PowerEdge 2900 Motherboard

[EXCellR8]

After months of getting our admin staff to abandon their office server, a tired Dell PE 2900, I was finally able to pull the plug on the old dinosaur machine that it was. The server is still in decent condition so I got the idea of reconditioning the tower as a workstation with a couple Xeons, but on a new platform and replacing the SAS drives with newer SATA III. I'd also have the whole thing powder-coated, obviously...

Seeing as though there seems to be no answer to what form factor the system board adopts, I was wondering if anyone's knowledge delves back that far to these 5U boards. I think it's a dual LGA771 configuration but I am not 100%. I would opt to replace and update the board to at least dual LGA775 or 1366/1155 but I don't think any of those would work in the chassis without drilling new holes for standoffs and modifying the I/O panel(s) etc.

Was just a last minute idea so I don't really need the info and I will most likely have the entire thing recycled. Would be cool to have a custom 5U with perhaps some water-cooling goodies though.

Oh, and USB 3.0... lots of them.

 

[XavierMace]

A) It's a proprietary form factor.
B) It's too old to be worth saving and trying to replace the motherboard isn't cost effective.

If you want a power house workstation, you can get dual 1366 systems for dirt cheap. Those aren't going to have native USB 3 either though.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

29xx is hot garbage at this point, and would cost you more to run than just to get a newer used system. Send it to the great dumpster in the sky.

 

[EXCellR8]

Took it to the recycling center earlier... inside was a right mess and I think one of the PSU's was fried. Heavy junk is what I'd categorize it as.

Just wanted to save the chassis mainly; the only other proprietary board that fits is basically the exact same thing with a rev... but yea if I can't source newer parts I am not going to bother.