Assuming 100 Mbit LAN, how does one decide whether one needs an expensive server with high-performance SCSI? What are the guidelines? Given a basic contemporary Celeron with a recent ATA-100 disk drive performing at (according to hdparm) 30 Mbytes/sec or better, it seems certain to me that the LAN is slower than the drives. I can imagine a database server getting a good pounding, but I'm thinking more of an office server with a brace of (probably) Windows and Apple clients. For that matter, any hints for just how many clients such a basic server can support? Yes, I know, "It depends." What do I need to know and measure to be sure of putting in a box that "will do the job?" Assume "no current server." I'm guessing I have nothing to worry about up to 20 or so, but them IBM used to quote figures with 1000 clients hanging off (admittedly a high-end) single-processor Pentium. Back then that would have been token-ring. Considering the performance problems I had running WordPro off the LAN on a two-computer network, I surmise the clients all had their software installed on the local disk. -- Cheers John Summerfield Microsoft's most solid OS: http://www.geocities.com/rcwoolley/ Note: mail delivered to me is deemed to be intended for me, for my disposition. ============================== If you don't like being told you're wrong, be right!
