thin client server suggestion?

[Matt Price]

Hi folks, 

Well, as I was saying earlier, I'm itching to set up a thin client lab
in my computers course; I was being held back by lack of funds to buy
a real server.  Now it looks like we may have found someone with some
cash to buy us one...  so I was wondering what exactly I should ask
for.  THe tuxlabs documentation suggests:
- 2 gig ram
- SCSI drives
- gigabit ethernet (also gigabit ethernet on the switch, which I don't
have -- we only have donated 3Com 3300 swtiches, which are nice but
all 10/100 (far as I know, anyway).  

Already, this is geting tough -- e.g. we don't have the gigabit
switch...  So I am wondering how to prioritize the various
requirements.  So if folks don't mind, maybe y'all could suggest
minimum and (within reason) optimal configurations for a server,
including things like:

- what kind lf CPU (does it matter if it's 64-bit?  is a
dual-processor machine - which about doubles the minimum price, I
think -  vastly more desirable?)
- how much and what kind of RAM?
- How big a deal does SCSI make?  Does SATA, or SATA RAID, help make
IDE performance closer to SCSI?
- is gigabit ethernet an absolute requirement?  
- any other hardware config questions I've failed to notice...  

thanks loads, again.

matt


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Matt Price	    matt.price at utoronto.ca
History Department, University of Toronto
(416) 978-2094
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