Compaq SP700 Modification Page

by Jeff DeMaagd

This is a computer that I've picked up second hand and made a few changes over a year. It is a PII / PIII Xeon based computer with an RCC ServerWorks Champion II chipset. It featured a dual channel PC100 memory bus with ECC memory, dual peer PCI busses, etc.

This machine was a "slot 2" based system meaning that only Xeon chips would work in it. I think this is to ensure current capacity for the core plus up to two megs of full clock cache. This machine had a single 500MHz PIII Xeon cartridge in it, and I bought VRM boards, another cartridge and a heat sink. The last was important as with this generation Xeon seemed to have manufacturer-specific heatsinks. At least it was a pretty sturdy mounting system for the cartridge and heatsink, where one screws the heatsink onto the cartridge at five points and the CPU / heatsink module locks down and screws into a small steel cage. This model computer had a single 12cm fan blowing air into the heatsinks of two processors.

Tools:
T15 Torx bit.
I used a cordless electric screwdriver.
Almost everything not torx is a thumb operated screw or lever.

Problems:

The side panel is a bit of a chore to get on and off as it is a structural member.

The network chip did seem to get uncessarily hot. I solved this by adding a heat sink. See below.

Network chip heat sink add-on

My system had an Intel Ether Express 100 chip (82558B) that was getting almost hot to the touch so I added a heat sink. I had assumed that this was causing the system to crash, but that was really a hard drive starting to flake out.

I cut down the heavy sides on a socket 7 heat sink, and then then cut it in half. After cleaning up the sharp edges and oils, I smeared a little of the two-part panel bonding adhesive onto the bottom, less than 1/32" thick layer. I then carefully pressed on the heat sink and then force to squeeze out as much of the excess adhesive as possible.

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