[K12OSN] off the shelf PC as Server

Joe Guenther jguenther at chinooksedge.ab.ca
Thu Sep 28 23:49:36 UTC 2006


I have done that in a small classroom environment with 2-6pcs being used 
for word processing and internet.

I currently have a 2.4GHz Celeron, 1Gig RAM, single IDE hdd holding the 
fort.  My new "server" just arrived - a Dell Optiplex with Pentium D 
dual core processor, 2Gb RAM and a SATA hdd.  On my deskbench it is much 
quicker than the old one. I think the students will be quite happy with 
it.  I also run it on a 100Mbit switch.  I run it in a single NIC 
configuration.  I have an Astaro ASG120 security appliance that I use as 
the router/content filter/firewall.  That takes some of the squid / 
DansGuardian firewall work off the "server".  IMHO I think it works 
quite fine for the situation.

Now I also have another situation where I will be running around 50+ 
clients.  There we buy totally different hardware / gigabit switch / 
fibre link between buildings / fiber link to lab switch  etc etc.

But for what you are looking to do, you will be fine with a good high 
end desktop computer.  Just don't skimp on the quality of the 
components.  Get enterprise gear, not your local home computer kinda 
gear.  You'll be fine.

Joe Guenther

Huck wrote:
> 6-10 concurrent..you will want Gig-E...for anything more graphically 
> intense than Abiword ;)
>
> Petre Scheie wrote:
>> Yes.  I outfitted an office with just this configuration, using old 
>> castoff PCs as clients.  These were adults using Firefox primarily, 
>> some OOo, and the occasional other app.  It seemed to work fine.  I 
>> only had a 100Mb switch, and, as others have pointed out, it might 
>> have been nice to have gigabit between the server and the switch.  
>> But we managed without it. If one is running games or graphically 
>> intensive stuff, gigabit may be more important.
>>
>> Petre
>>
>> Ray Garza wrote:
>>> For a small lab of 6 to 10 PC's (with no plans to expand beyond 10 
>>> PC's), would an off the shelf PC work as a Server?
>>>
>>> PC would have:
>>>
>>> - Intel Pentium D
>>> - 2 gig ram
>>> - 160 gig SATA hd
>>> - DVD/CDR combo
>>> - buil-in nic, video, sound
>>> - add additional NIC
>>> - install K12LTSP 5.0
>>>
>>
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>>
>
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