Date:         Fri, 21 May 1999 12:06:40 -0700
Reply-To:     daveb@CP.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Bayer <daveb@CP.NET>
Subject:      Re: Gerry is ill - suggestions for a server upgrade
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

> Touch Server System - http://www.touch-systems.ca
> · En-Light mid tower case with 230W power supply
> · Asus P2B-DS ATX style mainboard (Intel 440 BX, Adaptec 2890 Chipsets)
> · Built in Ultra 2 Wide SCSI controller
> · Pentium II 350MHz CPU (upgradeable to dual CPU for $325)

        Why not use Celeron chips? They are cheaper and just as stable.
Plus, from performance testing, the 66 Mhz front side bus is just as
"fast" as the 100 Mhz bus unless you are running huge texture mapping
programs. See http://www.sharkyextreme.com for more on the newer
Celeron chips with 128K on die cache...

> · Qty 2 - Fujitsu 4.55GB Ultra Wide SCSI Hard Drives in RAID 1 array

        How much are you paying for these? We can get 9 gb SCSIs for
about $300 US down here in the Bay Area. The Fujitsu drives are way
overpriced from the lists I have seen...

> · Mitsumi 1.44MB (3.5") Floppy Drive
> · Asus 40X IDE CD-ROM Drive

        Can get a 48x for $10 more down here ($60 US).

        Are you planning on using the built raid functions of NT?

        Also, why do we NEED IIS? Does listserv require it? Apache
works great and happens to recycle it's daemons, thus solving any
memory leak issues with the web server.

Here's just a QUICK look at what my price list for the system you
described with a few basic mods. It should be good for a long long
long time. As tonya noted, it would still be way overpowered to do
basic mail forwarding (ie. servicing the list) and text searches:

all prices in US$
same Asus motherboard $450
dual celeron 366  $89 a piece ($180)
memory  PC100 128MB < 6ns (not ECC)  $120 per DIMM ($480)
IBM 9.1 UW scsi $319 a piece ($650)
floppy $30
memorox 48x CD $60
dlink dfe 530tx $30
some cheap video card should be thrown in there.
case - $30 - $100...

PIIs 350s are $180 a piece right now...
Celeron 433 is $150 right now...

Although this might not apply on NT (I don't know how listserv
handles inbound mail), but from my own work, we tend to be
limited by the mail queue way before CPU utilization maxs out.
Getting another small disk that would be used for the OS and
the mail queue (with swap spread on other spindles) would be
a good idea.

dave