks, but my biggest problem is be able to afford a high enough wattage power supply with enough molex connectors because this computer can't support SATA unless there is some kind of IDE to SATA adapter out there that is compatible to give this thing enough storage capacity to hold anything worth using this machine for. I was planning on making this a classic local game server because I know you can run classic DOS games with DOS box on newer machines. However, with the price of Windows Server being so high it looks like a distribution of Linux will have to do and I hope it's Debian based if a modern version of Ubuntu Server won't run on it. I know vintage hardware is worth money, but I didn't know working vintage was because I thought buyers were only interested in the scrap value for the gold in systems this old and that's kind of a shame if it's true considering the rareness of a working system this old regardless of if there's not much you can do with it by today's standards.

 

[scharfshutze009]

FYI, vintage hardware in working order is worth $$. The Pentium II Overdrive (for Pentium Pro) alone are worth over $100 each, conservatively. If you're short on money, but not on time, you can try eBay. Since the supply (and demand) is quite low, just put in a high starting price (but lower than the other people), and wait it out.

As far as usefulness is concerned, I have a PR440FX sitting in a box. For Windows 9x era retro PC, having a 440BX is way cheaper and can do everything. For DOS, a Socket 7 with regular Pentium, Pentium-MMX can do the same.

I do remember that PNY made a 5 port PCI RAID card and I did find that, even modern Ubuntu Server will install and run a minimum of a 300 MHz processor and this machine has two 333 MHz Pentium II overdrive processors. Here's how I know it says that:


1.1. System Requirements
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Server Edition supports three (3) major architectures: Intel x86, AMD64 and
ARM. The table below lists recommended hardware specifications. Depending on your needs, you
might manage with less than this. However, most users risk being frustrated if they ignore these
suggestions.
Table 2.1. Recommended Minimum Requirements
Hard Drive Space
Install Type
CPU
RAM
Base System All Tasks Installed
Server (Standard) 1 gigahertz 512 megabytes 1 gigabyte 1.75 gigabytes
Server (Minimal) 300 megahertz 192 megabytes 700 megabytes 1.4 gigabytes
The Server Edition provides a common base for all sorts of server applications. It is a minimalist
design providing a platform for the desired services, such as file/print services, web hosting, email
hosting, etc.

 

[Red Falcon]

Thanks, but my biggest problem is be able to afford a high enough wattage power supply with enough molex connectors because this computer can't support SATA unless there is some kind of IDE to SATA adapter out there that is compatible to give this thing enough storage capacity to hold anything worth using this machine for. I was planning on making this a classic local game server because I know you can run classic DOS games with DOS box on newer machines. However, with the price of Windows Server being so high it looks like a distribution of Linux will have to do and I hope it's Debian based if a modern version of Ubuntu Server won't run on it. I know vintage hardware is worth money, but I didn't know working vintage was because I thought buyers were only interested in the scrap value for the gold in systems this old and that's kind of a shame if it's true considering the rareness of a working system this old regardless of if there's not much you can do with it by today's standards.

dexvx is right, retro (legacy) equipment is worth a lot, and the older it is, and the more functional it is, makes it worth its weight in gold.
If you have 512MB of EDO DRAM with that setup, you can definitely run Debian or Ubuntu server headless on that equipment.

The main limitation of older equipment like that, depending on what services you are running and/or are actually serving on it, would be CPU processing power.
Even with a gigabit ethernet NIC, those CPUs (assuming single-threaded SMB service) would maybe push around 6-13MB/s for a single transfer; this is obviously not a limitation of the gigabit NIC, but a limitation of the CPU itself.

For a file or print server, it would be a lot of fun to host those services on such equipment, or even a DOOM or Quake I/II/III server (or equivalent game from that era).
Of course it isn't practical, as nothing about retro/legacy computing is practical... it's all about the fun and exploration of said technology of the era it hailed from!

Demand for this equipment is quite high right now, and as dexvx said, ebay would be a great option to sell such equipment.
Old and broken equipment may not sell for as much (assuming it is in good enough shape to be fixed) and could potentially be sold for gold scrap (normally just the CPUs with PGA), but if it is all truly in working condition, you could make quite a nice profit.

