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Using a server as a computer

C

cirorka

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Aug 22, 2018
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Hello!
After trying to find any information on a recent server I laid my hands on, I was dissapointed to find little to nothing about it.
Before it came to me, it was apparently used as both a PC and a server for the company. I believe the computer in question is Fujitsu siemens celsius R540.
I also believed I knew what I was missing for this computer, but apparently was wrong too. I bought an F/F gender changer for a com port (noob at work).
I have no idea what I need, does it even pay off to work it through and whatnot.
 

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Take it apart, see what's in it. Then make the decision.:toast:
 
Trekkie4 said:
You forgot @stinger608 ;)

IDK, not sure what to think about that particular model. Take it apart & see what's going on inside... @cirorka
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You're absolutely right, he deserves a poke in the nose on occasion, can't believe I forgot him heheh
 
Looks to be a dual CPU system...couldn't find much info on CPU support...I would say it could possibly be upgraded to dual Xeon 5170 (4 cores total at 3.33Ghz), but like others have said, get some photos of what's inside. Pretty old system now but could still be fun to toy around with.

Edit - found some evidence of Xeon 5400 series running on one of these, but on many workstations and servers CPU support can vary on the same model as there are often different main board versions. Could always buy the cheapest Xeon 5400 series CPU and test it, if it works, buy a pair of faster Xeon. These also use FB-DIMM RAM which are super cheap.
 
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StrayKAT said:
I know nothing of servers :D

Pretty cool to see a Siemens computer though.
Click to expand...
I thought it was neat, and if nothing else, those that prowl the nostalgia halls might get a kick from it :)
 
My knowledge about these is very limited, best thing would be to take a look inside.

I would love more pictures, and yes: Does it boot? Can you get any life signs from it?

If you are looking for things that pay off, I would look at individual parts. Those PSUs in these things can be quite sought after, but not necessarily. I personally would love a case like this and try to mod it for modern or semi-modern Hardware.
 
Also...I've converted quite a few dual 771 systems into a typical desktop...quite a few 1u and 2u server boards with converted PSU cables, riser cards, PCie extensions...PCIe sata controller to bypass SAS...etc...feel free to ask me about such things if you are interested in doing something similar with this thing. Dual x5460 was getting around 660 points in Cinebench if I can recall...not awful...not great either, but hey.
 
https://www.kastl-gmbh.de/media/products/R540-X5160-XPP.pdf

Some specs.
5110, 5130, 5150, 5160, E5310, E5335, E5345, X5355, X5365 is the official support. Those can usually be had for pretty cheap. ECC DDR2 as well.

Not bad actually, if it's cheap. Nothing to any modern system, but pretty cool anyway. "Ultra-high-end 3D: Nivida FX5600." :D

I'd take a look at the PSU as well, making sure it doesn't have bad caps or something. Workstations/servers usually have solid PSUs, but you never know.
 
Not a huge server fan, but lets see the guts. :)
 
Um...…….

I think it needs a video card in that PCI bracket that's got a hole...…….

Until it has a video card, kind of useless.


WARNING: FB-DIMMS! If it isn't already packed with memory, that could get spendy. They also run ridiculously hot so I recommend active cooling on them.

Does it have CPUs? What are they? If it doesn't, I'd probably just forget about it. Modest processors today can pretty easily outperform 771 unless they're really high core count. They'll do it at significantly lower power draw too. Server farms upgrade equipment on a regular basis for a reason (performance per watt).
 
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Possibly has a video capture card in the lower slot.
It might have been used for surveillance during it's working life too.
The top connector on the back plane is a RS232 port from the looks, not a VGA port, the adapter is pointless.
 
The picture is too graining to tell what those are... My first though was BNC connectors for like a token ring network. BNC could theoretically be coax cables to security cameras too. It's hard to say.
 
So not a part of the nostalgia crew, but maybe I should be since I started into the pc world around that time. :D

Anyways, I just acquired an older hp z200 that used that type of pci card retainer so this system was probably originally made by HP for Fujitsu/Siemens. Probably a solidly reliable machine though as we have Fujitsu POS systems in one of our businesses and they aren't your normal lga775s. HP workstations like the z200 are pretty hefty as well, so I'm sure this one is no lightweight. :)

The 5 bncs sticking out indicates a video capture or data acquision card of some sort. My guess is video capture. And as someone else pointed out--definitely missing a video card which is required with most xeons since they don't have an integrated video card.

If this is a xeon 51xx series and it is dual cpu, they can be decent to just use as a desktop. I have Dell and HP servers that have dual 5160s and they feel snappier than their i3 or lga775 equivalents (probably due to the sas caching controllers and 15k sas drives--they hit near ssd speeds when it's a cache hit). FB-DIMMs and 51xx xeons are a bit of a power hog by modern standards, but power is cheap, so just turn it off when you're not using it. At idle, my servers use about the same amount of power as my Dell i5-2500 with a gpu, so even if you don't turn it off, you're not killing the environment or anything.

Best thing will be to google the numbers on those stickers with the barcodes on them and then open it up to see what you have. More than likely you can put an older gpu in there even on the stock power supply with some adatpers, load it up with ram for cheap (FB-DIMMs can be as cheap as 50cents/gb shipped--and I know a source if you need some), stick a fast sas drive in there if it has an sas controller (you can usually run hardware raid 0, raid 1, and 1+0 at the minimum on a good controller for even more speed), and then install an OS and enjoy!

What I'll usually do when I acquire a system like this is to get it too boot and then use clonezilla to clone off the stock hd if there is one. That way, if I really mess something up, I can just restore the drive and get it working like I found it before messing with it some more. Good luck and tell us how it goes!
 
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