[K12OSN] Saving money on memory

[Bill Bardon]

I am in the process of spec'ing a K12LTSP server.  Currently looking at
the Dell PowerEdge SC1420.  Getting enough RAM in this thing is
expensive!  If I get it from Dell, 4GB of ECC memory will cost me almost
$1500, more than the server itself!  I've tried other penguin-friendly
vendors and they are at least as much, or more.

I assume I can't substitute non-ECC memory and order it from somewhere
else.  I've seen 1GB non-ECC DIMMs at memory4less.com for $140, giving
me a total of just $560 for RAM.  I don't think using non-ECC will work,
though.

Maybe I should articulate my goal: a dual-processor tower server that
can run K12LTSP handily for 30 clients.  (This will be the first install
of K12LTSP in this district, so it needs to perform well.)  Will be
using IceWm, but also expect heavy OpenOffice and Firefox usage. The
servers I find on eBay are usually rack-mount units, or sub-1GHz
machines, so don't fill the bill.

So it boils down to this - can I use cheap memory in a Dell or similar
server? If not, where do you get a server as above for less than $2200? 
Any input is welcome!


-- 
Bill Bardon
COMPUTASSIST
Omaha, Nebraska
http://www.computassist.com