I'm almost finished with upgrading the MAGE server's core components.  After a long time, and some odd occurrences, I think I'll be happy with the changes.

"MAGE," my file and download server, was purchased piece by piece in January of 2003 (reference the computers page).  The server was instrumental in making up for the lack of power and storage in my dated Sager 8560.  Since MAGE's purchase date, one hard drive (HDD), codenamed "Xias", has failed.

I originally purchased a new mother board and processor, matching the speed of my current Sager 8790 laptop (3.4 GHz P4 HT) in January.  However, I didn't want to drop the cash for the extra components just then, so both items went unused until now. 

I have to thank my Sager 8790 for spurring the rush of recent purchases.  I needed yet another HDD on my server to balance everything out; in came a 300GB IDE drive (codename "Lucious").  After that, I became fed up with the Sager 8790's 2x DVD+-RW drive's problems reading discs.  At the same time I purchased its 8x DVD+-RW Dual Layer drive (I also purchased a 100GB drive for the laptop in April), I bought a gigabyte of DDR2 for MAGE, thus completing the set of components needed for upgrading--or so I thought.

Looking at the motherboard, there were two problems.  First, the board had only one IDE connection.  I have two IDE HDDs and three CD drives for MAGE.  One IDE connection can support two drives.  So... chalk up one IDE RAID card.  I will note that, opposite to others' opinions, the CD drives still work on the RAID card.  I like the RAID card so much I would like to get another.  I'd have to sacrifice either the TV tuner or wireless card on MAGE, but I don't use either very often.

The second problem I noticed on the motherboard was a slot for a different graphics card.  I actually noticed this when I was putting the new server together.  Oops.  I have an AGP card and the new board accepts either a PCI or PCI-Express card.  Since I use Remote Desktop, I didn't really care about a graphics card.  Unfortunately, I couldn't contact the server without one.  That was odd because Windows 2003 Server should have booted regardless.  Try as I might, I just could not get the computer to get to a state where I could Remote Desktop into it.  Without a graphics card, I could not diagnose the problem correctly.  So... chalk up a graphics card.

After that purchase and installation, I tried turning the computer on.  Surprise, surprise; nothing showed up on the screen.  It didn't even look like the monitor was receiving a signal.  I gave up after a long while and began doing other things.  I finally turned the server on once more and just let it sit on the table as payback for wasting my time.  Ten minutes later, the monitor received a signal.  To make the rest of that story short, Windows 2003 Server kept restarting the computer when it attempted to load.  I booted to Windows XP instead and installed, configured, and updated everything.

As I type this, I am beginning to wonder about that graphics card.  After turning the server off to investigate why my SATA drive ("Mighs") disappeared from Device Manager and Windows Explorer, the graphics card has yet to send a signal to the monitor.  I wonder why? 

Once I solve the problem of the mysterious graphics card, I will finish the upgrade, discover why Windows 2003 Server will not load (perhaps reinstalling it), and configure the new installation, the upgrade should be complete.  I will then update the "computers" page for both MAGE and Sager 8790.