AmiSaphLinux

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Quick Specs [Original Configuration]
Case Type:	ATX
Motherboard Brand, Make, Model, Revision, Type:	Intel SAI2SCSI Dual Socket 370 Server Board
BIOS Type, Release/Version [Original, Upgrade/Today]:	PhoenixBIOS: P09, P10
CPU Brand, Make, Model, Speed:	2x Intel Pentium III-S 1.4GHz SL5XL Socket 370 CPUs
RAM:	4GB PC-133 Registered SDRAM, 4x 1GB
Hard Drive Capacity [Original, Current]:	One 61.4GB OS drive [IBM Deskstar IC35L060AVV207-0, PATA], Four 250GB drives in RAID0+1 [two Maxtor 7Y250M0 SATA, two Maxtor 7Y250P0 PATA]
Optical Drive:	Lite-On DVD-RAM Drive [for OS installation and troubleshooting purposes only, removed as of 2013/01/03]
Chipset:	Intel ServerWorks ServerSet III LE chipset [Broadcom CNB30LE North Bridge, Broadcom CSB5 South Bridge]
Video Spec:	Onboard ATI Rage XL video with 8MB onboard VRAM
Sound Spec:	None. It's a server board.
Integrated Network Adapter (Yes/No) - If Yes, what:	Yes, Intel Corporation 82559 Ethernet Pro/100
Integrated USB Ports (Yes/No) - If Yes, what:	Yes, Two Rear Onboard - USB 1.1 Specs
Peripherals Added:	D-Link DFE-530TX+ PCI Network Card, Promise Technology TX2 (not TX2plus) [modded to support PATA drives for the server. Wrote a guide, but never published on-site] Update - D-Link card replaced with dual Gigabit network card in 2015
Operating System [Original, Current]:	Ubuntu Server 11.04 [gets upgraded every six months so ignores LTE releases], Ubuntu Server 17.10 [as of 2017/11/xx]
Monitor Spec, Support:	x
Date of Final Build:	August 22, 2011 - September 23, 2011

Quick Specs [Upgrade 1 Configuration]
Case Type:	ATX
Motherboard Brand, Make, Model, Revision, Type:	Tyan Tomcat S2925 Workstation Board Pretending to be S2925-E (Rev.B Zen labeling at BIOS V2.01, Rev.A board ~~is still S2925 at BIOS V2.00~~ has been upgraded to V2.01 and is used in an OPNSense router build as of August 2019.)
BIOS Type, Release/Version [Original, Upgrade/Today]:	Complicated. I have two of these boards. First board (Rev.B ZEN) always had V2.01 for S2925-E boards, but the second one (Rev.A) had V2.00 for S2925. ~~Never upgraded that one (yet)~~ BIOS upgraded to V2.01 as of August 2019. I am using the original board that has V2.01.
CPU Brand, Make, Model, Speed:	1x AMD Phenom II X4 945 Socket AM3 [Quad-Core] CPU @ 3.0GHz, Rev.C3
RAM:	8GB DDR2 ECC Unbuffered SDRAM, 4x 2GB
Hard Drive Capacity [Original, Current]:	One 15.3GB OS drive [IBM Deskstar DTLA-307015, PATA], One 2TB Western Digital RE4 SATA Hard Drive [a result of one Maxtor drive being weird, and a RAID upgrade in limbo]
Optical Drive:	None
Chipset:	nVIDIA nForce Professional 3400 (n3400B)
Video Spec:	XGI XG20
Sound Spec:	None (For this particular board; there is an onboard sound version of the board, but it is uncommon)
Integrated Network Adapter (Yes/No) - If Yes, what:	Yes, Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Onboard
Integrated USB Ports (Yes/No) - If Yes, what:	Yes, Eight Ports: Four Onboard Rear, Four via Connector
Peripherals Added:	None so far
Operating System [Original, Current]:	Ubuntu Server 17.10 [gets upgraded every six months so ignores LTE releases], Ubuntu Server 19.04 [as of 2019/09/17]
Monitor Spec, Support:	x
Date of Upgrade:	December 2017

This is the first true server setup of AmiSaphLinux that started in August of 2011. Instead of using old and oft-used prebuilt machines (and laptops!) from the late 1990s and early to mid 2000s, the server was to be upgradable as time permitted. The original Intel setup was fine for this purpose until it was upgraded in 2017 for a quad core AMD setup.

History

2011: August. Planning to build a true server took some planning with a parts list, which is still on this webserver somewhere. Also, September. It was finally finished and originally ran Ubuntu Server 11.04 Natty Narwhal, x86 as well because non x86-64 PC.
2012: None.
2013: Added D-Link DFE-530TX+ network card to combat network load. Did not cooperate too well at the time and was de-facto disabled for the time being.
2014: None.
2015: Removed D-Link DFE-530TX+ network card and added a dual-port Intel Gigabit network card. Used the second port to combat network load. After a few days, it did not cooperate too well and the second port was de-facto disabled. Sensing a theme here...
2016: Plans to upgrade the server were in the brainstorming stages that year.
2017: November. Finally bought a motherboard worthy of replacement for the aging Intel SAI2 server board. It is the Tyan Tomcat S2925 workstation motherboard. This one came with a dual-core AMD Opteron 1214 HE CPU. Upon receiving the unit there was a metal CPU bracket leftover that was difficult to remove. Eventually did that, and... a piece of a ceramic capacitor (not the entire capacitor) from under the northbridge cracked and popped off. The board still worked, however. Installed Ubuntu Server 17.10 Artful Aardvark x86_64 version. I then ordered the AMD Phenom II X4 945 CPU, and it had to be the C3 revision. Also, December. Received the replacement CPU and upgraded that. Then there was the long troubleshooting story in December that eventually ended up being the RAM, though after obtaining a second S2925 board... which had the same metal CPU bracket leftover.
2018: None so far.
2019: September 5. System drive locked up and have manually recovered the drive. Backed up relevant data since. Tweet Threads: 1, 2

Documents and/or Notes?
No...

Photos?
No...

Extra Stuff?
Yes! Here:

Intel SAI2 for old board
Tyan Tomcat S2925 for current board

Back to the Tech Page!
Back to CW Cyrix's Homepage!