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[Wolfsraider]

Here is the choice

either or please and why?

choice #1

1-Seagate Cheetah X15 36LP ST336752LW 36.7GB 68pin 15k RPM 3.7MS Ultra160 SCSI Hard Drive

1-Seagate Cheetah 73LP (ST373405LW) 73.4GB 68-pin 4.9ms 10K RPM SCSI Hard Drive

1-Adaptec AHA-39160 Ultra 160 SCSI Card

1-Northwood 2.2GHz, 400MHz FSB, Socket 478 Retail

1-Abit TH7II i850 P4 Skt478 RDRAM ATX Motherboard w/Audio Retail

1-Samsung Original Rambus 256MB 800MHz 16-Device Memory

1-Antec SX1040B SOHO File Mid-Tower Server Case (Black)

1-ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64MB DDR Video Card w/DVI, Video in & Video out Retail

1-Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy PCI Sound Card w/FireWire port

1-Plextor 40x12x40A E-IDE CD-RW Drive w/Burn Proof & Software Retail

1-Pioneer 16x DVD 40x CD, EIDE, slot load, internal, DVD-106S

Subtotal: $3176.51

or this

choice #2

2-Seagate Cheetah X15 36LP ST336752LW 36.7GB 68pin 15k RPM 3.7MS Ultra160 SCSI Hard Drive

1-Adaptec 3200S RAID 2CH PCI to U160 w/ 32MB SDRAM

1-Intel(R) Pentium(R)4 Processor (Northwood) 2.2GHz, 400MHz FSB, Socket 478 (No Memory) Retail

2-Samsung Original Rambus 256MB 800MHz 16-Device Memory

1-ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64MB DDR Video Card w/DVI, Video in & Video out Retail

1-Pioneer 16x DVD 40x CD, EIDE, slot load, internal, DVD-106S

1-Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy PCI Sound Card w/FireWire port

1-Antec SX1040B SOHO File Mid-Tower Server Case (Black)

1-1-IBM Deskstar 120GXP 60GB ATA100 7200RPM Hard Drive (i know ibm ugh)

1-Abit TH7II i850 P4 Skt478 RDRAM ATX Motherboard w/Audio Retail

1-Lite-On LTR-32123S 32x12x40 EIDE CD-RW Drive w/Software Retail

Subtotal: $3311.40

and this is my dream computer so please stick to the choices and then give feedback if you want to change my mind


thank you for your responses

 

[SuperSix]

Niether.. They both use Abit boards, which defeats the stability of the Intel platform. I would use Gigabyte, MSI, etc..

 

[rockhard]

Pop a Gigabyte or Supermicro mobo in there and drop the CL sound card for a TB Scruz and i'll take a pop.
CL sound card and Abit motherboard? hmmm?

 

[Patchmaster]

Choice #1 looks like you're trying to balance performance with storage space, using the 15k RPM drive for max performance and the 73.4GB drive for mass storage. Why not switch to IDE for the mass storage? The performance won't be quite as good, but you can get more than three times the space for about $100 less. I'd get a couple 120GB EIDE drives and maybe a RAID controller instead of the Cheetah 73LP. Make a RAID-0 array with the 120GB EIDE drives and you'll still get pretty impressive performance. Pair that with the Cheetah X15 for the boot drive and you'll get the best of both worlds.

I would also go with a minimum of 512MB memory, preferably 1GB. You're putting together a pretty kick-a$$ system here; you don't want to cut corners with the memory.

I can't quite see what you're going for with choice #2. You've got a very high speed SCSI RAID array paired with an EIDE drive that I assume will be the boot device. That's backwards from the way I'd do it. The SCSI RAID array would be very sweet if money isn't a huge consideration, but on a budget I'd go with the very fast boot device and slightly slower mass storage. Perhaps you should tell us how you intend to use this system. With the combinations of SCSI and IDE it looks like you have something specific in mind.

 

[DN]

I need to ask the obvious question, but is this machine going to be used as a "server" whatsoever..? If not, drop the SCSI as you are really wasting your money, imo.. You'll want to go with 512Mb ram if you plan on using WinXP, even if you can "get away" with less..

