It's been an interesting summer for relics!! I was in the attic again and came across an old Asus P2B-D that I could have sworn I sold over a decade ago...I pondered that for a while and realized it was the P2B-DS that I sold, not the D. The "DS" has SCSI on it this one doesnt..... Anyway, I was reminiscing on how much fun that build was when I thought for a minute that I still had most of it...........
I brought it down and fired it....still worked! It had a pair pf P2 450's in it. I had a pair of P3 650's in the junk drawer, so I tried those, it runs them fine. its revision 1.06, which was P3 friendly.

Now, here's where it gets interesting... The case this system originated in was originally built as a server, long before badcaps.net even existed. This hosted one of my first websites ever. The tower is an older Lian Li file server tower that I bought new for this Goliath back in the day. Then the VP6 came out in 2001, and the P2B-D was retired, to never be used again....so this has been sitting in a box since then, alone and forgotten. The case had been through several systems, retired as a server to my personal system in 2002. In 2003, it got an X5DAL-TG2 dual Xeon, and I ran that until 2010, when I stripped the motherboard again and completely retired the case. This case and every system that was in it was nicknamed "Big Mama", which was always its network name as well. it's hard to believe it's been that long ago! I remember all the joys and thrills I got building this thing, I was 24yrs old, and this was the heart of the PC Glory Days!! When I wheeled this bad boy into a LANfest, I was simply GOD!
Anyway, I figured what the hell....why not put her back together....for old time sake if for no other reason. The HDD's were all SCSI, and are long gone. I sold those many years ago, while they were still worth somethign...so I'll have to dig up some replacements, and it seems 68 pin SCSI HDD's are dirt cheap now, even for large sizes! Anyway, first things first with the case... It's been sitting in the garage since retirement in 2010 with junk stacked on it. It weighs about 70lbs, I wasn't toting it up to the attic. It stands 33" tall. it is FILTHY!!


Top and sides removed. Thankfully, when I retired it, I kept all the accessories and parts together with it so they wouldn't get lost!!



A home made gizmo I designed so I can run multiple power supplies independently of eachother. At one time, this machine had a dozen 10,000RPM HDD's in it, very few PSU's could hold it, so I designed this to split the load. it worked like a charm!!


Starting to take it apart...That is a Zip250, not sure if it still works. The floppy is not a floppy, it's an LS120.

The stack is growing.

Had to RatDude the IO shield, as the tray opening is about 1/8" shorter on the top edge, and a standard shield is too tall. Tin snips to trim the top edge off, and shazam!!



Completely stripped and ready to be washed.


The PSU's. The big array is a 500W. The smaller array is 300W.

All Apart!

That's all for now.........this will be an ongoing side project.
I brought it down and fired it....still worked! It had a pair pf P2 450's in it. I had a pair of P3 650's in the junk drawer, so I tried those, it runs them fine. its revision 1.06, which was P3 friendly.
Now, here's where it gets interesting... The case this system originated in was originally built as a server, long before badcaps.net even existed. This hosted one of my first websites ever. The tower is an older Lian Li file server tower that I bought new for this Goliath back in the day. Then the VP6 came out in 2001, and the P2B-D was retired, to never be used again....so this has been sitting in a box since then, alone and forgotten. The case had been through several systems, retired as a server to my personal system in 2002. In 2003, it got an X5DAL-TG2 dual Xeon, and I ran that until 2010, when I stripped the motherboard again and completely retired the case. This case and every system that was in it was nicknamed "Big Mama", which was always its network name as well. it's hard to believe it's been that long ago! I remember all the joys and thrills I got building this thing, I was 24yrs old, and this was the heart of the PC Glory Days!! When I wheeled this bad boy into a LANfest, I was simply GOD!
Anyway, I figured what the hell....why not put her back together....for old time sake if for no other reason. The HDD's were all SCSI, and are long gone. I sold those many years ago, while they were still worth somethign...so I'll have to dig up some replacements, and it seems 68 pin SCSI HDD's are dirt cheap now, even for large sizes! Anyway, first things first with the case... It's been sitting in the garage since retirement in 2010 with junk stacked on it. It weighs about 70lbs, I wasn't toting it up to the attic. It stands 33" tall. it is FILTHY!!
Top and sides removed. Thankfully, when I retired it, I kept all the accessories and parts together with it so they wouldn't get lost!!
A home made gizmo I designed so I can run multiple power supplies independently of eachother. At one time, this machine had a dozen 10,000RPM HDD's in it, very few PSU's could hold it, so I designed this to split the load. it worked like a charm!!
Starting to take it apart...That is a Zip250, not sure if it still works. The floppy is not a floppy, it's an LS120.
The stack is growing.
Had to RatDude the IO shield, as the tray opening is about 1/8" shorter on the top edge, and a standard shield is too tall. Tin snips to trim the top edge off, and shazam!!
Completely stripped and ready to be washed.
The PSU's. The big array is a 500W. The smaller array is 300W.
All Apart!
That's all for now.........this will be an ongoing side project.
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