[MLUG] server purchase

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I had asked some questions here earlier about a server we are purchasing,
so I thought I'd tell you what we've nearly settled on.  If you have any
suggestions for ways to improve on this configuration, I'd like to hear
them.  Don't bother to make suggestions about the disk array because we
have some sort of external solution using a fiber channel, but I don't
know a lot about it and it isn't mentioned below.  --Mike


In some ways I would have preferred something higher end, using 64-bit
processors, but (absurdly) SAS won't run on 64-bit Linux.  So we went with
a 32-bit machine and ordinary 32-bit Linux.  This has some advantages. For
one, it is cheaper.  It will probably give us the best bang-for-the-buck
of any server we could have bought.  It might also be easier to get some
programs to work on this system.

The machine is a Dell Power Edge 4600.  Here's the configuration:

http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/poweredge_4600.gif

Price*:$6,745.72

Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 6:37:52 PM CST

PowerEdge 4600:            Intel® Xeon. Processor at 2.8GHz, 512K Cache
Additional Processors:     Intel® Xeon. Processor at 2.8GHz, 512K Cache
Memory:                    4GB DDR SDRAM  4 x 1GB
Keyboard:                  Standard Windows Keyboard,Gray
Monitors:                  No Monitor Option
1st Hard Drive:            36GB 15K RPM Ultra 320 SCSI Hard Drive
Primary Controller:        PERC3/Di 128MB (2 Internal Channels) - Embedded RAID
Diskette Drive:            3.5in,1.44MB FLOPPY DRIVE
Operating Systems:         NO OS - O = OTHER
Mouse:                     Logitec System Mouse,Gray
Network Adapters:          2X INTEL PRO 1000XT,CU-GB,NIC
CDROM or DVDROM:           8X DVD-ROM
Hard Drive Backplane:      1X8 Hot-Pluggable Hard Drive Backplane
Documentation:             Hard Copy Documentation
2nd Hard Drive:            36GB 15K RPM Ultra 320 SCSI Hard Drive, PowerEdge
Hard Drive Configuration:  Embedded RAID 1,No Drives in Media Bay (2 drives required)
Chassis Orientation:       Tower Orientation
Hardware Support Services: 3Yr Same Day 4Hr Response Parts + Onsite Labor (M-F 8am-6pm)
Power Supply Kits:         Redundant Power Supplies
Installation Support Services:  No Installation


So it's a dual 2.8 GHz Xeon with 4 GB RAM and 72 GB hard disk.  The RAM
can be increased to as much as 12 GB (currently for about $500/GB) and
many hard disks could be added but Jeff has plans for a different sort of
external disk array.

The price ($6,745) is very low, I think, so we ought to be able to expand
this quite a bit if we find that it suits us well (I expect that it will).
For example, we could add several similar machines if we need more
computing power.

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