I was wondering which server would be the best to go with between these two:

Operating System: Redhat Linux 7.2
Motherboard: Intel Celeron Motherboard
CPU: Intel Celeron 400MHz Processor
RAM: 32 Megabytes
Hard Drive: 4 GB IDE Hard Drive Gigabytes

or

Operating System: Cobalt Linux
Chassis: Cobalt Networks RaQ 3 w/ 300MHz AMD K6 Processor
RAM: 64 Megabytes
Hard Drive: 6 GB IDE Hard Drive Gigabytes
Bandwidth: 5 GB/Month Gigabytes per month


Both servers are the same price and they are going to have about 1/2 GB of traffic a month at the most. I've heard some bad things about Cobalts so I'm leaning more towards number one. I would like to learn how to administer a server but I'm have no experience with root access on a UNIX Server. I would only be using the server for myself and maybe a few friends.

If I go with the first choice what do I need to do to create e-mail accounts? How can I set up e-mail piping?


JTM

What price are you going to be paying for one of these - in the $40-50/month range?

The Cobalt K6-2 processor is slow as a dog, but then again 32 MB of ram isn't enough.

Both are pretty old machines. I would go with an Intel PIII 1Ghz for $100/month myself :)

Or if your budget isn't that large, your site would probably be faster on modern shared server.

Edit: Ah, never mind, from your reply I now see why you are getting this.

Originally posted by JTM
If I go with the first choice what do I need to do to create e-mail accounts? How can I set up e-mail piping?


Get yourself a control panel. If you don't want to pay money for one check out http://www.webmin.com/

>>What price are you going to be paying for one of these - in the $40-50/month?

Yes

Actually I just noticed it includes a control panel to set up e-mail accounts.

Is it difficult to set up e-mail piping? Can anybody tell me how to do this or link me to any step-by-step tutorials?

Also, I really don't want to pay more than $50/month because I'm going to be using it to send out newsletters. Do you think #1 would be OK for this?


JTM

get the Red Hat server and put webmin on it, I wouldn't expect to be able to do too much on the server, but either would be a good box to play around and learn on

The only thing I'm going to use it for is sending out newletters (once or twice a month) and a client section for web design.

How do I go about creating POP3 accounts if Sendmail is installed? Can I do this through Webmin?

Also, can I set up MySQL on the server? Is it easy to do and create users and databases?


JTM

Since you have no admin experience on a server you really need to go with the Cobalt. Don't listen to uninformed people telling you something bad about a Cobalt. They have been around a LONG time and there literally hundreds of thousands of them in use today with people still seeking them. For what you're wanting to do, you'll use about a fourth of the processing power and capabilities of the Raq.. if that.

With the built control panel and just starting out it would be an ideal choice. I colo my own server and set up new P4 1.6 gig servers on a regular basis for new hosting customers.... but it will still be quite awhile before I take down my Raq4's. I have Raqs that are hosting over 150 websites each and pulling over 250 gigs of bandwidth a month each (and they can do even more than that), with it's 450mhz cpu and 384 megs ram. Of course like everything, the Raq does not fit everyone's need... but for newletters and a website or even a few websites it would be perfect.