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this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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Oh, I get it. But a baseline HP Proliant from that era is just an x86 system barely different from a desktop today but worse/slower/more power hungry in every respect.
For history and "how things changed", go for something like a Sun Fire system from the mid 2000's (280R or V240 are relatively easy and cheap to get and are actually different) or a Proliant from the mid to late 90's (I have a functioning Compaq Proliant 7000 which is HUGE and a puzzlebox inside).
x86 computers haven't changed much at all in the past 20 years and you need to go into the rarer models (like blade systems) to see an actual deviation from the basic PC alike form factor we've been using for the past 20 years and unique approaches to storage and performance.
For self hosting, just use something more recent that falls within your priceclass (usually 5-6 years old becomes highly affordable). Even a Pi is going to trounce a system that old and actually has a different form factor.
I would love to actually get my hand on some Sun gear, they look really cool! Or even some Itanium powered servers! This one is an IBM server that I got for free, and exploring the software to use it, is a bit of a challenge and it is pretty different from how you configure server nowadays. (Also, a floppy drive on a server, this is what I call awesome!)
For selfhosting real stuff, I do have modern gear and an OrangePi too!
I also looked up the Compaq ProLiant 7000, and this thing is huge indeed, but it does look awesome!
They have a secondary motherboard that hosts the Slot CPUs, 4 single core P3 Xeons. I also have the Dell equivalent model but it has a bum mainboard.
With those 90's systems, to get Windows NT to use more than 1 core, you have to get the appropriate Windows version that actually supports them.
Now you can simply upgrade from a 1 to a 32 core CPU and Windows and Linux will pick up the difference and run with it.
In the NT 3.5 and 4 days, you actually had to either do a full reinstall or swap out several parts of the Kernel to get it to work.
Downgrading took the same effort as a multicore windows Kernel ran really badly on a single core system.
As for the Sun Fires, the two models I mentioned tend to be highly available on Ebay in the 100-200 range and are very different inside than an X86 system. You can go for 400 or higher series to get even more difference, but getting a complete one of those can be a challenge.
And yes, the software used on some of these older systems was a challenge in itself, but they aren't really special, they are pretty much like having different vendors RGB controller softwares on your system, a nuisance that you should try to get past.
For instance, the IBM 5000 series raid cards were simply LSI cards with an IBM branded firmware.
The first thing most people do is put the actual LSI firmware on them so they run decently.