Our small company is planning on setting up a web server. The website will have a SQL Server Express back end, and will probably be used a few times daily by about 10 employees logging in from the field. It will run 24x7, but occasional interruptions of a couple of hours or a whole weekend will not be a problem.
We've been happy with the Dell desktops and laptops we've used, so were thinking of going with Dell again. When I checked out their website, I found a Small Office desktop Vostro with a dual core CPU and 2gb RAM for $399 (Canadian). An equivalently configured Poweredge 100 server was nearly double the price. I know that the Vostro will run Windows Server 2003, having already installed it on another Vostro.
I realize it's not a huge amount of money, but why the big price difference? What would you recommend we purchase?
Answer
Another thing to consider is the amount and quality of guarantee each buy offers. Typically servers have by default a better type of guarantee than a desktop.
If you can get a full day of downtime then the Vostro is fine (DELL default's desktop guarantee). If not, check if you can boost up the Vostro's guarantee and compare the cost again (the server will still be more expensive, but probably not the double by now).
Or better, get a quote for the poweredge with the cheaper guarantee.
The differences in favor of a server quality machine that makes it more expensive are:
- Better manageability
- Better hardware (fails less and is usually faster)
- More hardware (RAID, Redundant Power Supply, ...)
- Better guarantee
But you may not need all that in your case, which you can measure by the amount of downtime you can withstand.
Don't forget to buy some external drives or something to do regular backups in each case.
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