Server hardware depends largely on the task that it is required to perform. back in the late 90s when I first upgraded to a pentium class PC I used my old 486 as a webserver and for serving basic html pages it was fine so a server can actually be a very low spec machine if it is only serving html. once you get into serving dynamic sites that access a database then you need a bit more power. Lets look at the various compontents that make up a pc / server then you can make up your own mind based on your buget.

There are 3 main considerations that will determine if you buy an older server hardware or build a newer pc to act as a server, they are CPU, Hard Disk and motherboard


Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

There are 3 main types of HDD, SCSI, PATA and SATA. If you have an older PC it will most likely have Parallel ATA or PATA drives, you can tell by having a look inside your tower and you will see the wide grey IDE cables running from the drives to the motherboard. If you have a newer PC you will probably have some Serial ATA or SATA drives, they normally have slimmer red cables. The SATA has much faster transfer speed than PATA so is becoming very popular. The SCSI drives are normally only found in server hardware, they have fast access speeds and use less CPU resources during operation but are usually a little more expensive.

So the argument boils down to SCSI or SATA, both are good options if you set it up correctly. If you buy a server you will most likely be getting SCSI drives and a RAID card supplied, if you are building a PC to act as a server you will probably buy SATA drives and a raid card.

RAID
there are several types of raid setup, the simplest and most common is mirror raid (1) this is where 2 drives act as one and the system writes the information to both drives at the same time, this means if one of the drives fails you dont lose any data, you simply replace the dead drive. This is very important if you are running any type of server. The advantage most server hardware have in this situation is hotswap, this means you can replace the drive without powering the system down. If you are building a server you may want to look into getting some sort of SATA caddy that will allow you to hotswap the drives to again emulate this server hardware function.

Motherboard
If you buy a server your motherboard will probably support at least 2 CPUs, if you are building a server the multiple CPUs are less important as these days there are dual and quad core CPUs that emulate the same setup so be sure your motherboard supports these CPUs. Another consideration is onboard raid, if you get a motherboard that does not support onboard RAID you will have to buy a RAID card, they can vary in price from $20 - $200.

CPU
most servers these days use xeon CPUs, even an older pentium 3 xeon is still a good CPU but a new P4 dual core is going to out perform a p3 xeon. If building a server look for dual or quad core with high front side bus (FSB) and plenty of cache. Cache is like onboard RAM on the CPU and FSB is the CPUs communication speed

Buying an older server can be quite cheap and may suit your needs very well, I see them on ebay for about $200 - $400 for an entry level system. I paid $350 (au) for a compaq proliant ML370 G2 that has 2 x 36 gig SCSI drives with 512 meg of RAM, dual hotswappable 500watt power supplies (PSU), dual 1266 mhz P3 xeon CPUs, a good RAID card and a remote access card.

Summary

Buying:

pros
dual power supplies, tried and tested hardware, xeon CPU, ECC RAM less errors and more reliable, SCSI drives are smarter, system designed to run cooler, hotswap PSU and HDD is normally standard
cons
older 2nd hand parts, parts harder to source and can be a more expensive, hardware is normally noisy


Building:

Pros
new parts, faster CPU, better performance, SATA is cheaper than SCSI, new SATA drives have as fast access speed as SCSI,
cons
no hotswap power supplies, hardware is not as tough, planning required for cooling

FireHorse