 

[Wolfsraider]

ok the ide drive was for backups for the scsi raid setup(until i save more money for raid o+5 =4 drives)

i am going 2 x 256 rdram for 512 to start later 1 gig and beyond

i want to keep this system harddrive wise all scsi but in the second config i resigned to use ide to back up important data untill such a time as i can get two more 36lp drives

this is a learning process for me as i want to start up a web server for my own use (company?)

this system could be made to function cheaper yes but the whole point is to implement at least one great server and a few client servers to host the website.

not to mention that i want to build my own web pages, share files, host games....

but until that time comes i want to use this for the classes i will be taking in photo editing and cad programs also i will be expanding by learning networking and programing etc

and yes i could get by with less but i want this to be able to grow with my experiences and website and as such want a fairly long life out of it at least 3 years with necessary upgrades


and yes i am fairly new to this but these are my goals and i dont want to get to the start of it all and realize i could have gone scsi or hey the only way to add more drive storage is if you have more drives but your pci bus is full and you'd be better utilizing the server if you went scsi.

in other words looking at my choices i figure start off decent and grow that way i wont be sinking
money into a sinking ship

i do plan also on building a server for files using a raid board and 4 120 gig hdd's to start
a linux server for mail

and a news server too but those will be cheaper than this and therefore easily upgradeable to in the future as i already have a lot of the components to make them.

but i still want a flagship if you will in case it does take off

if it doesn't then hey what a new toy lol

and since we are on the subject of me being new at this then forgive me for maybe going a little overboard on the video and sound but hey why not. as i said i'll be using it for learning lol

 

[rockhard]

If you are wanting to do multiple servers and can afford to go 2x SCSI HD's in raid 1 + Tape backup for OS's and then 3 or 4x HD's in raid 5 how about getting a AMD SMP motherboard plus a pair of 2000+ MP's with as much ram as you can afford and getting a copy of VMWare GSX Server?
Then you could run all your servers on one Hardware platform.
I use GSX server and though expensive is a great way to consolidate your servers to one Hardware platform so that you can spend your money on a top class SCSI HD setup etc.
The above setup would have no problem running the servers you mention plus more and would allow you to experiment with multiple servers on your lan without having to go silly in the Hardware department.
Can you afford the i860 platform with the new SMT capable Zeon's?
Would be my platform of choice if i were to consolidate my Servers to one Hardware platform as i feel the Symetric Multiple Threading would really shine under this kind of application.

I have 3x Win2K Servers running under GSX Server myself on 1.5gb ram, XP 1600+ and a single Maxtor Atlas 3 10K and it runs as smooth as silk.

 

[Wolfsraider]

<< I have 3x Win2K Servers running under GSX Server myself on 1.5gb ram, XP 1600+ and a single Maxtor Atlas 3 10K and it runs as smooth as silk. >>




what applications are you running for mail, are you offering downloads, what does yours actually handle?

i know that a server doesn't have to be all out hardware goodness but this is a learning process so enlighten me

and by running 3 2000 servers wouldn't you be limited by the processor's ability to handle 3 streams at once? this setup works good for games but does it also handle websites(multiple downloads)...etc?

i read somewhere once that to run multiple srevers you needed to set aside 50 mhz and 64 mb ram so if that's true( this was from a gaming magazine) a pentium 4 2.2 could handle 44 servers using 2.75 gigs of ram or 24 servers using 1.5 gigs of ram so using this as a base as i want at least 3 servers to fall back on if the other servers went down
1.5 gig total for same , and on a side note could this also be true for hosting a large lan party? say 30 members 30 machines would that be a good test?



<< Then you could run all your servers on one Hardware platform. >>



hmm... maybe youre on to something here but do i need a dual processor intel or athlon to do this or would that just speed me up a little?



