Dell workstation offer on BALUG's hardware list

goossbears

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Feb 14, 2021, 4:15:44 PM2/14/21

to BerkeleyLUG

Am offering to give away a Dell Precision T5400 desktop tower Workstation PC (system box only).

Listing is at the bottom of Michael P's/BALUG's Offered/Wanted: Hardware, etc. wikipage https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:offered_wanted_hardware_etc

Note that email listing is using my SDF.org address for correspondence.

Current Debian GNU/Linux stable "buster" 10.8 is pre-installed.
Has drive-stored isos of amd64 "Buster" CD, latest amd64 arch linux CD, amd64 FreeBSD. 12.2 DVD, PloP boot CD, Finnix 121 CD for OS replacement if desired.

General system hardware specs from

inxi -F dump of much more detailed hardware info ....

System:    Host: debian Kernel: 4.19.0-14-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Console: N/A Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Dell product: Precision WorkStation T5400 v: N/A serial: 53QYKH1
Mobo: Dell model: 0RW203 serial: ..CN1374087D005V. BIOS: Dell v: A11 date: 04/30/2012
CPU:       Topology: 2x Quad Core model: Intel Xeon E5410 bits: 64 type: MCP SMP L2 cache: 12.0 MiB
Speed: 1999 MHz min/max: N/A Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1999 2: 2220 3: 1998 4: 2024 5: 1995 6: 2001 7: 1999 8: 2117
Graphics: Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV370 [Radeon X300] driver: radeon v: kernel
Display: server: X.org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa tty: 189x49
Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console for root.
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 631xESB/632xESB High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-14-amd64
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express driver: tg3
           IF: enp8s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:21:9b:47:04:fe
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 74.54 GiB used: 16.74 GiB (22.5%)
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST380815AS size: 74.54 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 31.25 GiB used: 8.22 GiB (26.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-2: /boot size: 945.6 MiB used: 99.9 MiB (10.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-3: /home size: 21.11 GiB used: 8.01 GiB (37.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7
           ID-4: /var size: 3.87 GiB used: 430.8 MiB (10.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
           ID-5: swap-1 size: 16.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Aaron

Rick Moen

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Feb 14, 2021, 9:41:13 PM2/14/21

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Quoting goossbears (acoh...@gmail.com):

> Am offering to give away a Dell Precision T5400 desktop tower Workstation
> PC (system box only).
> Listing is at the bottom of Michael P's/BALUG's Offered/Wanted: Hardware,
> etc. wikipage
> https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:offered_wanted_hardware_etc
> Note that email listing is using my SDF.org address for correspondence.

In case people are not adept at reading about hardware, this is a pretty
sweet premium-workstation-class box, circa 2007. The 8GB of ECC RAM is
particuarly impressive for the era. Expandability is medium-good
(again, for its era): It has two PCI-E (8 GB/s) slots and some USB 2.0
ports, An guessing that you add RAM in banks of four matched sticks
(eight sockets, and I assume they're currently each occupied by a 1GB
stick of DDR2 (aka PC2-5300) fully-buffered 667MHz 240-pin 1.8 volt ECC
SDRAM DIMMs.

(Specs note that "NOTICE: Full-length heat spreaders (FLHS) are required
for all DIMMS.) RAM for this motherboard _must_ be ECC, fully buffered
DDR2 sticks marketed for servers. You cannot used 'regular" desktop DDR2 memory.
And I take it they're serious about the heat spreaders.

In these cases, one question I always ponder is 'If I wanted to max out
system RAM (which in this case is eight 4GB ECC sticks, total 32GB), how
much would it cost?' Why? Because in my experience, the most important
limiting factor for effective service life is usually RAM capacity. You
find yourself say 'Damn, I wish I had more RAM' long before you say that
about CPU grunt or I/O capacity.

Answer: $60 + tax plus shipping. Example:
https://www.amazon.com/Komputerbay-FB-DIMM-DDR2-PC2-2RX4-240-Pin-Heatspreaders/dp/B005HIWD5U

If you do that and put a cheap SSD SATA or SAS) into this thing you
might be happy for most of this decade without new-and-shiny envy.

Anyway, a box that was really good 14 years ago, available for free
today, is IMO excellent and still useful.

goossbears

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Feb 15, 2021, 11:39:08 AM2/15/21

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On Sunday, February 14, 2021 at 6:41:13 PM UTC-8 rick wrote:

Quoting goossbears (acoh...@gmail.com):

> Am offering to give away a Dell Precision T5400 desktop tower Workstation
> PC (system box only).
> Listing is at the bottom of Michael P's/BALUG's Offered/Wanted: Hardware,
> etc. wikipage
> https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:offered_wanted_hardware_etc
> Note that email listing is using my SDF.org address for correspondence.

