Chuck(G)
25k Member
I couldn't find a thread on the subject of what old PCs make good "tweener" systems. Since older systems can be had for little more than junk prices, this might be of some help.
I'll kick it off with a test of the HP Vectra VL600.
Produced around 2001, this has a FIC KC-19+ motherboard.
Usual 2 serial + parallel + usb for the time.
Requires an AGP for display (I think HP furnished a low-end Matrox board).
Chipset is Intel 820, which means RIMM/RDRAM for memory. Fortunately, that stuff is cheap nowadays (I paid $10 for 1GB of 800MHz RIMM).
Slot 1 P3 CPU with 133MHz system bus. I installed a Socket 370 1.4GHz Tualatin P3 with a Powerleap Slocket I had.
2 floppy controller, capable of FM and MFM, and supports 128 byte MFM (surprise!).
Sound is Crystal CS4622.
...and 2 ISA slots, 4 PCI slots
BIOS updates and manuals are available from the FIC ftp site
Overall, a pretty snappy setup; I loaded mine up with Win98SE, WinXP and Xubuntu 14.04 and a Linksys PCI wireless card.
I'll kick it off with a test of the HP Vectra VL600.
Produced around 2001, this has a FIC KC-19+ motherboard.
Usual 2 serial + parallel + usb for the time.
Requires an AGP for display (I think HP furnished a low-end Matrox board).
Chipset is Intel 820, which means RIMM/RDRAM for memory. Fortunately, that stuff is cheap nowadays (I paid $10 for 1GB of 800MHz RIMM).
Slot 1 P3 CPU with 133MHz system bus. I installed a Socket 370 1.4GHz Tualatin P3 with a Powerleap Slocket I had.
2 floppy controller, capable of FM and MFM, and supports 128 byte MFM (surprise!).
Sound is Crystal CS4622.
...and 2 ISA slots, 4 PCI slots
BIOS updates and manuals are available from the FIC ftp site
Overall, a pretty snappy setup; I loaded mine up with Win98SE, WinXP and Xubuntu 14.04 and a Linksys PCI wireless card.