How much computing power does my server need?

TheBDB

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2002
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I'm trying to figure out how many servers we need and how powerful they need to be. I'll be running Windows Server 2003 unless someone thinks an upgrade is necessary. Tasks I need to perform:

Domain controller
DHCP for about 40 addresses
Microsoft Exchange
Website (not very busy)
~200GB of shared storage

Right now we are getting this done with a 5 year old Dell Poweredge 1800 with 3.0Ghz Xeon, a 10 year old Micron with a Pentium 3, and a couple of USB external hard drives.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to buy prebuilt servers right now, but the bosses are asking me what we should do. My questions are:

A) Do we need more hardware?
B) What would you recommend to make things more redundant?

Sorry I don't know much about servers so if you need to know more about what we are using it for I can try to explain. Thanks.
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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Do you have an Exchange license already? What OS licenses do you have, and are they Retail, OEM, or Volume License?
 

TheBDB

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2002
3,176
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I have the Exchange disks and the installation code from years ago. The OS license is volume. Do those expire?
 

TheBDB

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2002
3,176
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The main concern is continuity of service and maintaining data. We had a power surge last month that messed up our third server, which I have been unable to figure out how to fix. I believe there is a problem with the power supply, which is weird because it turns on and starts up fine but it just never gives the windows login box. Anyways, the hardware is old and it seems like something is bound to break soon and then we won't have access to our data or email. I am the only tech support and like I said we can't buy replacement prebuilt servers.