🚀 go-pugleaf

"Andrew Hodgson" <me3@privacy.net> wrote in message 
news:m1fnv21fr91847568h2m1on91dle0ca1cl@news.giganews.com...
> On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 01:59:34 +0000, "Anthony R. Gold"
> <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>I've never specified a server before and would appreciate some guidance.
>>I don't want to inadvertently buy something which turns out to be less
>>than a complete computer because some magic cable or power supply or other
>>essential component is needed which an experience buyer would know about.
>>
>>The application is in the USA and must run Windows.  And I found a unit
>>which seems to meet my hardware needs for home or colo'ed use, but I'd
>>appreciate any words of warning.  What attracted me about this one was the
>>low profile 1U height and the 2x250GB SATA drives.  A lot of small servers
>>seem to come with just small SCSCI drives.
>>
>>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150100260351
>
> This looks quite good, the rail kit is in there as well so that is
> good.  It mentions no optical drives though (?).  The SATA drives from
> this system seem to only be software RAID (if you wanted to RAID-1 the
> drives to make 1 250GB disk).
>>
>>My application does not need a web or FTP server so I'd like to run the
>>machine on XP Pro rather than Server 2003 just for cost reasons.  Can
>>anyone tell me if the Server product is materially more stable or robust
>>or offers any great advantage when the built-in server applications are
>>not useful?

If to be used in USA then buying in USA might give better warranty.

How many users?  If <10 then a workstation OS may be adequate.  If >10 or 
more then a proper server OS is necessary.

SCSI drives with hardware controller will give much better performance. 
There are 10,000 rpm and 15,000 rpm variants, hot-swap capability, etc. 
RAID5 if you have 3 or more drives.

Always get more RAM than you think you need.  Beware that unless you get a 
server OS there may be an effective limit of about 2GB on the amount of RAM 
the OS can actually use.

A server MUST have a UPS so it will shut down gracefully when the power 
fails.

Ensure you have proper backup.

Tell us more about your application ...

--
Graham

.