Latest loot! aka: I need to tell someone about this as my gf isn't interested thread!

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This has to be one of the best weekends on record for cool free stuff.

A friend of mine is the IT guy at a company here on the island. He had a bunch of stuff to clear out of the office which I gladly offered to relieve him of!

For FREE I managed to acquire:

1 x Dell Precision 670 (Intel Xeon), 2 x 160gb SATA HDD's, 0 x Ram (got a question about that!), DVD-ROM drive, DVD-RW drive plus other stuffs.

1 x Brother MFC 9700 All in one laser printer, copier, scanner and fax. Low on toner but meh, i'll get a new one!

3 x Dell workstations. I think two of them have a P4 the other a Celeron. One with 30gb IDE the other 160gb IDE. 512mb ram in each.

1 x compaq PIII desktop with 64mb ram and win 2k. 30gb ide.

1 x 3com Office Connect hub. Just needs a power adapter.

Not a bad haul eh!? I also managed to pick up a stack of books for just CI$10! (about US$14) all with the CD's unopened and the books in near-mint condition! I got:

New Riders MCSE Training Guide - Networking Essentials
MS Press Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administrators Pocket Consultant
Que A+ Fifth Edition by Ed Tittel
Sybex MCSE Exam Notes Proxy Server 2
MS Press SQL Server 2000 Server Administration 2nd Edition
MS Press Managing A Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Environment 2nd Edition
MS Press Implementing And Administering Security In A Microsoft Windows 2000 Network 2nd Edition
MS Press Security+ Certification (CompTIA Exam SYO-101)
Addison-Wesley Cert Guide to System and Network Security Practices
2 x Carl Hiaasen books
The Greatest Drinking Games Ever book (a necessity for any gentleman's bookshelf I think!)

All good useful reference books I feel (bar the fiction stuff of course!).

I have a question about the Dell Xeon server doohickey though. It comes with no RAM but when I looked up the RAM it takes it mentions ECC RAM. Is that the only kind of RAM these things can take? I'd rather put some cheapo RAM in it to start and see where it goes from there. The one thing it does say is if I want to put in 1gb RAM, I have to do it in 2 x 512mbs. Is that correct? Why can I not just put in 1 x 1gb stick?

 

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If it needs ECC then that is what you have to use. Some of these servers can sometimes be downgraded to take non-ECC - you will have to check the docs to see if this one will.

The reason for adding multiple sticks at a time is 'interleaving'. This allows more efficient access to memory, and is faster. Some units - like one of the ones I deal with here, need 4 sticks at a time.

Harry.

 

Ahh damn, I was hoping that would not be the case.

I've no docs with the machine but I reckon there must be some floating around online somewhere. What do you mean by downgrading the RAM from ECC to accept other types of RAM? Would that be something that you would set in the BIOS?

Thanks for the info though, much obliged.

 

Right find me a flat...reasonable rates...im moving to the Cayman Islands...i cant be sitting here hearing all about this free stuff u keep getting ...spread the joy!!

 

Hehe, we have a spare room, you can have that for the right price (or some free stuff haha!)

It's surprising how much stuff there is to find here. The local paper has ads from locals for garage sales. We went to one saturday night and for CI$5 I walked off with a handful of power/usb cables and a tub of 25 or so blank DVD RW's.

There are lots of IT and medical students here who have loads of stuff to sell when they leave the island. Probably how I came about these books (I found a note in one of them from I assume the owners friend asking him to meet at the bar for beers. It's probably why the books are in mint condition, he never used them!).

I'll likely never read cover to cover at least 75% of what I bought. But in my job where I deal with everything from Windows 3.1 to Vista to Linux etc every day, it makes for handy reference material at least.

One persons junk is another persons treasure as they say...

 

Dell usualy put a label on their machines with a 'service tag' number on it. Use that number to find the docs on Dell's site.

*If* you can fit non-ECC memory that would usualy be a BIOS option.

Harry.

 

Nice one!

I found the service tag on the machine and found the documentation for it. It states:

Memory Overview

NOTE: Your computer supports ECC and registered memory.

• Memory modules should be installed in pairs of matched size, speed, and rank (1R is single
  rank and 2R is dual rank). See the label on the memory module to determine its size, speed
  rank, and organization. Be sure that your memory module labels match.
  Example: 256MB 1Rx8 PC2-3200R-333-10:
  
• Size = 256 MB
• Speed = 3200
• Rank = 1R
• Organization = x8

Here, while your at it, I don't suppose you know where I can download a manual for my Mr. Coffee machine do you? I lost it a while ago and need to set up the 'Auto Brew' function on it. Hehehe.

 

Another reason why RAM has to be installed in pairs (or fours) is because of differences in bus widths between the CPU and the memory. For example, the original Pentium had a 64-bit memory bus width. But 72-pin SIMMs were only 32 bits wide. Thus, you had to install them in pairs. In contrast, the 486SX had a 32-bit bus width. Thus, you could install 72-pin SIMMs a single stick at a time with a 486SX. Same concepts hold true for faster processors.

 

Interesting. I wonder how that works out for quad core Xeons, or am I clutching at different straws here? Also, my shiny Xeon machine has only one CPU in it, though an empty slot for another. Excuse the ignorance, but would the RAM pairs rule only come in to effect if I had another CPU in there? If so, do I have to use pairs of RAM with just one CPU?

 

It does get more confusing when you get to dual/quad pumped buses, multi-core CPUs, multiple CPUs, and multi-channel RAM. Nowadays, I just get whatever the motherboard manufacturer recommends.

 

...or the user manual, some 'midnight oil' and a silo full of Tylenol!

 

On servers the 'pairs' rule is usualy because of interleave, so you have to fit them in pairs even if only one CPU.

What you have here is not really the same as a home PC. Superficialy it may appear the same, but there are lots of differences to enhance its capabilities.

Harry.