SCSI server to IDE Video editor?

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LivItUp
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2003 5:01 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA
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SCSI server to IDE Video editor?

Post by LivItUp » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:37 pm

Hi, guys! -

I know this might be a simple question, but I needed some feedback.
I have two dual-proccessor Xeon servers that I aquired a while back; equivalent to P-3 450. I am planning to make one into a video/graphics box. It's currently got 2 SCSI 3 drives, but there are IDE slots where I can add regular HDDs. No AGP, but a lot of PCI... and an ISA! (when was tha last time you saw an ISA slot? Which is strange this being a P-3 board.) The BIOS starts up in SCSI mode.
The other is a LINUX server (also P-3 era), but it's missing one of the processors. The board has an AGP slot, but only two PCI slots. I can find another matching processor, or swap for the first two.
Now the question: Is it possible to turn a SCSI server from the ground-up into a normal PC editor? Granted, I am familiar with most older turnkey systems with an IDE box and SCSI array, but I'm not SCSI-versed.

-TNX

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Keeper of Hellfire
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2005 6:13 am
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Post by Keeper of Hellfire » Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:17 am

Why changing from SCSI to IDE at all? Since it had been servers, they should fullfill two the requirements for a video editing PC - large and fast HDD's and large RAM. I'd prefer the one with AGP slot. Add a low end AGP graphics card, a PCI sound card and a DVD drive. The only thing you than have to care about is to replace the actual server OS with a workstation OS that can handle dual processor systems, like Linux, WinXP Pro,....

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bum
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Post by bum » Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:04 am

It's possible but if the cpu's are equivalent to two p3 450's then your going to have a setup that would be painfull for video editing. Their best use would be as clusters, hooked up to your main (a modern) system for a nice rendering farm. http://www.beowulf.org/ is a good starting place.

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