Full story posted below. If you don't want to read it all, the basic question is: What's a good motherboard/upgrade path for an old K5 system with a shot motherboard (replacing case, p/s, motherboard at minimum)?
Hi,
I had an AMD K5 PR-100 box (with a Biostar motherboard) functioning as my LAN server. This worked great, it ran Linux, did IP masqerading for me and provided a remote shell account and handled all the server tasks without a hitch. Yeah, I know K5's are ancient, but with Linux it wasn't uncommon to stay up for several months, and served me well for many years.
I recently started getting crashes/kernel panics that are definitely hardware related. After some general diagnostics I'm convinced that the IDE controller on the motherboard is shot. The system has a desktop case (unknown "form factor", if any - it was originally a 486/dx2 box), so I want to replace it too. Basically, I'm gonna need to replace at least the motherboard and case for this box, and I'd like to go ATX. Now, the AMD K5-PR100 is for P54C (socket 5?) motherboards, but I'd rather not buy an ancient mainboard for this. From what I've been able to gather, it seems the (relatively) newer Socket 7 boards will take the P54C K5-PR100 ? I don't really want to replace the CPU, since it seems silly to throw away a perfectly good processor.. but I think getting a Socket 7 board would allow a decent upgrade path if I do decide to replace the CPU.
I'm looking at the AOpen AX59 pro as the motherboard. Am I insane to consider using a K5 in this? Is it overkill? Will it even work? Is there a better cheap, stable motherboard that will work for my K5 server?
And finally, any recommendations on a good cheap ATX mid-tower-ish size case? I really don't want to spend a lot of money (less than $200 total) for reviving this seemingly ancient box, but it needs to be fixed ASAP (downtime sucks)
Thanks in advance guys,
Hi,
I had an AMD K5 PR-100 box (with a Biostar motherboard) functioning as my LAN server. This worked great, it ran Linux, did IP masqerading for me and provided a remote shell account and handled all the server tasks without a hitch. Yeah, I know K5's are ancient, but with Linux it wasn't uncommon to stay up for several months, and served me well for many years.
I recently started getting crashes/kernel panics that are definitely hardware related. After some general diagnostics I'm convinced that the IDE controller on the motherboard is shot. The system has a desktop case (unknown "form factor", if any - it was originally a 486/dx2 box), so I want to replace it too. Basically, I'm gonna need to replace at least the motherboard and case for this box, and I'd like to go ATX. Now, the AMD K5-PR100 is for P54C (socket 5?) motherboards, but I'd rather not buy an ancient mainboard for this. From what I've been able to gather, it seems the (relatively) newer Socket 7 boards will take the P54C K5-PR100 ? I don't really want to replace the CPU, since it seems silly to throw away a perfectly good processor.. but I think getting a Socket 7 board would allow a decent upgrade path if I do decide to replace the CPU.
I'm looking at the AOpen AX59 pro as the motherboard. Am I insane to consider using a K5 in this? Is it overkill? Will it even work? Is there a better cheap, stable motherboard that will work for my K5 server?
And finally, any recommendations on a good cheap ATX mid-tower-ish size case? I really don't want to spend a lot of money (less than $200 total) for reviving this seemingly ancient box, but it needs to be fixed ASAP (downtime sucks)
Thanks in advance guys,