Trying to setup a home server

[pradeep_chauhan]

Hi guys
All these days i have been thinking of setting up a home server. The main use will be to be on 24x7 with Data One, hold all the multimedia stuff, host apache and mail for the house and act as a central reposatory for all data files. So till now my trusted old p3 (866 512MB SDRAM Adaptec 39160 with 37 G and 18 G disks gigabit lan card*4) was doing the work although not as rugged it was doing a good job. Today i got an offer of someone selling off an old server and I am tempted. I am giving out the spec Please tell me what its worth.

Server chassis
Mobo Intel SAI2 Dual Tulatine processor 1.13G Server
512MB SDRAM ECC Registered
Server non redundent SMPS (440W)
40 GB IDE HDD

That all the guy is asking something in the range of 25K. I think its too steep but never having bought a server before(a second hand one) I am a bit in doubt

[Doc Holliday]

Hi Pradeep,

Pardon me asking that, but do you really need the server on 24x7?

I see a few good things in the server someone is selling you.

* 512MB SDRAM ECC Registered
* Server nonredundant SMPS (440W)
* Mobo Intel SAI2 Dual Tulatine processor 1.13G Server

Here, I would ask you it is actually a dual-processor server or just dual-processor capable?

If your old machine is doing the job well, I say why spend 25K on this. Secondly, if I were you and would not actually need a machine on 24x7, I would spend my money on a newer powerful desktop. Still, I must confess the ECC Registered RAM and the redunant power supply do tempt me.

Thanks,

DH

[pradeep_chauhan]

Well you do have a point. The thing is i do have a desktop actually two with p4 2.4 HT 1G DDR 400 160GBx2 SATA and FX5200 256M. The thing is i thought may be its a good idea to have something that is alwase online and say host my web and mail also the thing was that the offer of the hardware being available is very tempting only the price is a bit of a setback. Moreover let me tell you that i am not a rich guy but an ordinaly middle class person for whome 20-25K is a BIG amount. Thus to be doubly sure of the investment i have put up this querry.

[Doc Holliday]

Hi Pradeep,

20K is too much I say. How I wish he came to say 15K-17K. Maybe it would make things easier for your mind and wallet.

DH

[digen]

Wokay lemme chip in with what I think.

The thing is i thought may be its a good idea to have something that is alwase online and say host my web and mail

Incase you are thinking of setting it up for educational purposes or for that matter as a learning process then it would be wiser to make use of some old machine gathering dust than to spend 20-25k.But I've yet to find out what all you'll require for setting it up.I'm sure there must be some alternatives like when I was searching for a full fledged firewall I stumbled across www.smoothwall.org a freeware linux alternative with periodical support.For sometime I had it setup with a old machine lying around,,untill my dad breached my room & stole it,reason:accounting purposes(phew),but thats another story.
If its for personal professional use then buying a domain/paid & private email accounts host works out quite cheaper than hosting it 24/7 at the expense of electricity bill,hassles involved with managing,securing blah blah.Trust me the cost & the pain involved managing it doesnt work out too well.Just my two cents.

Incase you hang on to something something cheaper to the above do let me know.It would certainly be a help for me.

[pradeep_chauhan]

No you see the learning process for this setup is long over just for clarity sake i will list out the hardware i presently use and with what it does
PCU P3 866 (OC 910)
motherboard asus cusl2 (815) 6 PCI slots
SDRAM 512 133Mhz
Apaptec 39160 Dual SCSI 160 adaptor with 15000 rpm SEAGATE ST336752LC and 10000 rpm SEAGATE ST318404LW
Adaptec SCSI 320 LVD cable X 2
IDE ST320414A and cdrom
graphics Asus 32M Riva TNT 2
Gigabit lan Broadcom 1
10/100Mbps Lan cards 2
SBLive value sound
NEC USB 2 Adaptor
OS Gentoo
400W Server SMPS (Topower)
This old box of mine is running a firewall based on iptables / guarddog along with an ip router and filter, it also acts as a hub The other two desktop i have are connected to this machine.
Now the drawback i feel is as under
Firstly lack of processing power as you all are aware gentoo is a source based distro so when it compiles the packages cpu utilisation peakes at 100% causing long waits for new software to compile Secondly as the asus mobo does not have PCI 64/66Mhz slots i am not able to get the full throughput from the SCSI adaptor that is a 64/32 bit card presently seated in a 32/33Mhz slot. Also the gigabit lan card can saturate the PCI bus. So the point is If i am to sell this p3 system (without the scsi and lan etc etc ) as a simple machine using this money along with some additional i will be able to go up the ladder as far as the hardware is concern.