If you have some time, please post some pics in my retro-computing thread of your equipment, myself and quite a few others would be super excited to see it!

EDIT: This system is similar to the one you are selling, with less equipment intact, and is selling for a good amount.

 

[dexvx]

Thanks, but my biggest problem is be able to afford a high enough wattage power supply with enough molex connectors because this computer can't support SATA unless there is some kind of IDE to SATA adapter out there that is compatible to give this thing enough storage capacity to hold anything worth using this machine for. I was planning on making this a classic local game server because I know you can run classic DOS games with DOS box on newer machines. However, with the price of Windows Server being so high it looks like a distribution of Linux will have to do and I hope it's Debian based if a modern version of Ubuntu Server won't run on it. I know vintage hardware is worth money, but I didn't know working vintage was because I thought buyers were only interested in the scrap value for the gold in systems this old and that's kind of a shame if it's true considering the rareness of a working system this old regardless of if there's not much you can do with it by today's standards.

Let's be very clear about the practical usefulness of an old server for serving stuff - It's not very useful. If you want to be somewhat faithful to the era, you can get an Adaptec 2940U2W for pretty cheap and some LVD SCSI drives. But IMO, you can just get an IDE -> SDHC adapter and use a higher end U3 SD Card (like a Sandisk Extreme) and it'll blow any vintage RAID setup out of the water in terms of speed, size, power consumption, etc.

Vintage things are being sought after because of their rarity. If they work, it'll make them that much rarer and worth more. They are worth FAR more than the scrap value. IIRC, a working PR440FX can probably fetch $100. If you have a box and accessories, that would jump significantly. In the FS/T forums, I make every attempt to buy high end items with retail box and accessories. Who knows, 20 years down the line, that Maximus VI Extreme board will be the sought after item.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Here's the picture of it, which I had to upload to imgur because photobucket wants me to pay for 3rd party hosting to embed pictures on forums:

and

 

[scharfshutze009]

Let's be very clear about the practical usefulness of an old server for serving stuff - It's not very useful. If you want to be somewhat faithful to the era, you can get an Adaptec 2940U2W for pretty cheap and some LVD SCSI drives. But IMO, you can just get an IDE -> SDHC adapter and use a higher end U3 SD Card (like a Sandisk Extreme) and it'll blow any vintage RAID setup out of the water in terms of speed, size, power consumption, etc.

Vintage things are being sought after because of their rarity. If they work, it'll make them that much rarer and worth more. They are worth FAR more than the scrap value. IIRC, a working PR440FX can probably fetch $100. If you have a box and accessories, that would jump significantly. In the FS/T forums, I make every attempt to buy high end items with retail box and accessories. Who knows, 20 years down the line, that Maximus VI Extreme board will be the sought after item.

Here's a video of it and yes I know the video needs stabilized, but I was using my previous phone when I did this video and I can't afford a better video camera right now. I was about the get a GoPro Hero 4, but I figured it would be better to pay off my American Express Credit cards high balance for the long run than keep this camera and the accessories because I'm experiencing technical difficulties with using Windows 10 Pro 64-bit on my dual boot system considering that auto-update messed it up and boot repair from the installation USB flash drive won't fix it:

 

[Red Falcon]

Man, that is a nice system.
What price were you thinking of selling it for?

If you do list it on ebay, please let us know, thanks!

 

[scharfshutze009]

Let's be very clear about the practical usefulness of an old server for serving stuff - It's not very useful. If you want to be somewhat faithful to the era, you can get an Adaptec 2940U2W for pretty cheap and some LVD SCSI drives. But IMO, you can just get an IDE -> SDHC adapter and use a higher end U3 SD Card (like a Sandisk Extreme) and it'll blow any vintage RAID setup out of the water in terms of speed, size, power consumption, etc.

Vintage things are being sought after because of their rarity. If they work, it'll make them that much rarer and worth more. They are worth FAR more than the scrap value. IIRC, a working PR440FX can probably fetch $100. If you have a box and accessories, that would jump significantly. In the FS/T forums, I make every attempt to buy high end items with retail box and accessories. Who knows, 20 years down the line, that Maximus VI Extreme board will be the sought after item.

