Spec me a server

[Homeslice]

Needs to look after 4-10 people in an office and handle file sharing, backup and email.

Needs to be compact and quiet.

Any suggestions? Is this the sort of thing that can be built out of ordinary components?

Budget is £600 TOPS!

 

[i_dingsdale]

Coming from a business environment, I'd say don't built it yourself, buy a server. When something goes wrong, and your companies money is on the line, having a proper support contract will save your life.
Cant really see much server stuff on OcUK so I cant do you a spec.
I think either way 600 is a bit unrealistic - to do those things properly you'll want 2003 Standard and Exchange, which will cost you a fortune. SBS is a better bet, will cost you about £300 with 5 CALs. So that leaves £300 for hardware...

 

[BillytheImpaler]

For those sort of tasks with limited resources I'd get a used P3 system, a RAID card, a tape drive, and a load of disks. I'd then set up RAID 1 across the disks and run periodic backups to tape, moving the tapes offsite in case of emergency.

You need not have high-end processing power as most any proc should be able to handle the load.

For an OS I recommend Debian highly. It's free, well-supported, and is relatively easy to use.

 

[i_dingsdale]

For those sort of tasks with limited resources I'd get a used P3 system, a RAID card, a tape drive, and a load of disks. I'd then set up RAID 1 across the disks and run periodic backups to tape, moving the tapes offsite in case of emergency.

You need not have high-end processing power as most any proc should be able to handle the load.

For an OS I recommend Debian highly. It's free, well-supported, and is relatively easy to use.

Good thinking, although I'd look at RAID 5. You could easily get a second hand poweredge P3 box, and put a 3 or 4 disks in there for that money. 73gb SCSI disks won't cost a fortune.

Linux will certainly do it all, but depending on the OP's experience, it may not be suitable.