Rare Vintage DEC Digital Multia VX40 166MHz Alpha 96 MB RAM Tested, works, rust for Sale

Rare Vintage DEC Digital Multia VX40 166MHz Alpha 96 MB RAM Tested, works, rust For Sale

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Rare Vintage DEC Digital Multia VX40 166MHz Alpha 96 MB RAM Tested, works, rust:
$214.99

For Sale we are proud to offer a very rare and desirous piece: a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Multia VX40. The Multia represents the culmination of Digital's "UDB" concept -the "Universal Desktop Box". These machines were available in all sorts of configurations, with either Intel x86 processors, or, as found here, the much more desirous Alpha 64-bit RISC processors. This one sports a 166 MHz core and 82 Megabytes of RAM. Several hard disk options were offered, including a rare and unusual 2.5" SCSI disk. This one didn't have that disk as it was meant to, and we don't have a replacement, so we made use of the inbuilt IDE facilities of the Multia to install a 2.5" IDE hard disk drive of 6 Gigabytes total capacity (currently formatted as two logical volumes of 2 and 4 Gigabytes each. Said disk works well and passes the checks of a modern Windows operating system. A fresh install of Windows NT 4.0 Workstation is on the unit, but you can install other operating systems including a batch of *nix types. I'm lead to understand that, with the appropriate software tools, VMS can be made to run on these as well, even though DEC went to lengths to lock out that option. This one's floppy diskette drive isn't working and we weren't able to ascertain why, but, other than that, it works. The appropriate network drivers are installed, although we didn't test the network interfaces, the serial ports or the parallel port. The SCSI interface works just fine. This unit was improperly stored at some time in its life and acquired severe rust and corrosion to the back of the chassis. Many carbon-steel wire wheels and flapper wheels met their ends on my Dremel tool dealing with all this rust, and the rusted portions of the chassis were re-painted (except the I/O shield, to preserve the legends). Some of the securing screws for the back-panel jacks are missing due to their screw-threads being completely stripped out, you can install new ones using nuts if you like, but we don't have the right nuts because nuts are rather rare in computers. To be completely ho nest, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the back-panel jacks don't work, especially the BNC plug for 10-base-2 networking as it was almost completely covered in corrosion. Some corrosion remains on the main board; we made a photograph of it. The audio subsystems were not tested. Check out or other listings ifyou fancy one that isn't so corroded.
A Word About the Multia and Heat Dissipation
The reason these units have become scarce, especially the Alphas, is because the "pizza box" form factor does not cope well with heat, and many a Multia met its end of thermal overload. Today, many user-groups suggest running the units on their side to facilitate better convective cooling (there is only one little fan for the whole unit!) Be aware of this and take appropriate precautions if you intend to run the unit for extended periods or in hot conditions (the documentation's stated maximal temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit is right out of line!).

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Rare Vintage DEC Digital Multia VX40 166MHz Alpha 96 MB RAM Tested, works, rust For Sale

Rare Vintage DEC Digital Multia VX40 166MHz Alpha 96 MB RAM Tested, works, rust: $214.99

Rare Vintage DEC Digital Multia VX40 166MHz Alpha 96 MB RAM Tested, works, rust:
$214.99