It's a server thing

Posted by 32KOFDATA@reddit | retrobattlestations | View on Reddit | 55 comments

Based on a P4 entry level server board this is my first Windows 2003 server build. Populated the board with a P4 at 3.4Ghz and 4 GBs of memory and all went into a EuroCase that sports a blue lcd display. Case is a bit on the flimsy side but not too bad.

Next I started hunting down mobile racks and ended up with a couple of Icy Docks with matching blue lcd displays that unfortunately were only produced in black so typical me I re-sprayed them to match the case. I will spare you the boring details of hard disks, floppy drive, cd/dvd drive, psu etc as the final piece of the puzzle is what got you reading this text in the first place.

An internal drive bay TFT display made by Logitec for use in printer servers, file servers, medical equipment etc.. A cute and neat oddity. Logitec is a Japanese company so I was only able to import the display through buyee if anyone is interested. Image is pretty good, sharp and vibrant (max 640x480 supported among other odd resolutions) with typical bad viewing angles due to its technologhy. More than enough though if you are doing file server tasks.

Surprising was that I was able to activate my copy of Windows 2003 over the phone. I would have never thought that after all this time there would be support.

Some specs:

- Intel Entry Level Server Board SE7221BK1-E
- Pentium 4 @ 3.4Ghz
- 4GBs ECC RAM
- 2 x Seagate Baracuda 500GB (SATA)
- TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S182M
- Soundblaster Live! 5.1
- Logitec LCM-T041A VGA TFT display (or LCM-T042A, same thing slightly different bezel design from what I can tell)

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IllusionXXI@reddit

Some OCD systems in the background. Matching pair of optical drives on every one of them? Geez... I also love those in-win cases! They are hard to come by these days, at least not for a fair price.

leedscomputers3189@reddit

Wow even the lighting in the room has that early 2000s futuristic vibe. I like it.

biffa_bacon@reddit

Are those HDDs hot-swappable? If not/I assume not (looks like they're going straight to the mobo/not a raid controller) so you have to shutdown to replace one right.

If you're going to have to shut down what does that style get you? Just save on taking the panel off? I mean cool factor aside :)

osxdude@reddit

I need that stupid-ass LCD monitor.

Ok-Professional9328@reddit

Why is this making me think of Michael Scott?

Foddley@reddit

I'm glad it says LCD monitor, i wouldn't have known!

TheTrulyEpic@reddit

I need to know everything about it. Was it common on tower servers back then? I could actually see that being super handy on my homelab server but I really wouldn’t want to try and use modern windows on something that small lol

I_Zeig_I@reddit

i got excited and showed my wife. She called it that too.

486Junkie@reddit

I need a few myself. It's nice that it has a VGA output so you can connect an external monitor to it.

I would totally use these on my 386, 486, AMD K6-2, and other systems.

prohandymn@reddit

I have a similar server case in the attic (it's an Antec ). All I need are links or directs to the LCDs! *all my drive bay covers are already painted.