[Info-vax] Monitor for Alphastation 500

[Michael Moroney]

thedavegray at gmail.com writes:

>Hi, 
>I just got hold of a brand new Alphastation 500. The shipping 
>docs say it's sale date is 2/2/98 but it's factory wrapped/boxed
>and with factory labels over the kettle socket. 

>I haven't powered it up yet because I want to be sure things like
>clock battery are ok and also I don't have a monitor adapter. 

>So a couple of questions. This has a 25 pin monitor port on the
>back (not seen one of these before) so I wondered if it's possible
>to hook this up with a modern VGA via an adaptor?  I have a Dell 
>SVGA which has a range low enough to handle Atari ST colour via 

>CGA. 

>Secondly any tips for first time boot of an old girl such as this.
>I got back late with it tonight so only removed the top cover, 
>inside is pristine which is promising. Going to try and uncover
>the battery on Saturday. 

>The manual says it can run digital Unix as well as openvms, 
>I would not mind a dabble with Unix if it can dual boot but
>if only one then it will have to be openvms.  Apparently it can 
>run Windows NT to which I have to wonder "why". 

>From the pictures, there is no video in that box. The DB-25 is a printer port,
the two DB-9s are serial lines, one (upper I think) will be the console. Looks like
it has the same audio/ethernet minicards that the Alphastation 200 had.
It's hard to tell from the pictures but looks like it will accept 4 PCI cards,
likely one is an ISA/PCI combo slot that will accept either.

VNS supported several PCI video cards. You'll need to get one to run graphics
on it.  Dual boot Digital Unix/VMS is a matter of two different disk drives
and configuring it.