[K12OSN] server specs for K12LTSP

[Petre Scheie]

Quentin Hartman wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-11-07 at 09:35 -0500, Dan Hopson wrote:
> 
>>I am needing minimum and medium range server specs to run K12LTSP to a 
>>24-station lab here at the school.  I would like to stay with Opteron CPUs.  
>>Thanks
> 
> 
> I recently built the following machines for about $2500:
> 
> -Single Opto 265 Processor
> -4GB RAM
> -Dual SATA drives
> -Dual GB NIC
> 
> And they are each serving 25-50 clients quite comfortably. I do have the
> home directories off-loaded to another machine (accessed via NFS on the
> second GB interface) though, so you may want to go up to 10K RPM SATA
> drives or SCSI if budget allows.
> 
This brings up an interesting question (well, I think it's interesting): At what point 
does it become justifiably beneficial to use a dual processor system?  Quentin, when you 
say 'serving 25-50 clients quite comfortably' do you mean it can handle 50 clients all 
logged in and working?  In Unix, memory has (almost) always mattered more than processor 
power, and with 4GB I can believe you could handle 50 simultaneous clients.  Is there 
enough of a performance gain to actually justify dual processors?

Petre