[K12OSN] Which server would you prefer?

[Joseph Bishay]

Hello,

I hope you are all doing very well.

For several years now I've been using a custom-built server for our
K12LTSP (now K12Linux) setup.  It's been supporting around 15 clients
and has been chugging along faithfully.  It does not have a very high
load on it but when you do push it, it does show some weakness.  The
specifics for this machine are:

Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz with Hyperthreading
ASUS P4P800 Motherboard
3 GB RAM (max 4)
2 x 37 GB SCSI drives in RAID 1 configuration
2 x Intel Gigabit NIC

Recently I received a Proliant ML370 with the following specifications:

Pentium III - 1 Ghz (Has an empty slot for a second processor)
Max 4 GB RAM
2 x 18 GB hot-swappable SCSI drives (can hold up to 6 drives)
1 onboard 10/100 NIC

(Detailed specs here
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10493_div/10493_div.html)

I guess the only thing that makes me consider the Proliant as a
possible LTSP server is the fact it can handle 2 processors and so
should be able to scale better. I'd like to start pushing that the
school uses the computers more, but I'm worried that the current
server can't handle such an increased load and will cause problems.
Am I correct in my thinking or is the current one better than the
Proliant, or some other option?

Thanks,
Joseph