I was cruising Craigslist the other day when I ran across a posting for a bunch of PC stuff a guy wanted to give away.

Among the mass were 3 things that really caught my attention.

• Asus CUR-DLS Mother board with dual 500 mgh prcs and 2 gigs of ram
• Adaptec PCI SCSI Raid Controller
• 3 Seagate Cheetah 10000 36.7 Gig HDD's

Also among the heap are the case the mobo was in with a 700 watt PS, cd writer and dvd drive. Two old ass Compaq Armada laptops. An ATI Theater 550 PRO tuner card and several other items.

I picked everything up and am now considering what to do with this server...........media storage?? Website???

Anyone here have any suggestions?? The mobo specs are below.

************************

ASUS CUR-DLS - motherboard - ATX - Socket 370 - ServerSet III LE specifications

General
* Product Type Motherboard - ATX
* Cache Memory None
* Chipset Type ServerWorks ServerSet III LE (RCC Champion 3.0 LE)
* Max Bus Speed 133.0 MHz
* Processor Socket Socket 370
* Max Processors Qty 2.0
* Compatible Processors Pentium III
Memory
* Max Supported Memory 4.0 GB
* Supported RAM Technology SDRAM
* Supported RAM Integrity Check ECC
* Supported RAM (Registered or Buffered) Registered
* Graphics
* Graphics Controller ATI RAGE 128 PRO 4XL
* LAN
* Modem None
* Expansion / Connectivity
* Expansion Slot(s) 2.0 x Processor - DIMM 168-pin , 2.0 x PCI 64 - Full-length , 4.0 x Memory - Socket 370 , 5.0 x PCI - Full-length
* Storage Interfaces ATA-33 - connector(s): 2 x 68pin HD , Ultra2 Wide SCSI - connector(s): 2 x 40pin IDC
* Interfaces 1.0 x USB - RS-232 - 4 pin USB Type A , 1.0 x Storage - Generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) , 4.0 x Mouse - Generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) , 1.0 x Parallel - Floppy interface - 34 pin IDC , 1.0 x Serial - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25) , 2.0 x Keyboard - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9)
Features
* BIOS Type Award
* Miscellaneous
* Compliant Standards Plug and Play
* Width 12.0 in
* Depth 9.6 in
* Package Type Retail

man that mobo was an industrial grad mobo back in the days
if my memory is currect pentium 3 goes up to 1.4ghz
minimum requirement for windows 2008 server is around that.
if you run dual CPU on both sockets u should be able to run it.

the question would be!!!!

1. pentium 3 cpu around 1.4ghz will be hard to get and does it worth getting them?

2. mobo doesn't support sata so u have to go old school with HDDs and they are still quite expansive. (and you might want to get quite many for any server purpose)

3. lets just say mobo price is around $70 right now, is it worth spending nearly $200 to make that old school Mobo to work?

4. if you are planning to run media server you will probably need around 4tb of HDD, and i am not sure old mobo will support larg HDDs. i think when that mobo was around biggest HDD were around 250g or less




so~

if i were you, instead of spend money here and there to make that old one to work, i will save them and build myself a uptodate server later on

I hear ya, Sleep - this can be a backwards learning experience at the same time.

I know I can make a great quad or hex core PC with dual NIC cards that can serve the same purpose for less than 700, but NO extra money will be spent here - I'll be using what I got from this guy combined with some of my older stuff.

Just going to see how far I can push this outdated board and the two 500 mghz PIII's that are on board......lol

I appreciate your opinion and suggestions just the same!

yeah if you have all the parts
you should definately build windows 2000 based server
it will be fun~

and if you are planning to use aftermarket cpu cooler
you should be really careful.
370 cpus are really easy to break with pressure

Yeah - I have 2000 Advanced, so......when I said media server, I meant file dump, more or less lol

Thanks for the tip on the cooler - I'm probably going to use a regular fan on top and add a high flow blowing across the heatsinks - that should help keep em cool. Depends on what I've got in the case - ended up going to sleep last night and didn't get a chance to play with it.......lol

My other thought is to throw a copy of Ubuntu on it and configure it as either a switch (have several extra NIC cards) or a firewall.

Not 100% sure yet.........

tversity.com/

I have done a FreeNas install and ran it for several years. Just took it down as the hardware was becoming unstable. Used old parts for it.
lifehacker.com/#!5162026/best-ho ... r-software

wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SqueezeCenter

This is the software I am going to use next. When I build it I will post it and all the equipment I use.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC

Saw that while looking for a Linux form with a small footprint - grabbed a copy of GeeXboX, however. It can run from a flash drive. Also ordered a couple of 50mm ans from ebay - should be in tomorrow. All said and done, I should have it up and running this weekend.

I'll post some pics when I've got it going.

* * * UPDATE * * *

On board video died - can't access the BIOS - this is now scrap in the back of my closet.