El Cheapo FTP Server Challenge

[KarsinTheHutt]

Ok... here's the deal - I want to build an el cheapo FTP server that will serve at most 7 clients at any one time within a University LAN and be able to sustain minimum download rates of 100 KB/sec for each client when all clients are connected. Must be a uniprocessor, intel based solution w' 20 GB+ hard drive space.

Can this be built for $350 or less?

Things I already have:
Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Floppy drive, 128 MB PC100 SDRAM, RH Linux + 2.4 Kernel

Things I do not need:
powerful graphics card, sound card, or almost anything gaming related.

 

[jaybert]

for (7*100), you can easily sustain that w/ even a slow 5400rpm drive. thats not too important. CPU would not be that important either. Eeven while you are 10mbity on the LAN, thats not a guarentee that you can serve 10mbit/sec. It all depends on your network setup and whether your school uses hubs and switches, and also the routing the other users have towards your box. If your network can sustain it, I would imagine, anything > 300mhz w/ a 5400 (ata33) drive could sustain 700KB/sec.

 

[ChicagoMaroon]

All a FTP server really needs is RAM. Load that thing with as much RAM as you can. CPU, HD aren't that important. Even an old Sun IPX (486 level performace), but w/ lots of RAM can saturate an ethernet connection.

 

[KarsinTheHutt]

Thanks for the advice!

I think I might just buy a POS intel oem 810e board with everything integrated and drop in a Celeron 366...

 

[BA]

I'd use an Intel T440BX/NL440BX board. Onboard Vid, Lan, and UW SCSI. If you can find one, it'll probably run you $60-70.

Now, 20gb of SCSI drives would probably push your budget, but it's a nice option to have.

(or if you really want to be cool, go PPro)

 

[Ace69]

Just get you a POS PC and slap ServU on there.

 

[rigmah]

I agree with Ace. Nice easy and cheap method.

 

[MGMorden]

Tekram has Intel 810 integrated boards for $35. Coupled with a slow celeron (it only takes ppga's), a $75 hard drive (20gb 5400), and a $30 ATX case, you'd be well within your budget.

 

[Rifter]

I would say you need(and this is a MIN so dont bash me here):

CPU: inlel pentium class(100-166)
RAM: 64-96MB
HD: Any big cheap 5400rpm drive


And run either linux or NT 4