Build your own server or buy one? MS SBS?

[Matrixo2]

So we have 2 servers at 2 different locations across the country and I'm looking at upgrading them.
Both were built by the same company and they're currently quite old in terms of hardware and software (Windows SBS 2003)... :o shocking, I know. haha

Anyways with coming time we're also upgrading out Quickbooks to the Enterprise solution and plan to use the servers to fully utilize QB's potential as a "access your qb data from anywhere" kind of thing.
Thus the decision to finally upgrade the servers came as well.

We use the server to manage the internal LAN network of computers, each having it's own names and to administer user names and permissions/powers that go along with any given account.
eg. Admin, Accounting, Invoicing etc.
Each pc also has different ips and power permissions on viewing data within the server etc.
Other than that, we store all our data on each of the local PC's and then they always automatically back up important information into the server.

If the sever were to crash or the hard drives fail, we would be in a pickle in terms of the LAN networking and to a degree the important business data.
I know building a server "might" be cheaper than buying a premade + warrantied machine but I myself am am not too familiar with doing anything server related, just PCs.
There's no way I could possibly do on site services for both servers when one decides to not cooperate so the building your own path doesn't seem too realistic.

But anyways I would like advice on buying vs building.
The budget would probably be around a max of $1,000 Canadian per server, even then I'm not sure if that must is needed, but it'll give good head room.
Tips on what parts to buy or look for in a pre-built server, brands, services, places to buy etc.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies :D

 

 

EDIT: So I just did some digging and I found the hardware specs... oh lawd no lol

 

OS: Microsoft SBS 03 32 bit SP2

CPU: Pentium 4 530 Prescott 3.00GHz

RAM: 1GB total dual channel 200MHz DDR2 RAM meaning 512mbx2 slots?

MOBO: Intel D915PBL (J2E1)

HDD: A little confusing even for me... (didn't take it apart to look yet, too hard to open/close and reach for)

Speccy says:

75GB 1x2 Raid 1 SCSI

75GB 1x2 Raid 1 SCSI

 

No idea what the power supply is but I'm assuming it came with the case:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811129120

Antec Performance II SX1040BII Black Steel SOHO File Server Computer Case 400W SmartPower ATX12V including Pentium 4 SL400 Power Supply

 

Ah, so a 400w Antec power supply.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Matrixo2

[Mitch]

In my experience there is not much different between building a server and building a Pc you just split your budget up differently. How ever with 2 servers across the country from each other I would recommend buying a server from HP or something like that and getting a decent warranty on it so that if something does go wrong you can send them out to fix it.

 

 One step above that would be getting a third party company to host the server in the cloud for you. This means that the server will be in a data center somewhere and be very unlikely to go down and usually the hardware will be provided by them.

[Matrixo2]

Yeah I was leaning towards the pre-built style more especially from the warranty/on-site availability side of things.

The current servers were built by a local pc builder that does business only clients so we do have deals with them, might just get them to do it again.

 

I'm just not familiar with the parts or price points of servers.

As for cloud storage of company data, I think they would rather have it on site all the time since there has to be a network setup with various levels of power and user names etc.

[speciealpha]

I would buy it.   Servers are just too important to risk messing it up, especially if your business depends on them. 

 

If you really need to you can always upgrade the components yourself, but you are gonna want to make sure you have a sound software base and guaranteed maintenance by a company who is experienced in fixing servers.

 

If it is on a budget and you don't care about power consumption then you may want to check out an opteron based system.  But I don't know a whole lot about servers components. Probably just best to hire someone with a guarantee.

good luck!

[Guest]

The problem with trying to build a server that I've found is trying to find the right size components. It's okay if you're working in a 3 or 4ru or even bigger case however if you're looking at single and dual rack unit servers, trying to find heatsyncs and similar components that actually fit in the case can be a major issue. Also all the decent cases I've seen for servers all start at around the $200 mark which is a fifth of your budget gone.

 

Is buying used an option? You can still probably get really good 1366 socket servers for even less that $1k each which will include everything except the drives and rails. 

[Matrixo2]

Our current servers are just tower style pcs but with "server" grade parts. There are no rackmounts or stuff like that. Might be able to reuse the case... not sure though, it's a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129120

Haven't looked inside for the specific parts but I'm guessing old stuff, possibly ide hard drives.

The thing about storage is that 1tb would probably be more than enough. Would of just done a straight nas server or some kind of file server but we need the networking names, login accounts, permissions etc.

[Matrixo2]

So yeah a bump for this topic and my concerns in the previous post above.

 

EDIT: So I just did some digging and I found the hardware specs... oh lawd no lol

 

OS: Microsoft SBS 03 32 bit SP2

CPU: Pentium 4 530 Prescott 3.00GHz

RAM: 1GB total dual channel 200MHz DDR2 RAM meaning 512mbx2 slots?

MOBO: Intel D915PBL (J2E1)

HDD: A little confusing even for me... (didn't take it apart to look yet, too hard to open/close and reach for)

Speccy says:

75GB 1x2 Raid 1 SCSI

75GB 1x2 Raid 1 SCSI

 

No idea what the power supply is but I'm assuming it came with the case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129120

Antec Performance II SX1040BII Black Steel SOHO File Server Computer Case 400W SmartPower ATX12V including Pentium 4 SL400 Power Supply

 

Ah, so a 400w Antec power supply.

 

So yeah.... storage space doesn't get used up too much or at all, but redundancy is needed to prevent data loss.

Building one myself would probably save quite a lot it's just that if it were to ever fail someone needs to maintain the server on both ends and I can't do it myself haha.

Oh decisions....

Edited May 24, 2013 by Matrixo2

[Guest]

I would never run a single drive for a server - RAID 1,5,6 or 10 array. 

 

What existing hardware have you got?

[Matrixo2]

Ah windspeed I just finished editing my previous post lol

 

Those specs are for the sever I'm currently with, the 1st one will probably be around the same hardware specs, not sure.

[Matrixo2]

Talking with the boss again and apparnetly the current servers have never had to be serviced and have been on 24/7 for the past 5+ years (not including cleaning or moving the servers).

And so buying a pre-built server isn't totally necessicary.

 

Which means if I did build it I'd need to learn how or help him find someone who knows how (eh probably pretty straight forward with some help from Google and these forums) :)

 

Also would HDD's in raid for a server be more useful or SSD's in raid on a server? I suppose it depends on budget and useage eh? T_T

Not even sure if RAID will be necessary since the approximate total size on each server doesn't even exceed 100GB per server.

If anything maybe some kind of storage thing using multiple drives that utilize RAID that duplicates the data across all the drives?

Also server OS is so extremely expensive and I'm not familiar with Linux...