swiftny
asked on
A quality rackmount server with at least 4 PCI slots
I'm looking for a quality rackmount server that has at least 4 PCI slots at a reasonable price.
This server will be used for a telephone system so it is crucial that it is of high quality and reliability. Not to sound contradictory, but nothing overkill please. The requirements of the phone application itself is low.
I need specific hardware models and places to purchase it, no vague answers please.
This server will be used for a telephone system so it is crucial that it is of high quality and reliability. Not to sound contradictory, but nothing overkill please. The requirements of the phone application itself is low.
I need specific hardware models and places to purchase it, no vague answers please.
giltjr
Will this be put in to a controlled enviroment (like a computer room) or a uncontrolled envorment (like a closet)?
ASKER
Uncontrolled, but secure. Basically a closet in a room that is locked.
Oh, a little more info please.
What type of PCI slots, 32-bit or 64-bit, PCI or PCI-X, 100 Mhz or 133 Mhz?
Any specific amount of disk storage?
RAM requirments?
Minumum CPU speed and type?
Any special OS support required?
Any USB ports required? If so, number.
Any LAN ports required? If so, number and speed.
What type of PCI slots, 32-bit or 64-bit, PCI or PCI-X, 100 Mhz or 133 Mhz?
Any specific amount of disk storage?
RAM requirments?
Minumum CPU speed and type?
Any special OS support required?
Any USB ports required? If so, number.
Any LAN ports required? If so, number and speed.
The only difference between a server and a PC is the operating system. If you do not need a great deal of resources, I would just get a good PC that has the requirments you are looking for and load your server software and phone program on it.
ASKER
What type of PCI slots, 32-bit or 64-bit, PCI or PCI-X, 100 Mhz or 133 Mhz?
32 bit I believe, here are the cards interface spec:
Host Interface
Bus compatibility PCI complies with PCI Local Bus Specification, Rev. 2.2.
Bus speed 33 MHz maximum
Bus mode 32- to 16-bit conversion in target mode
Any specific amount of disk storage?
Not a ton, perhaps 200 gig in a RAID configuration for redundancy.
RAM requirments?
Just 1 gig.
Minumum CPU speed and type?
Anything above 2 ghz should be okay.
Any special OS support required?
2003 server would need to be supported.
Any USB ports required? If so, number.
4 or more should be sufficient.
Any LAN ports required? If so, number and speed.
One Lan card would need to be a card, because the license for the telephone software is attached to the mac address, and I'd like for this to be moved to another machine if necessary in the future.
32 bit I believe, here are the cards interface spec:
Host Interface
Bus compatibility PCI complies with PCI Local Bus Specification, Rev. 2.2.
Bus speed 33 MHz maximum
Bus mode 32- to 16-bit conversion in target mode
Any specific amount of disk storage?
Not a ton, perhaps 200 gig in a RAID configuration for redundancy.
RAM requirments?
Just 1 gig.
Minumum CPU speed and type?
Anything above 2 ghz should be okay.
Any special OS support required?
2003 server would need to be supported.
Any USB ports required? If so, number.
4 or more should be sufficient.
Any LAN ports required? If so, number and speed.
One Lan card would need to be a card, because the license for the telephone software is attached to the mac address, and I'd like for this to be moved to another machine if necessary in the future.
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I don't agree, you can put server software on a pc, but what makes a server a server is the hardware that runs inside the Tower. To me a server is robust running a RAID of some sort, ECC RAM, a motherboard that has been time tested, ECT....
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You are correct about the ECC RAM and the RAID. However, those can be run on a good PC as well. Including SCSI drives. The hardware is the same. The only thing different is the software. I run Windows 2k3 and Exchange 2k3 with an AD environment at home with nothing more than a P4 3.2 processor PC with 2 200GB hard drives in a Raid 1 setup via the OS and 1 GB RAM. It works perfect and it cost less than half of your Tiger Direct "Server". It also has 5 PCI slots and 4 USB2 plus a seperate PCI card with 4 more USB2 slots. A NIC would be easy to install into another PCI slot. Sure, with most server you can get Redundant power supplies and redundant RAM, but you have to pay thru the nose for those features. If you have $20,000, I would definetly recomment HP Prolient server with all the bells and whistles. It does not sound like that is what you are looking for.
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You are correct about the ECC RAM and the RAID. However, those can be run on a good PC as well. Including SCSI drives. The hardware is the same. The only thing different is the software. I run Windows 2k3 and Exchange 2k3 with an AD environment at home with nothing more than a P4 3.2 processor PC with 2 200GB hard drives in a Raid 1 setup via the OS and 1 GB RAM. It works perfect and it cost less than half of your Tiger Direct "Server". It also has 5 PCI slots and 4 USB2 plus a seperate PCI card with 4 more USB2 slots. A NIC would be easy to install into another PCI slot. Sure, with most server you can get Redundant power supplies and redundant RAM, but you have to pay thru the nose for those features. If you have $20,000, I would definetly recomment HP Prolient server with all the bells and whistles. It does not sound like that is what you are looking for.
ASKER
That intel xeon board seems to only have 2 "regular" pci slots... I would need at least 4. Unless some of those slots are backwards compatible?
Expansion Slots
PCI Express x16 1
PCI Express x4 1
PCI-X Slots (64-bit 66MHz) 2
PCI Slots 2
Expansion Slots
PCI Express x16 1
PCI Express x4 1
PCI-X Slots (64-bit 66MHz) 2
PCI Slots 2
Generally I find most IT people that deal with the infrastructure of medium to large data centers/computer rooms think of servers and PC in hardware terms or function terms not OS terms.
The people that I see that think of OS’s when they talk about PC’s and servers are people that deal with Windows. That is because Windows is the only OS (that I am aware of) that has a difference between the desktop version and the Server version.
In the *nix world you don’t have a desktop version and a server version, they run the same software and can do the same functions. It is the hardware or the function that makes it a server.
That said, as this is your phone system I would assume that you need a real reliable enviroment. I have nothing against the Tiger Direct route, but I personally would stick with a name brand (Dell, IBM, HP to name a few) server and to have 4 PCI cards you are going to need a 3U or 4U size server. Get a good maintance/support contract so that if it does have a problem, you can get onsite repair.
Without knowing your price range I am a bit hesitant in recommending an exact server.
The people that I see that think of OS’s when they talk about PC’s and servers are people that deal with Windows. That is because Windows is the only OS (that I am aware of) that has a difference between the desktop version and the Server version.
In the *nix world you don’t have a desktop version and a server version, they run the same software and can do the same functions. It is the hardware or the function that makes it a server.
That said, as this is your phone system I would assume that you need a real reliable enviroment. I have nothing against the Tiger Direct route, but I personally would stick with a name brand (Dell, IBM, HP to name a few) server and to have 4 PCI cards you are going to need a 3U or 4U size server. Get a good maintance/support contract so that if it does have a problem, you can get onsite repair.
Without knowing your price range I am a bit hesitant in recommending an exact server.
ASKER
$3000 is my budget if that helps.
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ASKER
How about those other PCI slots... are PCI-X or PCI Express backwards compatible?
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SOLUTION
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