i am well versed in building desktop PCs, running high volume websites and setting up prebuilt servers, but for some reason i have never built my own.

i am looking for a 1U case, 733+mhtz, 512 PC133+ SDRAM, ~20GB, CDROM, floppy, video, network card.

will i need special motherboards designed to fit in 1u cases, or just a PCI adapter or something?

if you were going to build this box right now for a 400,000 hits per day site with moderate database load, answer these questions:

1) AMD/INTEL
2) SDRAM, DDRAM
3) SCSI/IDE
4) what brand/model motherboard
5) what brand/model case
6) where would you buy the parts

thanks

mykalkrispy,

There are some other threads on this you might want to check.

I do alot of the buying of hardware for our rack servers that range from starter server that can do up to 1500-2000 GB monthly all the way up to big daddy servers that average over 21,000 GB monthly.

1. INTEL (though in the future that might change, my desktop is a tbird and I love it)
2. SDRAM (stability)
3. SCSI (this one is a no brainer)
4. INTEL makes rock solid server boards but they are expensive. My other favorite lately is TYAN thunder LE ($460-$500) onboard dual NIC, SCSI 160 & UIDE, slanted RAM slots for 1 RU cases. Dual processor ready. 133 FSB etc etc.
5. Enlight makes a lot of Rack cases. Try this one Part#: EN-2100SX1R, Only prob with that one is there is not alot of room for extra drives. But hey it is 1 RU (not much room to fit stuff :) ).
6. Do some shopping on pricewatch.com for good part deals if you are only building 1 or 2. IE you cannot get bulk discounts from single distributers.

Good luck.

Best Regards,

(all prices include shipping)

MB: SUPER 370DL3: $450
1 GB ECC PC133 RAM: $330
Dual P3 800 133FSB FCPGA: $300
SCSI 36GB 6ms HD: $300
trident 9750 4MB video: $30
IDE 48X CDROM: $25
Floppy: $10
1U case w/200W PS: $215

overall cost: $1660

similar systems sell for around $3,000.

are these good prices? does anyone offer a similar system for less? I am not interested in managed hosting or leasing the box, so i really need to buy one.

This will sound basic but make sure your video card isnt too tall for the case. Also cpu heatsinks and fans that come with the P-III boxed set wont fit either. You will need low profile sinks/fans.

Just a heads up.

Best Regards,