[K12OSN] Server grade vs Desktop grade hardware

Timothy Legge timlegge at gmail.com
Sun Nov 18 19:21:19 UTC 2007


On Nov 18, 2007 3:06 PM, Robert Arkiletian <robark at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> So for about $1200 one can buy a system that is easily powerful enough
> to run 32 clients.

Desktops are not servers but for the difference in price you might be
able to do some interesting things like buying a second "server" for
load balancing/failover.

> I wonder about reliability though. How would it compare to my current system?
>
> dual Xeon 2.8Ghz 512K cache/cpu (533Mhz FSB) slow and hot Netburst arch
> Top of the line E7505 Intel Server MB (with Adaptec SCSI controller)
> 4GB Registered ECC PC-2100 (266Mhz)
> 2 x 36GB 10K rpm SCSI (raid 1)

Power supplies are one area where some desktops fall down when in a
server role.  I have lost a couple over the years.  Ram is a lot
cheaper for desktops and typically faster (no ECC etc.).   I believe
SCSI still beats SATA in performance/reliability but I am not sure.

Tim




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