[lug] server spec

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Fri, Jun 08, 2007 at 06:21:05PM -0600, Calvin Dodge wrote:
>If you don't need ECC RAM, and DDR2 533 or 667 works for you, you can

The killer for RAM is the number of concurrent processes running to handle
incoming requests.  Our clients that handle hundreds of thousands to
millions of requests per day typically want to handle peaks of hundreds of
concurrent connections.  If each one take 20MB of RAM, which isn't unheard
of for dynamic applications, you're talking 4GB of RAM just for handling
those requests.  The big event being when a robot or spider hits the site.
That's one of the biggest issues we're running up against on the python.org
package index.

>IIRC, Tummy.com currently recommends Hitachi hard drives.

Yeah, I've had good luck with them, though recently a batch or two from one
vendor had a high number of failures.  Since then, we've had none,
and before then none.

>My own personal prejudice - if you're using an Intel CPU, put it on an
>Intel motherboard.

I've had good luck with Intel motherboards, but most of my experience has
been with Supermicro.  They rock.  Personal preference here, but I won't
use AMD's CPUs.  I'd like to, but usually it means using other chipsets on
the board, which tend to have nowhere near as good support as the Intel
equivalents.

>I _think_ you'll pay a big premium for a dual-socket motherboard.

the biggest problem is that you're not going to get a P4 board that you're
going to be able to upgrade to dual CPUs most likely.  You *MAY* be able to
do dual cores, but the Pentium Ds are getting to be quite short in supply
now, so you'd have to get a board that can support P4 and Core Duo, which
may be scarce in "server" quality boards.

I'd recommend you get just a P4 board and don't worry about the future.
When you want to upgrade, get a new board and CPU, whatever fits together
then.  Trying to predict the future as far as computer hardware purchases
is rarely a benefit.

>Don't know if it fits your budget, but I have a strong prejudice for
>Antec cases and power supplies.

I've been happy with the Antec cases I've bought, but they're all tower.
No idea about what they have in rackmount.

Sean
-- 
 "When I nod my head, hit it."
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability
      Back off man. I'm a scientist.   http://HackingSociety.org/