<< platform as i feel the Symetric Multiple Threading would really shine under this kind of application. >>



ok the present budget was 3400.00 so a dual process wasn't figured on

thanks for all your replies

 

[rockhard]

My recommendation would be to try out the VMWare evaluation download on your current rig with a 1gb of ram and a 10K SCSI HD and see what you can get it to do at your Lan party before dishing out loads of cash before working out exactly what you need.
SMP isnt essential unless you really want to go to town and do other things with your PC at the same time or do some clustering experimentation and run a few clients etc maybe.
The beauty of GSX server is you can run it headless and run the servers in virtual consoles so the Host can be totally headless and popped out the way and just connected up to your LAN without having to have loads of hardware and cables kicking about all over the house

If you were to ditch the 73gb SCSI and just use IDE raid 1 for the mass storage, SMP could be an option on your budget?
I mention AMD as to go SMP with Intel at the moment your really looking at Rimms which aint cheap when ECC 512mb and you would need plenty of ram IMO.

 

[Wolfsraider]

sorry i realize my mistake was mentioning a lan party but that was because i didnt see where you were headed with this sorry

do you really think this would be overkill?

take a site such as this what are the system requirements (hardware wise to set up such a site?

thats where i am trying to go

with email, news and such but also have a small network going as well (wouldn't this help by alleviating some of the traffic if and when it gets going?)

sorry if i read you wrong i assumed you meant gaming lan so i apologize

so please let me know what you would use for such a site


thanks

 

[rockhard]

<< take a site such as this what are the system requirements (hardware wise to set up such a site?

thats where i am trying to go >>



If you want to build up to the above i would still recommend getting a decent SCSI HD setup, loads of ram and learn networking in depth.
When your up to the needs of this kind of site, then look at the Hardware required, as by then you will have a better idea yourself of what you need.
Please dont feel i am trying to be condrascending, just i dont want you to blow some major cash and regret it.
As for building up to Anand's calibre of hosted site - theres much competition out there and you would be better served in learning the ropes on your own lab and then consider maybe doing some small scale hosting to gain some experience with pretty mediocre hardware.
Only when you are confident that you can answer the questions above yourself would i even consider blowing the dosh. Even then i would want a well laid out plan of what you aim to do.

By the time you have reached the above you may feel your needs are better served buying an off the shelf server with all the support and backup you will never get by building yourself.

I hope i havent put you off.

Wish you luck

Regards,

rockhard =)

 

[Wolfsraider]

rockhard,


<< If you want to build up to the above i would still recommend getting a decent SCSI HD setup, loads of ram and learn networking in depth. >>



show me please what you consider a decent scsi setup?



<< I hope i havent put you off. >>



nah man you are right

i have been spending a lot of time at home these last 6 months and trying to learn a new way to fly


i am looking at computer erelated stuff to be my wings

and being such a newbie i was shooting for the stars lol

so any advice you all can give would be appreciated thanks, mike

 

[rockhard]

Before looking at SCSI may i recommend you try IDE HD's first that you already have, maybe running the VM's on their own HD and see how it performs for you.
If its not to your liking then you could look at an Adaptec 19160 SCSI card, Maxtor Atlas III 10k 18.4gb SCSI HD and a SCSI 3 LVD cable as a starter?
Bear in mind the Adaptec 19160 is a Windows only card hence why it is cheaper than the 29160.
If you ever envisage Linux in your future then it may be worth paying the extra on the 29160?
You wont notice a great improvement in performance in general windows duties with this setup, but once youve got 4x VM's hitting that drive you should see a big difference over IDE if loading the servers up and not just having them sitting idle most of the time.
If you felt really plush you could go 2x SCSI HD's and have one for OS and general apps and the other for the VM's only. Pop a second swap file on the second HD the same size as the first HD's and should be sweet.
This is my next upgrade when i can afford another Atlas III

If you have any problems with VMWare, message me and i'll do my best to help you out if you get stuck.


Please dont take this as the way to go, just a recommendation, and im sure you will get plenty of differing ones, though i do feel playing with a virtual network with VMWare would be a great help.
You will just have to take them all into consideration and make up your own mind i guess.

Hope this helped,

rockhard =)

 

[Wolfsraider]

thanks rockhard will be looking at this as it does sound good

 

[rockhard]

No problems.
Glad i could be of help.