Server build. Looking for input/critiques

[phaxmohdem]

A buddy of mine and I are working on putting a web site together, that will be doing a lot of conversion from plain text to MP3. Using eSpeak and LAME presently for the conversion process, which is pretty processor intensive. (on my test server (An Athlon x2 5200)) it takes roughly 39 seconds to convert a 51K text file to mp3.

Since LAME, and eSpeak are single threaded apps (LAME-MT just doesn't seem to offer what I need) I will be writing scripts to 'parallelize' (is that word?) the task as much as possible, by either splitting up the text files into smaller ones that can be processed simultaneously by a multicore processor, then recombined, or just running multiple text files through simultaneously in separate threads depending on how many files are in the queue.

Also this server would be going into a dedicated webhosting/colocation facility... which I have no experience with so any insight here would be appreciated.

NOT overclocking,
No real brand loyalty. I like AMD, but Intel seems to do what I'm looking to do better.
Budget, around 1000 (slightly flexible)

Quick run down of tasks for this server:

- Can't decide on WinServer 2003, or Linux (Have both)
- Apache/PHP
- MySQL server
- Email Server (not heavy traffic, mainly PHP sendmail stuff)
- LAME
- eSpeak

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Here is what I've built on newegg thus far:
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Chassis (2u) - SuperMicro CSE-822T-400LPB Black 2U Rackmount Case w/ 400W - $239.99

Motherboard - Tyan S5211G2NR LGA 775 Intel 3210 ATX Server Motherboard - $224.99

Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz - $329.99

RAM - 4GB Kingston (4x 1GB) DDR2-800 ECC - $73.98

Hard Drives - 4x WD Caviar RE 250GB SATA 3.0 (for RAID-10) - $279.96

DVD-RW - LITE-ON Black 20X DVD-RW IDE - $22.9

CPU Heatsink - Dynatron P555 2U Quad-Core read HS/Fan - $35.99

Grand Total: ~ $1207

 

[Roguestar]

Why the server motherboard when everything else is more or less generic desktop stuff? You could get yourself a cheap desktop motherboard and standard DDR2 and also drop the CPU down to the Q9300 or Q9450 if you thought you could get away with it.

 

[phaxmohdem]

I don't know, I guess I figured it would be a more reliable platform, but you're probably right, a nice gigabyte or ASUS consumer board could fit the bill as well (as long as it does RAID 10).

The CPU speed is really the crucial component I'm going for. Sadly past a certain point, prices don't scale linearly with performance. If it wasn't meant for a 24/7 server config, I wouldn't hesitate to overclock a lower end quad, but in this case, it is worth it to me to shell out for a higher stock clocked quad.

 

[Roguestar]

If you're looking for RAID in a server build you're probably better off going with a dedicated hardware controller card rather than the software RAID on most motherboards.