Building an office Server, need your input!

[wyvrn]

Right now money is not a serious object, but I want to stay within reason. Office is thinking of a new box, and I am in charge. Need to have some sort of backup, like Raid and/or tape backup. Would like it to be a small web server and file server, along with a firewall for the satellite internet connection sharing. Setup for about 15 computers max, probably prefer to run Win2k server.

I was thinking of a 1 Ghz Athlon and 512 Mb Crucial Ram. For the Raid, I am guessing two 40 GB drives? What brand do you recommend? What mobo has least problems on Thunderbird platform? Which level of Raid (I was thinking disk mirroring) and who makes a good tape drive? Anything to watch out for?

Any specific software/hardware suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Vegito]

Wow, ur gonna do all that ?

If u need some sort of backup...

Any Athlon 1.2 - cheap enuff... 512 is decent but memory is cheap..

Mobo
Some kind of SCSI raid card..

I would use 2 9.1 mirror on main channel for windows OS

then

3 40 gb or 3 30 gb on raid 5 on second channel

Quantum DLT 35/70 or super DLT 100+ gigs

Firewall - what kind of firewall program ? checkpoint i think eats a lot of cpu...

 

[DAM]

i recommend you look at dell.com or ibm.com or gateway.com and see the different models they have and the parts they use. what i did, was to purchse a dell poweredge 2400 (i think its a 2400, im not in my office right now) it has 2 hd in raid, and i can add one more, also it has a dual mobo, but i only bought one mobo (will buy another one if we need it) the server has been working great. as for backup, we use a seagate tape drive with veritas software, great combo.




dam()

 

[Noriaki]

Anand Tech uses MSi K7T Pro with 1Ghz TBirds for the bulk of the web servers, so if you really want to build it yourself I'd recommend that board...

I suppose building a server yourself for a small office, or if you are an office full of tech geeks might be ok...but in general for servers it's Buy Don't Build, and you'll get a good service contract with them...unless you want to do all the service yourself I suggest buying a prebuilt system...

I would never let anyone but me build my PC, I'd laugh if some suggested I buy a Dell or whatever...

But servers are a whole difference ball game...


Now that I've opined that....

MSi K7T Turbo would probably be my choice of motherboard...

Athlon 1.2Ghz/133FSB, at least 512MB of PC133 CAS2..probably 768 or 1Gig though.

I'd use RAID5 if I were you, though you need 3 drives minimum in each raid block. RAID1 works alright to...but that doesn't improve disk performance at all, and really isn't any more fault tolerant than RAID5.

I'd go Quantum or IBM for the tape drive...though I'm not sure IBM makes tape drives on the scale you are looking at...

 

[SloppyB]

Personally, I would buy a Compaq with an Intel (insert your rant here). Reason? When something goes wrong you can always say to your boss "What? I bought a Compaq". If something goes wrong and you have built the system yourself...good luck.

As far as backup...RAID 5 and a DLT.

 

[denon]

go Gateway of course.

 

[Zero]

I agree with DAM and SloppyB. Buy a server from Compaq,Dell,IBM, or hp. Buy something that you can get support with. Especially if you're not on site and something goes wrong. You can always call Compaq(or whoever) and have them onsite asap! Warranties on the hardware is great too. If something goes bad(ie. powersupply, fans, or whatever), they'll either send the equipment to you for replacement or they'll be onsite to fix/replace it for you. Don't make more work for yourself than you need to. Good luck.

Zero

 

[Sunner]

Here's all you need
Compaq makes the best x86 servers, and their supporting software is excellent as well.

If you for some reason hate Compaq or something, IBM's servers are very good as well, though quite expensive, HP and Dell's are good as well.

Dont go homebuilt unless you're on a very tight budget.

 

[wyvrn]

Wow thanks for all of the information. I don't have a boss in this particular office, we are more partners so it is not like I am going to get fired or anything, I just know more about computers than the rest.

I know Compaq servers are the best, but I am not wanting a high-end one like we have here at my workplace. I basically was thinking of something along he lines Anand uses, and I just wanted opinions about best hardware to use. I will consider some of the prebuilt ones though they are a bit more expensive, but money is not a big issue anyway.

Thanks



<< i recommend you look at dell.com or ibm.com or gateway.com and see the different models they have and the parts they use. what i did, was to purchse a dell poweredge 2400 (i think its a 2400, im not in my office right now) it has 2 hd in raid, and i can add one more, also it has a dual mobo, but i only bought one mobo (will buy another one if we need it) the server has been working great. as for backup, we use a seagate tape drive with veritas software, great combo. >>



That sounds about right up my ally price/performance-wise. I could probably build for a bit cheaper, but then I would have to do all the tech support yuk!

 

[SloppyB]

It also depends on you uptime requirements. All of my servers run RAID 5, redundant power supplies and I have a HUGE UPS. And as stated before, when it hits the fan you want to have someone to fall back on.

 

[Sunner]

I wont say anything certain about Dell's, but Compaq's low end servers arent very expensive, you can find very decent servers for ~1500$.

And I assume Dell's arent much more, if more at all.

 

[Oyeve]

IBM for server, DLT for backup.
I have several DLTs for sale.

 

[DAM]

ohh yeah, nothing beats the 3 year parts and labor warranty from the big manufacturers, something goes bad, it will be there usually next to 2 days. if you are handling really really important data, nothing beats having a giant faceless multimillion dollar corporation holding your balls. :---)








dam()