I know at least the processors go for a lot on eBay because I'm seeing them go for as much as $700-$800 each new in box, which is a lot compared to what I paid for them years ago considering mine are no longer new in box and I know I can't price check on Hard Forum either. Therefore, I won't ask if $700-$800 is a good selling point, even though I know it is. Unfortunately, though the board isn't worth nearly as much and I can probably say the same for the case as well as the video card.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Man, that is a nice system.
What price were you thinking of selling it for?

If you do list it on ebay, please let us know, thanks!

I don't know because it seems as though I just get laughed at for selling old computers now, even though I know this system might be worth a fortune especially if the processors are going for as high as around $700 to $800. I still want to complete the build too.

 

[Red Falcon]

I don't know because it seems as though I just get laughed at for selling old computers now, even though I know this system might be worth a fortune especially if the processors are going for as high as around $700 to $800. I still want to complete the build too.

Nah, normal people who don't understand legacy or retro computing will laugh, but there is quite a large participating audience of retro computing and gaming enthusiasts, and quite the growing market.
In 2007, you couldn't have paid to someone to take that system, whereas today, that system may go for upwards of $1000, maybe more, especially with those extremely rare 333MHz Socket 8 Pentium II Overdrive CPUs - those are not common at all, and I've never even seen one out in the wild before.

If selling the system as a whole doesn't work, you may still be able to make a profit by selling it in pieces.
The working 128MB SIMM modules of EDO DRAM in your system are quite difficult to find as well due to their very high capacity for EDO memory, and each stick can sell for upwards of $50-75 or more for each SIMM module.

Heh, for some reason I kept thinking you had a dual Pentium Pro system, which would have been in my budget, but for a dual Pentium II Overdrive system with high capacity EDO SIMMs and the faster model CPUs, I don't think I could afford this one for quite some time; though I might try if the price is right - no promises, though!
However, I would recommend listing it on ebay, and as dexvx stated, start high and work your way down if you aren't getting any bids or bites.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Nah, normal people who don't understand legacy or retro computing will laugh, but there is quite a large participating audience of retro computing and gaming enthusiasts, and quite the growing market.
In 2007, you couldn't have paid to someone to take that system, whereas today, that system may go for upwards of $1000, maybe more, especially with those extremely rare 333MHz Socket 8 Pentium II Overdrive CPUs - those are not common at all, and I've never even seen one out in the wild before.

If selling the system as a whole doesn't work, you may still be able to make a profit by selling it in pieces.
The working 128MB SIMM modules of EDO DRAM in your system are quite difficult to find as well due to their very high capacity for EDO memory, and each stick can sell for upwards of $50-75 or more for each SIMM module.

Heh, for some reason I kept thinking you had a dual Pentium Pro system, which would have been in my budget, but for a dual Pentium II Overdrive system with high capacity EDO SIMMs and the faster model CPUs, I don't think I could afford this one for quite some time; though I might try if the price is right - no promises, though!
However, I would recommend listing it on ebay, and as dexvx stated, start high and work your way down if you aren't getting any bids or bites.

I do have the Pentium Pro's that came with the board when I bought it off eBay around 2004 or 2005 sitting in the top of my closet, but I want to hang on to them because their extremely rare and in case I need them in place of the Pentium II Overdrive processors if their fans go bad. I do with both of my Pentium II Overdrive Processors had the same power connector on them for less cable clutter though and I might still want to sell this computer or these parts because it's very limited as to what you can do with these considering most Linux Operating Systems, even still max it out to the point that theirs not much you can do on with the hardware. After all, I bought this when Pentium 4's were still highest end systems from Intel and Windows Server 2003 was available to get for this. I always wanted to see Pentium Pro's and Pentium II Overdrives run though, but with the cost of SCSI HD's being so high or the risk of buying used or refurbished SCSI HD's being so great and the Possibility of PNY's PCI SATA RAID controller not working in this system if I have one for it or can find one for sale it's making it difficult to complete the build.

 

[thesmokingman]

I remember back in college, one of my buddies had a Pentium Pro system. I was so jelly at the time!