BTW, am giving away the Precision T5400 thru the BALUG HW venue for both selfish (S)

and unselfish (U) reasons as follows .......

S1: This unneeded tower clunker is quite heavy and takes up a bit of space.

S2: Do not wish to put more money into upgrading the Precision T5400, e.g., with

more RAM or SSD drive(s), as per Rick M's suggestions below.

S3: By listing it via a LUG, can reduce such frequently-asked questions as "What

is Linux?"/"What is this Debian Linux?", "Can I also install Windows on this PC?",

"How do I use the Linux and Open Source Software already installed on the

computer?", ... etcetera :-\

U1: It certainly is "a pretty sweet premium-workstation-class box, circa 2007" that

am hoping someone else can benefit from by "paying it forward" for Tom L's

generous donation last week of the Lenovo desktop -- for which I'm still grateful :-)

U2: Should whoever takes the Precision T5400 decide to max out the RAM with

"eight 4GB ECC sticks, total 32GB", then am hoping that the taker will wish to further

"pay it forward" by donating the pre-installed and unneeded DDR2 667 MHz ECC RAM

sticks to Michael P in order to "Help upgrade hardware BALUG & SF-LUG runs on

regularly but not most of the time" as per the very first wanted listing at

https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:offered_wanted_hardware_etc

:-)

-Aaron

Further quoting rick <rick at linuxmafia.com> ...

Rick Moen

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Feb 15, 2021, 6:40:12 PM2/15/21

to BerkeleyLUG

Quoting goossbears (acoh...@gmail.com):

> U2: Should whoever takes the Precision T5400 decide to max out the RAM
> with "eight 4GB ECC sticks, total 32GB", then am hoping that the taker
> will wish to further "pay it forward" by donating the pre-installed
> and unneeded DDR2 667 MHz ECC RAM sticks to Michael P in order to
> "Help upgrade hardware BALUG & SF-LUG runs on regularly but not most
> of the time" as per the very first wanted listing at
> https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:offered_wanted_hardware_etc

That is a pleasant and generous-minded wish. At the risk of pouring
cold-ish water on it, and _not_ knowing the particulars of the hardware
Michael Paoli runs the BALUG & SF-LUG VMs on:

Those four 1GB sticks illustrate a frequenly recurring awkward spot:
Computer users over time tend to accumulate low-density RAM sticks, that
pile up in drawers, because they end up being replaced in a limited
number of motherboard RAM sockets by higher-density sticks. Your Dell
might be seen as a case in point. I said upthread:

Am guessing that you add RAM in banks of four matched sticks

(eight sockets, and I assume they're currently each occupied by a 1GB
stick of DDR2 (aka PC2-5300) fully-buffered 667MHz 240-pin 1.8 volt ECC
SDRAM DIMMs.

If I guessed right (based on long corporate experience), the original
purchaser went with a default low-spec RAM configuration that fully
populated _all eight_ available RAM sockets with lowest-density (1GB per
stick) DIMMs, as two matched sets of four. _Thereafter_, any RAM
upgrade would require yanking either four or all eight of the existing
low-density RAM and tossing those in a drawer -- because their slots are
required for higher-density sticks. The tossed ones tend to linger in
drawers, or eventually to be hopefully donated to a good cause, in hopes
that _somebody_ has empty (and compatible) RAM slots.

But most people, y'see, have done their initial planning in a similar
low-spec way, and all of _their_ motherboard RAM sockets are populated
with cheaper, lower-density sticks, too. The end result is that many
people happily and generously seek to give away low-density sticks they
cannot use, but few other people are in a position to use them, and most
people smile and say 'Thanks but no.' Or they say yes, but the RAM,
after contemplation, just lands in a different person's drawer.

The punch line: All of the above, IMO, underlines niccely my opinion
that, on motherboards with RAM slots that can take RAM of several
different densities (as your Dell can accept 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB sticks
of a very specific type), the purchaser should strongly consider putting
_only_ the highest-density sticks into it.

E.g., if the original 2007 purchaser had been determined to save money
up-front on RAM, IMO the only rational way to do so would have been to
purchase 4 x 4GB PC2-5300 67MHz 240-pin 1.8 volt ECC SDRAM DIMMs --
for total system RAM of 16GB. That way, later it would have been
possible to buy another set of those, maxing out at 32GB, _without_
tossing any RAM into a drawer and eating its acquisition cost.

Planning ahead, y'see.

_Current_ motherboards, though, especially for laptops, increasingly
have _no_ RAM sockets, only surface-mounted RAM installed onto the
motherboard during manufacturing, hence not upgradable at all. Be aware
of that gotcha, when buying.

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