The Hunt - System Requirements
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You need to decide what you want this server to do for you and your customers. Remember that your goal is to build a machine that can handle your requirements, including the server operating system and suite of applications. I have an HTTP web server that delivers nothing more than HTML pages and simple Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script on an old 20 MHz Macintosh. As long as a hundred thousand visitors don’t stop by at one time, it should be fine. It’s the software installed onto the machine that handles your needs, and not the machine itself. Just as you don’t need to buy a Formula 1 racecar to commute to work every day, you don’t necessarily need to buy the fastest computer system to meet your requirements.
I picked up a refurbished Tyan Trinity KT S2390 mainboard (see Figure 2-3) from Justdeals.com (www.justdeals.com) for $25. This isn’t one of the newest boards out there, but it fit my needs. It came with some necessary cabling for a floppy drive and one IDE device (CD-ROM or hard drive), and a CD-ROM that includes some important drivers and software. The Trinity KT provides an automated CPU configuration, eliminating the need to deal with complex jumper settings (discussed in Chapter 4). The AMD 900 MHz Duron CPU for this board is from NewEgg.com (www.newegg.com) and cost me about $40. At a local show, I picked up another, similar deal: a 1 GHz AMD Duron with an ECS motherboard for about $100. This is considerably more than I paid for the Trinity KT, but the processor and motherboard were new and under a full year warranty (compared to 30 days on the refurbished one). This unit also came with cabling and a system CD-ROM with drivers and software.
Figure 2-3 - The Tyan Trinity KT full-ATX motherboard
The motherboard/CPU combo specials are inherently better choices because they are pretested for compatibility, so there’s less research required on your part. I recently put together a server for my latest client location as a wireless access point for laptops, file and print sharing, a bridge between three different networks (all with required resources), and an authenticated intranet for customers to access and download sensitive documents. The traffic on this server is nominal, so I opted for a new discovery from www.shentech.com (a Yahoo! store), which offered a Soyo SY-7VEM motherboard with onboard video and audio, with a 700 MHz processor, heat sink, and cooling fan for $69.Upondoing further research at the Soyo Computer, Inc.,website(www.soyo.com) and a few posted reviews, I decided that this would be more than adequate (especially with 512MB of added memory). You still need to research each component, from the CPU to the memory and the chipset on the motherboard, to determine whether there’s ample support for expansion. This motherboard can support up to a 1GHzCPU, which leaves enough room for growth. If I need more, I can always upgrade later. It works great for now.
NOTE: Buy It New -- The cost of a new 1GHz CPU is under $40. At this price, there’s no need to risk shopping for a used one that may be defective.
 This chapter is from Build Your Own Server, by Tony Caputo (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004, ISBN: 0072227281). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now. |
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