Need hardware advice in business application.

[boomerang]

I'll try to keep this short.

At my wife's place of business they are using a piece of software that does virtually everything for them. They recently upgraded from an older DOS version to a Windows version. It will run on NT or 98.

It is running quite slowly through their network.

There are only two computers on a peer to peer network right now, and we know that the hardware in these machine is well below the minimum required by the software maker.

I have upgraded the network with 10/100 NIC's and CAT 5 cabling.

The software maker would like a dedicated server running NT4 and workstations as required. For economic reasons, my wife would prefer I build just two new machines, with one acting as the server.

As the software is not in constant use, and rarely, if ever, by two individuals at once, I believe this could work.

We have a network set up here at home, and of course at her office, but when it gets down to the real nitty-gritty I don't have enough background to make the right decisions.

I'm looking for hardware recommendations.

Right now, both machines have Internet access through one of them, using ICS. The business is not at all dependant on the Internet. Email is not a big part of the business either.

The other machine has a modem used solely to receive faxes. My wife prefers to preview them before she prints them out because she finds that 95% of them are of no use to her in printed form.

They do very little in the way of word processing.

They use the Nextsoft program for virtually everything else in the business. From accounting to customer records, generation of work orders, etc. As they become more comfortable with it, there will be other uses for it too.

I'm thinking the "server" should have lot's of ram, and a dedicated, fast HD just for the Nextsoft program. I prefer to stay with 98, as I am unfamiliar with NT.

I suspect the software may be somewhat poorly written, but they are stuck with it. It's just a small business.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[lowtech1]

If I have a choice I would run a Win98 or Win2k pro peer-to-peer network for 2 puters network. But, if you must have a client/server environment then I recommend Win2k server, and Win2k pro as a client. Win2k is much more stable than NT4 and is much easier to navigate (administration) than the shoddy NT4.

 

[boomerang]

I would like to stay with 98. I've had a minimal amount of exposure to NT at work and it looks to be way over my head from an administration standpoint. Plus I could save her the expense of purchasing 2000.

My main concern is hardware though. It's running quite slow now. If I build her up some new equipment, I have to make sure it will perform well.

It seems to me that it should run fine on a peer to peer with the right hardware. I don't think a client/server is absolutely necessary. But I'm not sure.

I guess I could contact the software people and see what they have to say. I'm sure my wife's office is not the only oufit running it on a peer to peer.

 

[lowtech1]

What it the current hardware status?

What socket are the mobos, is it socket7 or supper7?

How much ram does the systems have?

What is the hardware requirements for the upgraded software?

Could you add more ram or upgrade the cpu to make it work with the new software. Try running Win95 on the system with 32 megs or more ram. And, use Netscape or others browsers instead of IE4 or higher on the Win95 machine, because Active Desktop for Win9.x is buggy and is a resource hog. (Win98/ME have built in Active Desktop).

 

[boomerang]

The current "server" if you will, is a Dell.

P233MMX
64MB RAM

The most I could do with the processor is to go to a 266, if I could even find one. The ram is maxed out. At least according to the Dell website. The mobo will not accept larger sticks. Has only two slots.

The "client" is even more ancient.

P166 non MMX
96MB RAM

I could upgrade to a 200 on the processor. Must be a non MMX as the board won't support it.

The software vendor would like on the server;

PII 400 or better
128-256 RAM

Client;

P300 or better
64-128 RAM

The software has been tightly integrated with IE. Netscape is not an option. Nor is Win95.

My wife is OK with new hardware. She knows she needs upgraded equipment. I'm thinking if I build using current hardware, using 7200 RPM drives and mucho RAM this should work just fine. The other thing I plan to do is switch the "server" machine to her assistant. She is the primary user of the software. Quite obviously, it is going to slow her down having to access constantly through the network.

So here's what I'm thinking.

The server;
P!!!something. I'll buy whatever is at the "sweetspot" price-wise. This will more than meet the requirements, and carry her into the future farther.
256MB RAM
7200RPM HD 20GB or larger dedicated solely for the program.
Second 7200 HD for Windows, etc.
Fax modem in this machine.
Good 2D video card.

The client;
Basically the same as above, but with 128MB RAM. Although with prices being so low right now maybe 256.
One 7200RPM HD
Good 2D Video card.
Modem for dial-up access. My wife is the primary Internet/email user there.

I don't know if my thinking is flawed or not using two drives in the server machine.

This machine will also need a means of backup for the data generated by the program. She's currently using a Zip 250 drive. But this won't be large enough as time goes on. She wants to have a copy off-site for both fire and theft protection.

I guess what's going through my head right now is that there will be a lot of IDE devices. If I have to pair the drive that contains the program up with a slower device, I've just shot myself in the foot.

 

[dirtboy]

NT or 2k would be better, but since you don't feel comfortable we'll just skip that. A SCSI setup may be a good option here. Even if you had a seperate IDE drive for the program, it will still take up CPU clocks for processing.

I don't see any real problems with what you are doing, other then there is no reason to have seperate drives. I would consider a Promise card or something to that effect if you wish to stay with IDE. My CPU utilization dropped to zero vs. the 5 or 6% that was being used by the onboard IDE controller after switching to an Ultra 100 controller.

Just make sure the backups are working well. Check out OnStream, they make some high capacity, inexpensive IDE backup drives...and they work quite well.

 

[lowtech1]

If the software is asking for 400mhz or better, then I would want to double that so the puter have headroom for other processes. (800mhz for both server & client, and 256megs ram is a logical solution)

For a 2 puters network & light-to-medium graphic editing you wouldn?t need to have P3s or high power graphic cards. You might want to look into integrated mobo for Celeron & Duron system as a way to cut cost.

Also you might want to look at extra ide hdds as a fast & cheap data backup scheme, otherwise you might want to check out tape backup or hot-swap scsi.

And, lookup the cable/adsl business service in your area and compare the diff vs modem-n-phone line service. If you are worry with security & cable, then turn one retired puter into a proxy server.

 

[boomerang]

Thanks to both of you for the good advice.

Now comes my favorite part. Spending someone else's money!

Thanks again.