 

[Red Falcon]

I do have the Pentium Pro's that came with the board when I bought it off eBay around 2004 or 2005 sitting in the top of my closet, but I want to hang on to them because their extremely rare and in case I need them in place of the Pentium II Overdrive processors if their fans go bad. I do with both of my Pentium II Overdrive Processors had the same power connector on them for less cable clutter though and I might still want to sell this computer or these parts because it's very limited as to what you can do with these considering most Linux Operating Systems, even still max it out to the point that theirs not much you can do on with the hardware. After all, I bought this when Pentium 4's were still highest end systems from Intel and Windows Server 2003 was available to get for this. I always wanted to see Pentium Pro's and Pentium II Overdrives run though, but with the cost of SCSI HD's being so high or the risk of buying used or refurbished SCSI HD's being so great and the Possibility of PNY's PCI SATA RAID controller not working in this system if I have one for it or can find one for sale it's making it difficult to complete the build.

Nah, let me give you a hand with some cost-effective SCSI HDDs and other parts which are rock solid, even despite their age!


Seagate Savvio ST973401LC 2.5" 10000 RPM SCSI-320 HDDs - Go for $10-20 each, and are compatible from SCSI-1 up to SCSI-320

SCSI 80-pin to 68-pin adapters - Go for around $9-15 each

SCSI 68-pin cable with built-in terminator - Go for around $10-15, and one or two should be sufficient for quite a few HDDs

Dell PERC4/DC SCSI-320 hardware RAID PCI-X (64-bit PCI) cards - Goes for $3-30 on average, and these have BBUs for write-back (higher performance than write-through), 128MB SDRAM cache, and are compatible with 32-bit 33MHz PCI slots


Hope this helps!

 

[dexvx]

Now that's an overkill solution Although, IMO, you're better off with these drives:

HP 15K U320 SCSI

 

[Red Falcon]

Now that's an overkill solution Although, IMO, you're better off with these drives:

HP 15K U320 SCSI

When you need it, and don't have it, you'll be singing a different tune.
Not a bad price at all for those HDDs, though, that's quite the lucrative deal; nice find!

 

[scharfshutze009]

Nah, let me give you a hand with some cost-effective SCSI HDDs and other parts which are rock solid, even despite their age!


Seagate Savvio ST973401LC 2.5" 10000 RPM SCSI-320 HDDs - Go for $10-20 each, and are compatible from SCSI-1 up to SCSI-320

SCSI 80-pin to 68-pin adapters - Go for around $9-15 each

SCSI 68-pin cable with built-in terminator - Go for around $10-15, and one or two should be sufficient for quite a few HDDs

Dell PERC4/DC SCSI-320 hardware RAID PCI-X (64-bit PCI) cards - Goes for $3-30 on average, and these have BBUs for write-back (higher performance than write-through), 128MB SDRAM cache, and are compatible with 32-bit 33MHz PCI slots


Hope this helps!

Thanks I'm sure this will help when I'm ready to buy these.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Now that's an overkill solution Although, IMO, you're better off with these drives:

HP 15K U320 SCSI

Thanks I'm sure this will also help when I'm ready to buy these.

 

[scharfshutze009]

This computer won't boot to the Ubuntu Live CD for minimal installation and says the following:

Insert bootable media into appropriate drive.

However, there is bootable media in the drive and I pressed enter

It is for this reason that a had this computer up for sale on ebay, but took it down because I felt nobody wanted to pay what I was asking regardless of if it's difficult to ask less.

On last thing maybe, is that I wanted to build this system because I wanted to have a Pentium II socket based processor instead of a slot based, even though the socket 8 died years ago after socket and slot 1 or later.

Now I don't think I can make it work.

There's nothing I can do to fix the IDE controllers detection either because the BIOS only supports auto configuration or disabled.

No BIOS updates are available any longer either.

My only option might be to use an IDE controller card, SCSI card, or SATA card.

 

[Red Falcon]

How much were you asking for it on eBay?
I never knew, otherwise I may have been a serious buyer, depending on the price.

What Ubuntu Live CD were you trying to use?
Also, how fast is the optical drive in that system, and how fast did you burn your Live CD? - I'm asking this since sometimes lower speed optical drives won't read faster burned discs properly.

Please let me know if you have a chance, thanks!