thin client server suggestion?

[Jerome Gotangco]

> - 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?)


This is very dependent on how many clients you will be using. SMP helps 
especially if you have power users. If you will be generous to your backend, 
you'll have no problems adding clients as needed.

- how much and what kind of RAM?


I haven't really used an LTSP enviroment in schools, but I have done it 
extensively on production environments for semicon/wafer fab from my 
previous employer and we always start with 2GB ECC for 20 clients. 

- How big a deal does SCSI make? Does SATA, or SATA RAID, help make
> IDE performance closer to SCSI?


It's all about speed and stability. I've handled servers running on SCSI 
RAID for 6 years without failure. They are just the best for high 
performance computing - with a price. Of course SATA RAID was created to 
address the price issue of SCSI RAID. I've tried early releases and it was a 
pain back then. It might be much better now.

- is gigabit ethernet an absolute requirement?
> 

No but this helps. Remember, everything runs on the network. Layer 2 and 
Layer 3 switches can be expensive but if you are building for the future, 
they GREATLY help. You can always start but make sure it is scalable.

-- 
Jerome Gotangco
jgotangco at ubuntu.com | jgotangco at gmail.com
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