spacesaver wrote on 2025-01-31, 09:01:

I've got an itch to get a 4x pentium pro system. The most prevalent parts I'm seeing are for Proliant 5000. Does anyone know w […]
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I've got an itch to get a 4x pentium pro system. The most prevalent parts I'm seeing are for Proliant 5000. Does anyone know what it takes to build one from parts?

1. motherboard
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/compaq-proliant-5000

2. 2 processor cards + 6 ? DC to DC converters
download/file.php?mode=view&id=211259

Those DC to DC converters don't seem to be included with the processor card and are hard to find

3. 2 memory boards

4. Power supply - it seems the blue socket is 1 connector. But there seems to be another 20 pin power connector? How does the power button work?
download/file.php?mode=view&id=211258

5. disks - Does it only support SCSI? I have to get a SCSI floppy, SCSI CDROM, etc?
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/2478933/Com … 00.html?page=23

Seems like a plan!!! 😀

The Processor Power Modules don't seem that hard to track down...searching for 219209-001 will give you a number of hits.

This QRG list may also help with other part nos. - https://web.archive.org/web/19961225233831/ht … 2/prol5000.html

Nice Project, I build up my 5000 from spares 20 years ago, when parts were still cheap and availiable on ebay US.

The Proliant 5000 uses proprietary VRM modules as you allready noticed.
There are two additional VRMs needed for the motherboard.
Try to find CPU boards complete with CPUs, coolers and VRMs, its will be a long and stony road to find these seperate.
There are different memory boards for the 5000, the originals supported only buffered FPM DIMMS up to 128 MB, while the later supported buffered EDO DIMMs up to 256 MB.
2 memory boards are installed on the motherboard and memory is installed in quads.
The PS is right for the rack Version, the Tower version is different, seems to be the same as Proliant 4500, 4000, 2000, 1000.
The housing is mostly the same on these models no matter if the tower or the rack variant.
The power button is a simple switch on the black box, there is a plastic mounted on top to prevent accidental switching.
The black box has a second switch inside activated by a pin on the door, to prevent powering with door/top removed.
The 5000 supports standard Floppy but the CD-ROM is SCSI. (no motherboard IDE, but a IDE port on a plug in card i.e. on a soundcard should work)
CD-Rom should be Compaq branded to enable booting of the SMARTstart CD, or you will have to use floppy for configuration.
Smartstart 5.5 is the last release supporting the EISA models.
You will need the SCSI cage and the hot Plug drives as well.
A SmartArray controller was usually installed in these boxes.
Forgot to mention that the board will not start if the system fans are not connected, so these will be one more item on your list.

The Proliant 5500 (PPro Version, there is a 5500 quad Pentium II Xeon as well) is another quad PPro, but uses generic VRM modules and easier to find buffered EDO DIMMs might be another option.
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/compaq … 0-5500r-p6-ppro
Full system: https://live.staticflickr.com/4023/4607198020 … 003951417_b.jpg
Mobo only: https://servers4less.com/007454-002-hp-system … er-refurbished/
Not sure if upgrading a proliant 3000 (the older 66Mhz Bus version with CPU boards, the later 100 MHz have the CPUs direct on the mobo) with PL5500 PPro CPU boards works?

I can look up the spare part numbers for the needed parts in the pocket reference manual if needed.
For the CPU boards I may have some spares , but they miss VRMs, CPUs and coolers.

But my advice would be to look for a complete system with only some CPUs missing.
I would give mine away, but unluckily I am on the wrong side of the pond and the box is heavy as hell.

Feel free to ask further questions, I got the 5000, the 5000R and the 5500 PPro, so you might call me an expert on these Compaq servers.

Oh man! This takes me back to 1996. Racks and racks of freshly installed quad p-pro servers in the data center and NT was the direction. "Heavy as hell" is right. Two man job to rack them.

But I was on the desktop side so rarely got to touch those beasts. I was doing the dual core p-pro workstation 5000's.

PC Hoarder, that parts list will help a lot when looking on eBay. Thanks

eisapc, appreciate your tips. I see you're an enthusiast and expert.

You will need the SCSI cage and the hot Plug drives as well."

I don't have any experience with SCSI drives. If I was lazy, could I just install a PCI IDE card and boot from an IDE drive? I'd like to use a SSD and it seems SCSI SSDs or adapters are much rarer than IDE ones.

I couldn't find a good manual. Only https://www.manualslib.com/manual/2478933/Com … liant-5000.html. Can you tell me what the highlighted connectors are? Also, where is the BIOS ROM?

The Proliant 5500 ... might be another option

It does seem more hobbyist friendly with SIMM slots on the main board and built in IDE controller. But it seems rarer, especially the PPro version, as opposed to the slot1 version.
If you have a list of parts for 5500, that would make searching on eBay easier, and I might consider it.

