Need advice on Ghost Image server

[RU482]

I work for an OEM that sells ruggedized tablet computers.

At work, we use a 3.4Ghz P4 dell PC, router and switches with our imaging rack for up to 96 computers at a time. It typically takes about 7-15 minutes to push an image with ~15GB of data to an 80GB drive.

That PC is getting a bit old, and we could utilize it for other things. I am just curious, would upgrading to a server (instead of a PC) be a worthwhile expense? If so, what features in a server would be important?

I assume we would want to upgrade to a RAID array to increase read/write speeds on the drives. Also a higher end NIC.

Other than that, how important is the CPU in this case?

Thanks!

 

[Zap]

My guess is that you will be I/O limited, so keep an eye for top end HDD and network performance (but doesn't make sense to go above what your network can handle).

 

[Boobs McGee]

I agree, you are probably already going as fast as your laptop drives can write data to their drives. Even if you did gain some speed is it really cost effective to spend a chunk of change on a server to shave a maybe few minutes off your pretty decent imaging time?