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I got myself an IBM 320 server! What should I do?

M

matheusoc

Member
Joined
May 20, 2023
Messages
11
Well, long story short: This IBM 320 is brand new. 6 were found in a warehouse of a company that went bankrupt decades ago, in the box! I managed to get one. The basic configurations are:

Pentium 166MHz

32MB EDO

HD 2.1GB SCSI

24x CD ROM SCSI

VGA Cirrus 1MB ISA

Some SCSI controller,

The CMOS battery is dead, and it's one of those Dallas chips. I've already found a new one for sale.

I'll need a Soundblaster-compatible sound card and a better VGA card, probably a RAGE.

Besides the DOS era, I want to run Windows 95 or 98 to run some modern games like Age of Empires, but the SCSI drivers needed to run will be chalenge

What do you recommend? Both hardware and software advices are welcome. This server came with all the manuals and software, OSX/2 and Windows NT 3.6, and a bunch of server software...

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I would keep the machine as it is. If you want to upgrade it, equip it with a second CPU, that would be cool! Leave the original video card. If you want to have better video, also use a better computer, like a P3. Using another card is like equipping an original T-Ford with modern seats because that is mor comfortable. But it will look awful.
Use the original software. Again, if you want to run better software, use a better computer. Just like a T-Ford, nowadays it is just a fun car and people will love if you keep it original. Yes, it is your computer and you can do with it like you want but you wanted advise so I gave you mine.

Have fun!
 
That machine was not meant to be a gaming machine, but it does have ISA/EISA and PCI slots so you can do that if you like. You should be able to find a decent sized

I have a dual Pentium I board that I plan to run NT 4.0 on when I get around to it.
 
That's a great find! I'm very envious. :) I agree with the others, keep it as is for historical purposes. Add a second CPU for completeness if you want to. Add more RAM for fun. But use it in a way that it was intended: as a server. Maybe dual-boot it with OS/2 and Windows NT. It could be fun to see NT 3.x's support of HPFS as a common file system to use for both. Or keep them in separate partitions with their own file systems. Either way would be great.
 
Ruud said:
I would keep the machine as it is. If you want to upgrade it, equip it with a second CPU, that would be cool! Leave the original video card. If you want to have better video, also use a better computer, like a P3. Using another card is like equipping an original T-Ford with modern seats because that is mor comfortable. But it will look awful.
Use the original software. Again, if you want to run better software, use a better computer. Just like a T-Ford, nowadays it is just a fun car and people will love if you keep it original. Yes, it is your computer and you can do with it like you want but you wanted advise so I gave you mine.

Have fun!
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Unknown_K said:
That machine was not meant to be a gaming machine, but it does have ISA/EISA and PCI slots so you can do that if you like. You should be able to find a decent sized

I have a dual Pentium I board that I plan to run NT 4.0 on when I get around to it.
Click to expand...

OzzFan said:
That's a great find! I'm very envious. :) I agree with the others, keep it as is for historical purposes. Add a second CPU for completeness if you want to. Add more RAM for fun. But use it in a way that it was intended: as a server. Maybe dual-boot it with OS/2 and Windows NT. It could be fun to see NT 3.x's support of HPFS as a common file system to use for both. Or keep them in separate partitions with their own file systems. Either way would be great.
Click to expand...

I'll have to agree with you all, I have a compaq p3 wit ATI rage that is my other retrostation, but I do want to play games with it hahahaha, I ordered a SB Awe64, and I may also add a network card to play arround with the other PCs hahaha. another p1 is on the list, they ar not rare nor expansive, it would be kind of easy


Unknown_K said:
I meant to write you should be able to find decent sized 68 pin SCSI drives for that machine where you can put different OS on each.
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That is my current doubt right now! 68 pin SCSI are extremely rare, expansive and who knows how long will take to them to die? Currently I am searching about compatibility of 80 pin SCSI usind adaptares, how to partitionate and etc... so I could have multiple OS running

how about OS2/NT/win95/linux?
 
OS/2 was never really big with muti processors (assuming you add another one and get the cache modules for it). I have tons of old 68 pin SCSI HDs around and they seem to last well (either they died in a few years of use, or they are good for ages).

You can ditch the PCI SCSI card and get an old bootable IDE ATA/66/100/133 card and use an IDE drive if you like.

Never seen the point of running Linux on old vintage gear, on the other hand period correct SCO UNIX might be interesting.

Seems like lately I have been getting a few old OEM multi-processor servers. My issue is that they only came with a single CPU and while CPUs are dirt cheap, and you can probably find the correct OEM heatsink the required VRM modules are expensive as hell and hard to find.
 
matheusoc said:
That is my current doubt right now! 68 pin SCSI are extremely rare, expansive and who knows how long will take to them to die? Currently I am searching about compatibility of 80 pin SCSI usind adaptares, how to partitionate and etc... so I could have multiple OS running
Click to expand...

68 pin SCSI is not rare or expensive. It was used for over a decade from the mid 90s to the mid to late 2000s, and it is generally both forward and backwards compatible with support for 50 pin SE devices and SCA-80 devices using adapters. The only limitation is on speed. Older SE SCSI devices are going to be slower (5-20 MB/s) and faster SCSI-3 68/80 pin devices will also not run at their native speed due to the slower SCSI controller you have, and the limitations of the PCI bus, but they will work. The AHA-2940 you have is probably in the 20-40 MB/s range for SCSI bandwidth.

