Need some help with choosing a server

[ng12345]

I am intent on upgrading my ibm netfinity dual xeon 550mhz server with 4gb DDR ram running windows 2000 server.
I already have the harddrives:
2x36gb SCSI
2x146gb SCSI

I would like to transfer the ram over as well -- but doubt it will be compatible with anything new that i buy (looks like everything has ddr2).

Would like to buy from a company that will offer good hardware tech support, customizable hardware selection, scsi support, and preferably no requirement to buy a harddrive with the system.

I was considering putting the 146gb drives in a Raid 1 format (and store data on there) but as I was reading some of the other server build threads -- i saw a lot of posts against it. I figured it would offer good redundancy in the event of a hard disk failure.

My current server weighs approx 200lbs and is loud as hell and has redundant power supplies. I would like the new server to have similar redundancy built in but be quieter and lighter.

Server is being used in a doctor's office to run medical record (Soapware) and billing (Medisoft) software. One database uses MySQL and is about 10gb in size, the other uses Advantage Database Server and is about 300mb in size. Off site and on site backups are conducted every day and week. I already have a license of windows 2003 sbs with 25 cals waiting to be installed. Server is also being used with Terminal Services

Any suggestions on companies to buy from or servers to build? Was wondering if I will see a performance benefit between a dual core an quad core xeon? Was wondering if a 3.0ghz dual core would be better than a 2.33ghz quad core (roughly same price).

I have already looked at dell's options and do not like what they have to offer (did not see any scsi options -- all were SAS).

Budget -- I will spend as much as is necessary. this last machine was good for 6 years now, so the next machine does not need to be cutting edge

I found one site jncs.com --any thoughts?

 

[ng12345]

any suggestions?

 

[elcamino74ss]

if this is running business critical apps why not just buy a new server from dell, ibm, or hp that meets your specs. I wouldn't be using old hardware on a new box. That RAM is definately not reusable as its probably PC100 or PC133 ECC.

have you thought about buying two boxes and running as a cluster for high availability? this would allow you to do maintenance with out taking down the applications. well that won't fly as I don't think SBS is cluster aware.

 

[MerlinRML]

Originally posted by: ng12345

Any suggestions on companies to buy from or servers to build? Was wondering if I will see a performance benefit between a dual core an quad core xeon? Was wondering if a 3.0ghz dual core would be better than a 2.33ghz quad core (roughly same price).

I have already looked at dell's options and do not like what they have to offer (did not see any scsi options -- all were SAS).

The dual core and quad core machines clock-for-clock are almost identical. The only situations in which the quad core could be a better solution is if you can distribute your work load evenly across 4 cores better than you can 2 cores. In most cases (but not all), the dual core would be a better solution.

Why is SAS not acceptable to you? Considering that the entire industry has abandoned SCSI for SAS, is there a reason that you think SCSI to be superior to SAS? I've found SAS drives to handle workload and utilize CPU about the same as SCSI, sustained transfer rates are superior, and I haven't had a SAS drive fail on me in the last year that I've been buying them. This doesn't even touch on the better interface throughput, potential density increases of 2.5" SAS drives, interoperability with SATA, or cabling simplicity (thank god for no more terminators), and expander capabilities that you get with the architecture.

As far as most OEM servers go, you don't have to buy the hard drives from them. However, you will have to buy the drive sled. So in the end, the money you save by buying the hard drive somewhere else is burned when you have to buy the caddy separately.

 

[ng12345]

i have 4 perfectly good recently bought scsi hard drives -- why would i want to invest more cash on a substitute which will offer little perfomance gain?

any new server i buy will already have sata ports built into the motherboard allowing me to switch over to SAS at my convenience instead of being forced into an unecessary expenditure
will my core programs (soapware, medisoft, mysql/sql server, advantage database server, terminal services) benefit from SAS?

will they see an increased benefit to more cores vs more clock? i.e. should i get 1xdual core, 2xdual core, 1xquad core, 2xquad core?

I was planning on getting 2-4gb of ram ... is any more necessary? on an average day, we probably access (using liberal estimates) 500mb of the databases.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: ng12345
i have 4 perfectly good recently bought scsi hard drives -- why would i want to invest more cash on a substitute which will offer little perfomance gain?

any new server i buy will already have sata ports built into the motherboard allowing me to switch over to SAS at my convenience instead of being forced into an unecessary expenditure
will my core programs (soapware, medisoft, mysql/sql server, advantage database server, terminal services) benefit from SAS?

will they see an increased benefit to more cores vs more clock? i.e. should i get 1xdual core, 2xdual core, 1xquad core, 2xquad core?

I was planning on getting 2-4gb of ram ... is any more necessary? on an average day, we probably access (using liberal estimates) 500mb of the databases.

sas and sata are not the same thing and unless i am comoletely wrong, you can use sata drives on a sas controller but not a sas drive in a sata controller. sas is the new version of scsi. possibly sell the ones you have. the benefit of sas is more for the actual machine and density of getting a lot of storage space into small, lower power 2.5" hdds - usually 10K, not sure about 15k yet.

how taxed is the current server? or is it just time to get a new one? for all we know the current server is not taxed so a performance increase may not be seen.

 

[ng12345]

the current server seems to be running fine -- nothing is visibly slow to us
the only thing is when using terminal services occassionally the system will run slow (this is an acute problem for the past 3 weeks) -- we have attributed it to not enough bandwidth when working from home and not a server side issue

we have had issues in the past with the server slowing down, but the problems were quickly remedied with either more ram or more hd space.

the only reason we are looking to upgrade is because the new version of soapware has a requirement for a "2ghz or mutlicore processor" on the server. the old version runs perfectly well on the current setup. we have yet to try the new version on the old o/s for fear of not being able to activate the version again should we need to upgrade.

if there will be a perfomance upgrade in terminal services with a new server, that itself would warrant the upgrade due to our heavy use of that feature (between offices and office to home)

re:sas -- excuse my mistake -- if sas won't work right on the board, i will be able to buy an add-in card to support in the future (seems for most oem servers, an addin card is required for SAS regardless) -- with technology progressing at such a fast pace, i dont see the need to upgrade now for a technology that will have marginal benefit (did not see 2.5in drive for sale with dell configurator) and will decrease in price by the time the benefit is more real

 

[ng12345]

just as an update

first off i'd like to thank everyone who helped me with their ideas and suggestions on the server

this is what we ended up getting for ~3k
dell poweredge 2900
2x quad core xeon 1.6ghz processor
4x1gb ddr2 ram
2x36gb 15k raid 1
4x73gb 15k raid 5
dual GbE/dual power supplies
250gb external backup hd via usb 2.0