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<DIV><SPAN class=829074216-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Nope,
you don't need a hefty machine at all. You app isn't going to use many
resources at all, just file sharing.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=829074216-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=829074216-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
would recommend, if they are concerned about money, for them to just get a
Pentium III or IV desktop. (I'd say at least 256 to 512 megs of
RAM). Get three hard drives. (SCSI...but that may be a bit
expensive....), Mirror the OS, and RAID a data drive (you can do all of that in
Disk Management...with Windows 2000, no RAID controller necessary.) If you
don't want to setup a domain, then you can stick with Windows 2000 Pro. If
you want to setup a domain, then you'll need Windows 2000 (which ups the price,
but you already knew that). </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=829074216-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=829074216-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Drew</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Rocky Smolin - Beach Access
Software [mailto:bchacc@san.rr.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, March 03, 2003
10:25 AM<BR><B>To:</B> accessd@databaseadvisors.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re:
[AccessD] OT: Server Needed<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Drew:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This site will have no web or domain
function. Email is through an ISP. Little hard data
crunching. My app is the main app on the system and it is FE/BE (A2K)
with the FEs on the client machines. Change anything in your
opinion?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rocky</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=DWUTKA@marlow.com href="mailto:DWUTKA@marlow.com">Drew Wutka</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=accessd@databaseadvisors.com
href="mailto:'accessd@databaseadvisors.com'">'accessd@databaseadvisors.com'</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, March 03, 2003 7:20
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: [AccessD] OT: Server
Needed</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Rocky, it is a common misconception that you need a rocking CPU for a
server. That is absolutely not true. There are a few 'purposes'
of a server, and not all of them require massive processor speeds, or tons
of memory.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003></SPAN><SPAN
class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>1 - File
Sharing</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>2
- Domain Control</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>3
- Network 'Service' Server (Proxy, Email Server, Web Server,
etc).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>4
- Server Computing (Hard data crunching)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>5
- Server Side databases.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>You need to realize the real limiting factors on a server.
First is network bandwidth. a 100 megabit line is roughly 12 megabytes
per second. That is not a lot. It is a fraction of the speed of
a typical IDE drive. If you go to a gigabit line, then you have a much
larger data transfer rate (10x, so you are talking roughly 120 megabytes per
second...which is faster then your typical IDE drive, but it is still less
then a SCSI Raid configuration). So, if you are just setting up file
transfers, then you don't need much of a machine to do it. It can have
minimal CPU Speed (even Pentium or Pentium II....though I personally
wouldn't go lower then a Pentium III to be on the safe side), and memory
doesn't have to be whopping (256 megs would do). This is because the
file sharing is going to be slower then actual file usage used locally (do
to the pipe the data is going through). A faster CPU or more memory
isn't going to push the data through faster.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Domain Controllers don't need to be whoppers either. I think we
are running a Pentium II (desktop) for a Primary Domain Controller
here. No problems. It doesn't have to do all that much as far as
processing goes.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Network services. Well, it depends. We run everything but
our mail server on Pentium III desktops. (Proxy, web, intranet,
etc.). It all runs fine. Again, it is going to boil down to the
network tunnel involved. With a webserver, a common misconception is
that you need to have a huge machine to handle massive transactions.
Absolutely not true. In a web server, you have an even smaller pipe
(we have a T1 here), so the data is being sent through an even slower
connection. Now, if you have a lot of Server Side scripting, where the
server is creating pages on the fly, then you do need a decent CPU, and the
more ram you have, the more pages that are 'cached'. But again, you
don't need a Cray. Email servers can require a bit more power
though. We use an Exchange Server. It's got a dual processor,
with 2 gigs of RAM. The real catch is how heavy it is used
internally. (for in house comms).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Server Computing. This is where the most power is needed.
There are software packages out there that use server CPU time pretty
heavily. For example, we have a package called FlowTherm, and
FlowStress. These packages perform massive heat calculations, over and
over and over. If you run this software on a server, obviously the
more CPU and memory you have the better.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Server Side Databases. You do need power on these. But
again, you are limitted by your network speed. However, your processor
is going to do a lot of work independant of the network traffic, so it
probably should be pretty fast, with lots of memory to
boot.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Just my two cents.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=505384614-03032003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Drew</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Rocky Smolin - Beach
Access Software [mailto:bchacc@san.rr.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, March
02, 2003 12:06 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
AccessD@databaseadvisors.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [AccessD] OT: Server
Needed<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear List:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Excuse the OT please but I know someone will
know the answer:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have a client who wants to upgrade the
server on his network. There's about 10 seats on his network, of
which maybe 6 are being used. Seems to me that he could use any
good, fast P4 box with 1/2 gig of RAM , etc. Which is well under
$1000 these days from dell, or gateway, with three years
on-site.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A local, old, fairly reputable company in San
Diego - Datel - is quoting him $1457 for and Intel entry level server with
a P4 (speed unknown), 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, with DUAL LAN RAID - whatever
that is. Plus another $775 for "WIN 2000 SVR W/5 CLIENT SP3
OEM-CD". Plus something between 5 and 10 hours of installation
charged at a price unspecified in the quote.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Right now his "server" is an old Win98 box,
slow, but effective.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My question is, what is the difference
between a box that someone like Dell calls a server and an ordinary
computer? Does he need a server?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>MTIA,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rocky</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>