SCSI in old systems offers better performance because SCSI is a smart bus with DMA support. SCSI devices can talk to each other and the host controller using DMA, which unburdens the host CPU from having to bit bang data across the bus, as is common with early IDE devices in PIO mode. SCSI also has its own BIOS, so it is less encumbered by IDE CHS geometry limits that were common at the time.

And whether or not you opt to add the second CPU, you should buy the cache chips and install them. Having L2 cache will give you a considerable performance boost.
 
Unknown_K said:
. I have tons of old 68 pin SCSI HDs around and they seem to last well (either they died in a few years of use, or they are good for ages).
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GiGaBiTe said:
68 pin SCSI is not rare or expensive.
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They are here in Brazil :(

Unknown_K said:
required VRM modules are expensive as hell and hard to find.
Click to expand...

GiGaBiTe said:
nd whether or not you opt to add the second CPU, you should buy the cache chips and install them. Having L2 cache will give you a considerable performance boost.
Click to expand...

This quest just got very hard

Unknown_K said:
You can ditch the PCI SCSI card and get an old bootable IDE ATA/66/100/133 card and use an IDE drive if you like.
Click to expand...
That would brake the server soul, maybe ADD such controller and keep te SCSI, if possible. But apparently is not hard to get a 80-68 pin adapter, and it should work
 
jlang said:
Restore it to original condition and preserve it.
You have a rare find don't turn it to junk.
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I am considering that this thing is not for me hahaha, I know a guy that have a realy nice little museum and wants it, I think my business is more PC than server
 
matheusoc said:
This quest just got very hard
Click to expand...

Not sure how easy it is for you to access Asian markets and Ebay, but the cache chips are readily available, you just need to know which ones. I think those are 32kx8 SRAMs, but the server manual should tell you what you need.

As for VRM, you can ignore that. Your motherboard doesn't need a VRM module for the second CPU. Just install the CPU with a heatsink and it should work. But even if you do need a VRM, there is an open source VRM project so one can be built if need be.

Just remember that you need OS support for both CPUs to work. So Windows NT 3.5x, 4.0 or Windows 2000. An older version of Linux from the early to mid 2000s will also work, or some version of Unix/BSD. If you can cram enough memory into it and a more modern PCI video card, you may be able to get something like Devuan running on it, but it won't be fast.

The EISA bus will be a bit of a headache if you decide to try any EISA cards. It has a similar setup process to the MCA bus, where you need special driver diskettes to configure the card in the EISA BIOS and assign it system resources. The last Windows version to support EISA was Windows 2000. I'm not sure how far Linux/Unix supported it.

Fortunately EISA is backwards compatible with ISA, so you can completely ignore it and treat the system like it just has a bunch of ISA and PCI slots.

jlang said:
Restore it to original condition and preserve it.
You have a rare find don't turn it to junk.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how upgrading the machine is turning it to junk. It was DESIGNED to be upgraded, it's stupid to artificially limit your hardware to to the bare minimum spec of the machine for stupid purity reasons.

All of the upgrades mentioned here are reversible, it's not like the guy is going to be taking an angle grinder and sawzall to the case.

Better for it to be upgraded and used than for it to rot disused in some museum.
 
Unknown_K said:
You can ditch the PCI SCSI card and get an old bootable IDE ATA/66/100/133 card and use an IDE drive if you like.
Click to expand...
just found out that there ISA IDE conector at the motherboard
GiGaBiTe said:
Not sure how easy it is for you to access Asian markets and Ebay, but the cache chips are readily available, you just need to know which ones. I think those are 32kx8 SRAMs, but the server manual should tell you what you need.
Click to expand...
Well, I found a bunch even here in brazil, looks like they are used in simple industrial automation machines. Just have to know what exactly to get
 
GiGaBiTe said:
Just remember that you need OS support for both CPUs to work. So Windows NT 3.5x, 4.0 or Windows 2000. An older version of Linux from the early to mid 2000s will also work, or some version of Unix/BSD. If you can cram enough memory into it and a more modern PCI video card, you may be able to get something like Devuan running on it, but it won't be fast.
Click to expand...

OS/2 Warp Server also supported SMP. It's a little harder to find but it would seem to be appropriate given that this is an IBM server from around that same time.

If I owned this machine, since I already have servers running Windows Server, I would love to put OS/2 Warp Server on it.
 
matheusoc said:
Well, I found a bunch even here in brazil, looks like they are used in simple industrial automation machines. Just have to know what exactly to get
Click to expand...

They look like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/126885589003

Many different manufacturers made those SRAM chips, these were made by UMC. You'll want 15ns or faster to be able to handle the 66 MHz FSB. If you use slower chips, you'll probably start having cache errors and system instability.
 
GiGaBiTe said:
They look like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/126885589003

Many different manufacturers made those SRAM chips, these were made by UMC. You'll want 15ns or faster to be able to handle the 66 MHz FSB. If you use slower chips, you'll probably start having cache errors and system instability.
Click to expand...
Found a much slower



but the exact model that you suggest is available here



the quest has been updated
 
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