Can you *build* a server?

Butters

Butters

Butters

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Really on a tight budget and need a server plus SBS2k3 all for £600 really. Ideally, less, much less.

Is it possible to 'build' a machine that would compare to a Dell Poweredge par example?
 
given that sbs2003 alone costs around £400 for the standard edition with 5 user licence (going by a quick google) or over £1k for the premium edition with 5 client licences, you probably wont see much change from £600!
 
I dont think you would get something like a poweredge for £600-, you could try ebay or even if you have some old friends or a son to enquire at a school to see if they have an old server they can parse with, i did that and payed them £25 for a old file server which was good considering it had a Pentium 3 and 512mb of ram.
 
Sinny said:
I dont think you would get something like a poweredge for £600-, you could try ebay or even if you have some old friends or a son to enquire at a school to see if they have an old server they can parse with, i did that and payed them £25 for a old file server which was good considering it had a Pentium 3 and 512mb of ram.
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yes you can, I just spec'd two PowerEdge Servers for just over £500 without SBS and £695 with SBS but the server wasn't 'as' good as the one without SBS.

given that sbs2003 alone costs around £400 for the standard edition with 5 user licence (going by a quick google) or over £1k for the premium edition with 5 client licences, you probably wont see much change from £600!
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SBS 2K3 RC2 is £285 with 5 user CALs
 
No, I don't think it is possible to beat the big boys because the prices they pay for the software is so discounted that they have far more of your £600 to spend on hardware than you could ever have. As a result, their server+OS configurations are way ahead of what you could build yourself.

I now believe this is true for all Intel-compatible computers that run at stock. It is only worth self-building if

a) you get a kick out of it

and/or

b) you are cherry-picking components in order to over-clock
 
It's not idea but server 2003 can be ran on any PC capable of running windows XP. Infact the most basic servers arn't very different from desktop machines. It's only when you spend a bit more you get proper server features like SCSI, Raid 5, tape backup, multiple CPUs etc.

If you'e you've only got a few users you should be fine performance wise with a desktop PC with a big hard drive (idealy two hard drives in raid 1). However it might not be as reliable.

You should also look at running a Linux server or using a NAS box.

What's it needed for?
 
If it's only 4 users just build a desktop system with a core 2 duo CPU, 2 GB RAM and a raid1 array. That would be more than enough. I am guessing

£120 2xHDs
£75 Mobo
£75 CPU
£45 RAM
£30 Case + PSU
£20 cheap graphics card
£10 CRT monitor
£10 keyboard+mouse.

So say £400 for hardware, that leaves £200 for software. However I doubt you'll get SBS + Excahnge for that price unless it's a charity or educational license.

You could pick up a Windows 2000 server/Exchage 2000 for much cheaper. Does the same thing. Or have a look on ebay someone might be selling an oldish server with the software included.
 
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A desktop should be fine for 4 users. You could just use a router to share internet (if you need more network ports you can just add a switch) and a NAS box for My Documents.

You will probably have to get a server for email. Look at Zimbra, it's an open source alternative to exchange.

Also look at VMware server. You can use it to run Linux on top of a windows server (or even vice versa).
 
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