[LUNI] In search of a server

Larry Garfield larry at garfieldtech.com
Sat Nov 11 23:24:41 CST 2006


My home server is dying.  Specifically, the hard drive is developing bad 
sectors, always in my mail archive (where else?), and I'm fairly sure the 
rest of the system is too old to even cope with a new, large hard drive.  So 
I am now in the market on short notice for a new home server.

"Home server" in this case means something that handles email, Jabber, DNS, 
minor web stuff, etc. for a user base of generally no more than, uh, 2. :-)  
The only really strenuous thing it ever does handle a 2 GB mail archive over 
IMAP.  Other than that, it's really just a glorified file server.

Does anyone have a favorite source for such a contraption for a low price?  
I'm open to building my own (I do that all the time), or buying pre-made, or 
a decent gently-used box.  I don't know if I want to bother with RAID or not, 
as I'd be interested more in reliability than in performance increases.  
Brands aren't really important, although reliability and expandability of the 
case is.  Quiet is, since it will be sitting in my living room.  I'm thinking 
1 GHz+, 512 MB RAM, and 200+ GB storage, and trying to keep the cost in the 
$300-$400 range if I can.  No Windows Tax if I can avoid it.

Any recommendations for where to find such a system, or parts for it, or 
someone with such a system they want to offload to a good home? :-)  Is the 
price range I'm looking for too low for this task?

TIA and such.

-- 
Larry Garfield			AIM: LOLG42
larry at garfieldtech.com		ICQ: 6817012

"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of 
exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, 
which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to 
himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession 
of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it."  -- Thomas 
Jefferson


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