I have noticed of late that some of you are looking into new/replacement equipment. Please, don't turn a deft ear to eBay as a source for your hardware procurement. Many of my clients are now working on low to mid-range server equipment for their workstations at prices way below what they would have spent for regular stuff.
After coming online today to hunt for a system replacement for a client, I was just amazed at what I was able to procure. And now that Win2000/WinXP (Pro) is becoming more in vogue, it can manage things that you would not have thought a while ago. Multiple processors and massive RAM layouts are at your disposal.
Late generation PIII's or new Xeon's, both in dual setups, are within reason and viable. I just bought a dual P4 server motherboard for under $200 and I have a bid in for a dual P3 (capable of handling 1.0ghz processors) board for $99. The P4 board will handle up to 6gig of RAM. The P3, up to 4gig. I'll find a quality server case and set up some SCSI hot swap capacities. Dual network connections and multiple video cards added in along with 100+ gig hard drives and I will probably not have spent $900 for the base hardware of some rather robust systems.
Now after adding in those multiple flat screen monitors that I bought the other day. . .well that's another story. But the base understanding is still true. Take a moment out there before you trek down to Best Buy, CompUSA, or call Dell. Be daring, build it yourself! It might be easier than you think.
After coming online today to hunt for a system replacement for a client, I was just amazed at what I was able to procure. And now that Win2000/WinXP (Pro) is becoming more in vogue, it can manage things that you would not have thought a while ago. Multiple processors and massive RAM layouts are at your disposal.
Late generation PIII's or new Xeon's, both in dual setups, are within reason and viable. I just bought a dual P4 server motherboard for under $200 and I have a bid in for a dual P3 (capable of handling 1.0ghz processors) board for $99. The P4 board will handle up to 6gig of RAM. The P3, up to 4gig. I'll find a quality server case and set up some SCSI hot swap capacities. Dual network connections and multiple video cards added in along with 100+ gig hard drives and I will probably not have spent $900 for the base hardware of some rather robust systems.
Now after adding in those multiple flat screen monitors that I bought the other day. . .well that's another story. But the base understanding is still true. Take a moment out there before you trek down to Best Buy, CompUSA, or call Dell. Be daring, build it yourself! It might be easier than you think.