Also, where is the power supply in ?

It's in the other half of the case. One side is components/ram/io slots/memory. The other side is a drive cage/psu.

A lot of big Compaq cases were like that.

megatron-uk wrote on 2025-02-05, 13:34:

It's in the other half of the case. One side is components/ram/io slots/memory. The other side is a drive cage/psu.

A lot of big Compaq cases were like that.

Damn those old big old Compaq's servers were designed like tanks, and yet sexy

I need to look up the printed pocket reference manual or just place it on a scanner.
Could not find the pdf version for the 5500 online anymore.

My plan would be to go for a complete 3000 with P2 CPUs (but need to be the 66MHz bus version) and then just swap the CPU boards.
never tried the PPro boards in a 1600 using the identical CPU and memory boards.
The power supplies for the 5500 are much more common, as they were used in much more different servers like the 100 MHz 3000/5500 Proliants.
Bufferd EDO was used in many more systems than the proprietary buffered FPM DIMMs.
I have dozens of the standand PPro VRMs but probably just a single or two spares for the 5000.
So obtainig parts for a 5500 build looks much easier to me than for the 5000.
Anyways, if you do not have any parts yet, go for a complete system whatever is availiable.

You might even use a PCI-SATA Adapter, just set it as primary controller in the EISA/BIOS Setup.
At actual prices I would not invest in SCSI-drives apart from the CD-ROM needed for the SmartStart boot.
Probably a Bluescsi would do the trick?

For old geeks like me SCSI is the only valid option, but I stockpiled SCSI drives for years.

spacesaver wrote on 2025-02-05, 13:28:

PC Hoarder, that parts list will help a lot when looking on eBay. Thanks […]
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PC Hoarder, that parts list will help a lot when looking on eBay. Thanks

eisapc, appreciate your tips. I see you're an enthusiast and expert.

You will need the SCSI cage and the hot Plug drives as well."

I don't have any experience with SCSI drives. If I was lazy, could I just install a PCI IDE card and boot from an IDE drive? I'd like to use a SSD and it seems SCSI SSDs or adapters are much rarer than IDE ones.

I couldn't find a good manual. Only https://www.manualslib.com/manual/2478933/Com … liant-5000.html. Can you tell me what the highlighted connectors are? Also, where is the BIOS ROM?

The Proliant 5500 ... might be another option

It does seem more hobbyist friendly with SIMM slots on the main board and built in IDE controller. But it seems rarer, especially the PPro version, as opposed to the slot1 version.
If you have a list of parts for 5500, that would make searching on eBay easier, and I might consider it.

Also, where is the power supply in ?

The connector are for...

1. Processor Power Modules - the system i/o board takes at least 1 (max 2)
2. 50-pin Fast SCSI-2 header
3&4. Carrier Board headers - cant find a part no., description or image of the same and even this full system internal image fails to show it https://theretroweb.com/motherboard/image/p50 … 04940623036.jpg

"Also, where is the power supply in" - if you mean the psu header, it's the blue connector top left on the system i/o board

Latest BIOS ROMPaq seems to be SP6224.EXE, which can still be downloaded (description attached)

Here are the Proliant 3000/5500 QRG scans:
Sorry for the medium quality,
but the part numbers should be readable.

One other option for a quad PPro is the HP Netserver LX that was also sold rebadged as IBM 704.
I dont own one, just salvaged some CPU boards, to upgrade my dual PPro systems.

I'm curious to see what happens here. I did the same thing with a dell 6450 (quad slot 2) back in the day and it was a real challenge.

Thanks for the 5500 parts list, eisapc

The parts do seem fairly common, but only in less common online stores. They often seem to have missing or wrong pictures. Searching by part # usually doesn't work on eBay, probably because the seller didn't tag it.

1 confusion I realized is that the slot1 type is much more common, 179779-001. That doesn't use a riser card for RAM and only uses slots on the motherboard. Better make sure before ordering.

What's the difference between the 2 memory boards, 328703-001 & 270183-001? The bigger board's description is "memory buffer board, EDO", so does that mean it adds extra latency? The bigger one doesn't seem like it will even fit in the case.

Also, I don't know what the 2 power supply cables look like. The description sounds like they're supposed to be included with the PSU,169286-002 (Power Supply, 750W H/PLUG, RD), but I doubt eBay vendors would include them.

