[K12OSN] Proposal for Middle School Computer Lab

[Terrell Prude' Jr.]

James P. Kinney III wrote:
>
>> Here is a sample server:  Dell PowerEdge™ SC1430  I'm attaching a
>> quote for $3,500 for the server.  I assume that we can get a better
>> price as a public school.  For the quote, I chose a RAID5 controller
>> with three disks.  This speeds up disk access and protects us against
>> disk failure.  If one disk fails, the system still works until we
>> replace the disk.  If we want to stick with a single disk drive, we
>> can save a few hundred dollars.  I also chose the maximum memory of 8
>> GB for the best performance.  We could save a few hundred dollars by
>> starting with less memory.
>>     
> Skip the Raid5. The read speed is the same as Raid1 and the write speed
> is slower. Go for a raid1 root partition on a pair of 300GB SATA II
> drives and plop in a second pair of 500GB SATA II for a raid 1 /home.
> The only way to get better performance is to get hardware Raid which
> costs more than the extra drive anyway.
>   

Looks like he has spec'd a hardware RAID controller, which I would 
always recommend anyway.  In this case, I think RAID 5 is indeed the way 
to go here.  We use it all the time at my place of work with great results.

>> It's also possible that the school district has a server we could use
>> or that we could get a donated server.
>>     
>
> Be sure to put the used machine through a rigorous burn-in test. You
> credibility is one the line and the server is a central point of
> failure!
>   

I couldn't agree more here, and with the rest of what James says generally.

--TP