Rolling your own pc's is great fun .. I've built all my home boxen. That said, you could take a look at the IBM Netfinity's. I've a pair of the 3000 models running at work that have been great for what we paid. $1700 gets you a PIII-450, 9G scsi, etherpro100, 64M mem (added another 64M). It serves up dns, dhcp, and 50 laser printers to some 400+ windows users w/o breaking a sweat. Adding a redundant ps, and raid-1 mirroring would probably double the price. Linux install was a breeze. There were issues at the time with getting X to recognize the video chip, but that's probably fixed by now. And do get a tape backup. DLT's the way to go .. I just found a 15G Quantum on eBay for $400. The tapes hit the pocketbook, but off-site storeage really should be considered! -jh rgoldber at d.umn.edu wrote: > Hello! > > I'm building a file/print server. I'd like your thoughts. > > The network (as of right now) consists of 10-12 win98 machines plus one > linux backup machine. Right now the database for the key client app (and a > bunch of other important stuff) sits on one of the win98 machines. Ick. > Before I put the linux machine in (a p75 with 32mb, found in a closet), > they were depending on a guy switching out zip disks everyday. Ick. The > linux machine rsyncs the current file "server" every night, plus once a > week, so we can go back in time. If the "server" fails, the backup machine > easily subs for it till things are righted, losing at most the day's work. > Not good, but better than trying to restore a borken machine from zips, > losing the same amount of work. > > I go into detail about the backup machine because I'm thinking of using it > instead of a tape drive. Anyhoo, here's my plan: > > New dedicated file/print server (running linux, duh) > > pIII 450-600 > 128mb ram > asus p3bf or abit bf6 > 2-4 quantum fireball 10.2g LM series (ide) > 3ware ide raid card (2 or 4 port, doing raid 1) > dual hot swap power supply > maybe a tape drive > > I somewhat expect to be beaten severely for using "ide" and "raid" in the > same sentence but... Does anybody have any hands on experience with > 3ware's cards? The sales rep put me in contact with a couple of people who > really like them... > > This is a dusty environment, so I don't trust anything that moves. > Redundancy is more important than performance. So, raid 1, hot swap power > supplies, I feel warm and fuzzy like. > > What I'm most interested in hearing about is how stupid/smart it is to use > the junker backup machine as an alternative to a tape drive. Secondly, if > it's really stupid, I'd like some suggestions for sub $1000 tape > drives. Of course, all other pointers will be appreciated. > > This email turned out really long, sorry. > > Thanks in advance! > > - > > Ryan > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org > For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org -- John Hawley // Network Admin Billy Graham Evang. Assoc. 612.335.1334 jhawley at bgea.org