I have a number of new(ish) computers I can modify into a win2k3 server next week (due to lack of money)

Can anyone advise which is best suited in terms of reliability and performance? It's just a conventional file server and internal DNS server for the 20 workstations.

Intel Pentium 4 , 3GHz
Intel Pentium 'E2140', Dual Core , 1.6GHz
Intel Pentium 'D', Dual Core, 2.8GHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2, Dual Core, 2.31GHz

Looking at tom's hardware charts it would appear the Athlon is generally the quickest, but are they reliable ?

 

I'd consider what RAM & HDs the systems have as well. Any of them would probably handle lightweight file/print services (assuming at least 2GB RAM).

 

tbh pretty much any old tat would do for what you want if that's all you're planning on using it for lol! To support 20 users it's not gonna be doing much

put it in perspective, i'm planning on using an old athlon clocking in at a whopping 1.8ghz as an all in one box for email, http, ftp, firewall, lan pdc and fileserver. Granted though, its a weird linux build so not as resource intense as win2k3

Win2k3 stuff should five you a few answers though

 

Personally I would use the AMD athlon.

 

I'll be adding a custom RAID card and a pair of 250GB SATA2 drives (RAID1), each split into 2 partitions - one for the OS, the other for the files.

And I'll whack in 2GB of RAM or possibly more.

 

Yeah, I know it's no big deal. But I do I want something reliable.

 

my work server is a 1.2ghz thunderbird

 

Relative age of the four options?

I'd guess the E2140 is the newest.

 

Yes, but not much in it with the Athlon I should think.