[K12OSN] Server Boards (was Saving money on memory )

[John Baillie]

We too are looking to buy / build a server. I looked at the dells and
they are out of our price range of 3000 or under.

Just starting my research and I found the following thread on the fedora
list.

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-March/msg03459.html

It sure would be nice to find a reliable source of linux specific server
board reviews.


John


From: Dave Hopkins <dahopkins comcast net>
      * To: "Support list for opensource software in schools." <k12osn
        redhat com>
      * Subject: Re: [K12OSN] Saving money on memory
      * Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 19:19:31 -0400

________________________________________________________________________
Not necessarily advocating them, but check out asacomputers.com. You can
get very close to your $2200.00 limit with dual cpus (in either xeons or
opterons), 4GB memory, dual nics for some of the configurations.
However, I don't know how you would get hardware RAID and still keep the
price below $2200.00, but ... who knows. I know that some on the list
have custom built systems as well for around this price.

Sincerely,
Dave Hopkins


Bill Bardon wrote:

        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!