Zenith Express 5800 LS2400

An early Slot-1 machine with server capabilities, sold as a server usually for small companies. As for late 1990s, this server was quite powerful - a Pentium II 350MHz processor, RAM in 4 DIMM sticks (usually 64 or 128MB), SCSI and dual-processor upgrade possibilities. The machine was sold with a variety of systems, usually starting from DOS (then administrators installed Novell), Windows 95 or Windows NT.
The Express series was developed by Zenith, Bull, Packard-Bell and Nec, depending on time when the company was taken over by another.

Manufacturer Zenith-Bull

Origin USA
Year of unit 1998
Year of introduction ??
Class ATX PC
CPU Intel Pentium II 350MHz
Speed 350MHz
RAM 128MB (32MBx4, DIMM)
ROM PC BIOS
Graphics S3 Trio AGP
Sound PC Speaker
Turtle Beach Aureal PCI board
System expansion bus ISA (3 slots)
PCI (4 slots)
AGP
Floppy/removable media drives 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive
ATAPI CD-ROM drive
3.5" hard drive drawer
 
 
Hard disk: 20GB Seagate PATA
Other boards:

 

 Longshine LCS-8034 VIA network adapter
Non-standard expansions: Possible upgrade with 2nd CPU with MMU board


Operating system(s): Windows NT.

The unit has been bought in late 1990s as a server for a small web company. It was primarily equipped with 9GB SCSI hard drive and was ready to operation. Because it was used until 2015, most of its components have been replaced as a result of a wear-off.
And here we have the example of Theseus Ship Paradox: If we replace all components, is the machine still original?
First, the power supply blown, it was replaced around 2000 (and one more time later). Then, the mainboard, and replacement mainboard has been installed which was PC-Chips M720, a much worse board. The video board - AGP S3 Trio3D, was probably added too as well as Longshine network board.
The hard disk drawer for PATA was added in replacement for probably a tape drive. The SCSI hard drive gave up later, and was replaced around 2003 with 20GB Seagate unit. Then, SCSI controller has been removed.
This configuration was operating until 2015 as a SMB server for a small, few-computer network. Then the server has been finally retired.
So, now we have a similar PC, but with totally different components.

Contents: Starting, usage    

Starting

Starts like PC and can be used like a PC. If so extensive cooling is not needed, the rear fan, which is noisy, can be operated from 5V.

 

Additional links:
https://support.necam.com/Servers/Legacy/LS2400/ - NEC Support and manual for original server.
ftp://ftp.packardbell.com/pub/itemnr_old/ZDSDOCS01470100/pmrbls24.html - Packard-Bell maintenance instruction (local copy).

 

Up