Proliant 8500

D

Darth Bagel

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 1, 2005
Messages
383
Well, my work just gave me a Compaq Proliant 8500. 2x1.33ghz P3 Xeon CPU's, 1024MB PC133 ECC possibly Reg. memory, 6x18.2GB 10k RPM Ultra 2 SCSI drives, and 3x450W PSU's. The thing is, I have no idea what I'm doing with this thing. I'm thinking I'll transfer my 2k3 Server license to it and put it in my apartment in Rochester (where I don't have to pay for power) and use it for UD or something. I'd also like to take advantage of the SCSI drives to make a decent sized storage server. What I know I need right now is memory and hard drives, and I'm not at all clear on what I'm looking for from either. Can somebody point me in some sort of direction here?
 
Are you sure it's an 8500?
Are you sure they're 1.33Ghz?

IIRC, the highest clocked Slot2 Xeon's were 1Ghz, and only 256k L2 cache (e.g. 'Fake Xeons'). Thus only 2-way SMP.
The 8500 was 8-way capable. It would seem odd to put only 2 chips in such a beast.

The highest 8-way possible chips were the 900Mhz'ers. And more commonly, the 700Mhz'ers w/ 2M L2 cache.

The rackmountable format 8500's only had 4 external scsi bays, is this one of the 'end table' type massive towers?
 
It's a huge case. The drive openings are arranged in 2 groups of 6 with the drives on their sides. I don't know that it's an 8500, but I know it's a proliant. The inspection sticker on the front claims it has 2x1.33. Is there some way I can check the processors?
 
Ok, so I took out one of the CPU's, the numbers on it are:
1000/133/256 S2 5/12V
12030140-0121 Philippines
(something odd here, I'd guess copyright) SL4HF

Does this mean it's not a 1.33?
 
At POST it should say the Model # and processor count.
If you have Win 2000/XP/2003 you can run 'winmsd' and it'll tell you some info about the system, and what chips are in there.
Also if you open it, you can tell. It sounds like you have normal pIII's in a dual configuration. They would be the smaller square socket 370 chips. If they are 1.33's, they're probably pIII "S"s which had 512 L2 cache. Could be worth some $$. The 1.4Ghz S's are pricey.

If they are Xeon's they are going to be big, like twice the height of a SNES cartige. And kinda heavy. They were like Slot1 Pentiums, but taller.
 
they be normal Pentium III's.
Not the S's i mention in the above post.

[Edit]
They are the last of the Slot2 Xeon's at 133FSB. They only have 256k L2 cache.
That probably also means you machine is only dual capable. I've never seen a board that can take those chips and have quad slots.
 
I haven't gotten to starting it yet, and I probably won't for a few weeks.

I also just took a look at the other servers in the pile I got this one from, and I see that they are clearly marked as 8500's, this one is not.

Ha! Google image search pays off! This one is just like mine:
ML570b.jpg


Which is an ML570. Looks like I may have to fire it up when I get it home.
 
Somewhat disappointing on the CPU's

I kinda wanted an 8500, but I have no idea what's in them. This one is quite good enough, I think.

edit: ok, so now I'm having second thoughts. Should I see about swapping this for another one?

edit 2: to hell with it, i'll just take this one.
 
As far as drives go, www.unityelectronics.com sells refurb SCSIs.
I picked up a pair of 36GB 15k.3s for $90 ea and a 73GB 10k HH drive for $99 last fall. These days I think they have 1" 10k 73s and 36GB 15k.4s for about $100 ea.
 
Ok, time to update my thread for you kind people. Yesterday I brought home an actual 8500r with 4gb of memory and 8 500mhz cpu's. This one came with 4 9.1gb 10k rpm ultra 3 drives. Chances are they're both going to be chewing on stuff for an [H] team, along with the 2 or 3 more servers I'm getting from a friend tonight.

Cry for my apartment's wiring.
 
"that's hot." :D

I've got some SmartArray controllers i'll be looking to sell shortly if you don't have them already.
 
If you end up upgrading those SCSI drives to something bigger, PM me about buying the old ones, I'm always looking for SCSI gear :)
 
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