[spadgham]

Hi there,

I want to build a new home office server running for my business. We want to run MS SBS 2003 on a setup that use RAID 5, dual NIC, 3 x 250 GB HDD and about 4 GB RAM. However, I am not sure what to do about a motherboard. I don't know whether to opt for a specific server motherboard or a normal desktop one. Any advice would be much appreciated. I've budgeted about $1500 for the server. Many thanks.

Simon

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Server board.

Main reasons to choose a server board over a desktop board:

• Performance. Servers perform for server applications. Desktop boards may not run server applications as well.
• The processor needs to run on a server board because of how good the board's speed is.
• Power consumption is limited. Not as much power consumption compared to a desktop board.
• Increased rack densities and improved data center utilization

[DragonMaster Jay]

Server board.

Main reasons to choose a server board over a desktop board:

• Performance. Servers perform for server applications. Desktop boards may not run server applications as well.
• The processor needs to run on a server board because of how good the board's speed is.
• Power consumption is limited. Not as much power consumption compared to a desktop board.
• Increased rack densities and improved data center utilization

[spadgham]

Thanks for the advice. Can you recommend any server boards that will support RAID 5 please?

[DragonMaster Jay]

RAID5 is a software solution that uses the CPU for XORing the data. It hurts performance, but luckily you have a good outlook thus far.

Board 1
Board 2
Board 3