New hoyty.com server

This past week I built an entirely new server for hoyty.com (and the other sites I host).  The last time I build a new server was in the fall of 2001.  The specs for that server are at this link.  The specs listed there are pretty close to what the machine is now, I think the only difference is the SCSI controller as the on-board one failed at one point.  Also I added dual 250 GB SATA drives on a RAID controller running as a mirror.  2 GB of RAM and a dual processor (not single dual core) was pretty high end, now that is a standard low end desktop.  The old server started with Windows Server 2000 and Exchange 2000 and was upgraded to Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003 along the way.

Now onto the new server.  Ever since the release of Exchange Server 2007 I have been waiting for the release of Windows Server 2008 to build my new server.  Last fall the release date for W2K8 was announced as late February and I began planning for that as a new date to build server.  I ordered the bulk of the parts from NewEgg on 2/8/2008 and then picked up the processor on 2/10/2008 from MicroCenter as they had a really good sale on it.  You will see from the parts below that I built a dual core 3 GHz, 8 GB of RAM, Mirror of 10K RPM 150 GB and Mirror of 1 TB for a very reasonable price.  Admittedly I got a really good price on several components.

Some may think this is a bit overkill right now, but I hope this server will last me a really long time.  My last one lasted 6.5 years and I overbuilt it in a similar fashion.  If you wanted to build a similar server a little cheaper some places to trim pricing include using just one mirror of 500 GB HD, buying 4 or even 2 GB of RAM, use a motherboard with built in video and going with a lower end processor (just make sure it is 64 bit).  Below is an alternate configuration with some savings on overall price.

This system is a 2.2 GHz proc at 800 MHz instead of 1333 and 2 MB of cache rather than 6 MB, it has 4 GB of RAM rather than 8, has a software mirror of 500 GB HD rather than hardware mirror of faster or larger drives.  Having said all that this would make a very capable Windows Server 2008 box for a very affordable price.  You could still trim a little more off via smaller HD or lower end proc, but the savings are rapidly diminishing returns for the savings.

Happy server building.