Also, which VRM do I need, 219209-001 (40W, same as for Proliant 5000) or 296203-001 (48W)? Which one do you have? 296203-001 is much rarer and I can't even find a picture (there were some, but I didn't trust them)

The slot 1 type is definitely more common, because it was surely the cheaper solution.
Thats why I recommeded looking for a 66 MHz PL3000 and upgrade it

Unluckily Compaq recycled some Model numbers for completely different machines.
The big memory board is surely for the wrong 5500 but for the quad Xeon version.
The same or slightly different one accepting registered SDRAM is used in the 6400 quad XEON as well.
The 66 MHz design needs the smaller EDO DIMM board on the left.

The 750W power supplies are hot pluggable and do not habe any cabling attached.
The receptable and cabling to mobo and drives should be a separate assembly in the parts cataloge.
Probably it is the "standard peripheral board with cable" or one of the "misc power cable kits"?

For the 512 K PPro the 40W VRM should be sufficient, the stronger ones are for the 1MB cache black beauties.
The PL5000 VRMs have SIMM like cardedge connectors, while the 5500 have pin connectors, so they should be different.
The number 299306-001 looks familiar, even if its listed for the 3000 only
Any PPro or later VRM should work, even if from an IBM, DELL, or HP.
Compaq used these VRMs for PII and PIII Platforms as well, so they are availiable for even higher power as well.

BTW, for anybody else interested in vintage Compaq servers, I just stumbled over this YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe8RCouQL6I

Nice video, that showed the power connectors @ 8:33 that are probably common to 5500.

I found the power cables in 328708-001. The picture shows a 12pin cable, but not the 10 pin one. Better ask for a better photo.

Alright, I think I'm fairly confident about buying. Here's my list. Am I missing anything? I assume I already have IDE disks, PS/2 keyboard & mouse, and that they will work with this setup

1306561-001   motherboard 
2306582-001  (2)  CPU board
3219209-001  (4)  VRM 40W                 only if CPU board doesn't come with them
4270183-001   memory board
5512MB buffered EDO RAM in pairs         are there enough address pins to address this much?
6169286-002   power supply 
7328708-001   power cables
8306576-001   fan, front            can this be skipped or it won't post like for PL5000?   assuming the 3rd redundant fan can be omitted
9296995-001   fan, rear             can this be skipped or it won't post like for PL5000?

Without fans the system will surely not post.
You could try some loop-plugs to simulate a fan is installed.
Compaq used simple bridges in the fan plugs due to these early fans not containing a tacho generator yet.
The HDD cage has another fan attached, not sure if its allready included?
The picture might show the power cables to connect the HDD cage,
the board to to plug in the power supplies is surely missing.
Memory should be fine up to 4 GB.
The management display might be useful for troubleshouting, it should be not too hard to find.

the board to to plug in the power supplies is surely missing

I went through the parts list again, but couldn't find it. Would you mind showing a picture?

You could try some loop-plugs to simulate a fan is installed.

Any chance you know what the pin out is, to save me from finding out?

The management display might be useful for troubleshouting

Is it 271930-001? Will it show errors like missing fan, or some kind of POST codes?

Also, how does the power switch work? Is it just 328710-001?

Cannot find any pictures of the power distribution board on the web.
I do not have my machine at home, but will look up part numbers and take some photos next time I am there.
Might take 2 weeks time.
The only part I have easily availiable is the power supply.

The power plug will be connected to the Power distribution board together with the two power supplies, the motherboard power connector, the drive power cable and a case open sensor.

Yes the management display will show up boot messages even before video is initialised, like a post card but in clear text.
It was a common but optional feature of many of these old Compaq servers.

spacesaver wrote on 2025-02-18, 06:25:

You could try some loop-plugs to simulate a fan is installed.

Any chance you know what the pin out is, to save me from finding out?

If it's the same pinout as in the fan connectors on the SCSI backplanes (e.g. the one from the Model 3092 7-device SCSI expansion unit), the fan connector is a 5-pin connector, and the loop plug connects pin 1 to pin 5. The full pinout is: 1 = /FANOK; 2 = key pin; 3 = +12V; 4 = GND; 5 = GND. Pin 1 is to be pulled to ground if a (hopefully working) fan is connected.

Thanks for saving me from buying some fans, mkarcher. I'm going to use an open case, made from Maker Beam, so hopefully, it won't need fans.

OK, I think the only remaining uncertainty is the power backplane. I think I've found it. 1 clue was in the manual from retroweb, which showed a long board. But the female connector holes (4 on 1 side and 4.5 on the other) don't seem to match the male pins (3 on 1 side and 5 on the other). Do you think it matches? I don't get why those 2 part #s aren't in the scans from eisapc.

Whoops, the power backplane is 306571-001 and it is in those 3 pages. I didn't think it was it because it said "Backplane, Hotplug Drives, PWR" and I didn't need any hotplug drives.

Does the memory have to have ECC, on top of being buffered EDO?