Small Business outfit

[SoulsCollective]

Hey folks
Thought some of you might get a kick out of this. Outfit for a small business, doing service stuff and creative design. Brief was for three standard office PCs, one design rig for running apps like Photochop, Director Studio, etc, and a master server, doing backups, file transfers, etc. After some consultation, settled on a network storage model, with each of the client machines having a single SSD to store OS and local app installs, with the rest of their files hosted by the server.

Server
This is on a UPS, designed to be the network storage, and will be always on. All four of the "client" PCs will have their own folder storage space residing on this machine. It'll also handle automated backups from externals etc. plugged into the four clients, as well as serve to offsite.

CPU: E8400
Mobo: Asus G43 (ATX, onboard X5400 VGA)
RAM: Corsair 4*2 Corsair DDR2-800 CAS-5 (ECC considered but too expensive)
VGA: Onboard
Storage:
- controller: Highpoint RR3510LF with BBU
- HDDs: 4*1TB WD RE3 in RAID-5
Network: Intel Pro 100M PCI (onboard Marvell NIC not used)
OS: Windows Home Server 08 (Standard considered but for intended usage, no point)
Case: Antec Solo
PSU: Corsair VX-550
Monitor, input: Headless

Design rig
This will apparently be where the grunt work of their creative design stuff gets done. From looking at what apps they plan to use, there's pretty much nothing that would benefit from 3D acceleration - so the focus here is on CPU grunt.

CPU: W3520
Mobo: GA-EX58-UD4P
RAM: 3*2 Corsair DDR3-1600 CAS-8
VGA: 9800GT (boss' son will apparently sometimes want to play games on it :rolleyes: )
Storage: Corsair M64 SSD
Case: Antec Solo
PSU: Corsair VX-550
Monitor: 2* 22" Viewsonics
Input: Logitech wireless bundle

Office boxes - 3x
They weren't entirely sure what these would be used for, but purely office apps - some light design work, email, word processing, spreadsheets.

CPU: Phenom II X3 710
- aftermarket cooling - aim is for passive
Mobo: GA-MA78GPM-UD2H
RAM: 2*2 Corsair DDR2-800 CAS-5
VGA: Onboard
Storage: Corsair M64 SSD
Case & PSU: Antec NSK3480 + 380W included (PSU is 80Plus, so should be OK)
Monitor: 19" Phillips widescreen
Input: Logitech wireless bundle

Volume install of Office 07 on all four clients, Vista Business x64 on all four clients.

Nice little setup if I do say so myself ;)

[YukonTrooper]

I love the Antec Solo.

[ExodusC]

Doesn't Photoshop support GPU acceleration (or it's planned for the future)?

If so, that 9800GT might come in handy. Either way, dedicated graphics are always nice.

I like the builds, but it seems like a Phenom X3 710 is almost overkill for that kind of work. Not a big deal though, better to have more power than not enough power!

[SoulsCollective]

Doesn't Photoshop support GPU acceleration (or it's planned for the future)?

If so, that 9800GT might come in handy. Either way, dedicated graphics are always nice.I believe it does at present - but according to my discussions with the client, Photoshop is used mostly with smaller images, to do final touch-ups. So not sufficient to justify going all out on GPU or, god forbid, going Quattro or FireGL - but let's hope the 9800GT comes in handy.

I like the builds, but it seems like a Phenom X3 710 is almost overkill for that kind of work. Not a big deal though, better to have more power than not enough power!True, however pricing is crazy down here. Firstly, those triple-cores were a good $30 cheaper than an E7400 - and AMD mATX mobos are cheaper (no OCing happening here :p:) so this was actually a cheaper option than a low-end Intel build, unless I wanted to use Pentiums - which I felt would be a little underpowered.

Secondly, our Federal government has a "business initiative" happening as a stimulus measure, whereby small businesses can claim back 50% of their expenditure on "depreciable assets" (in this case IT), but only on assets worth more than $1k. As I'm charging them per-PC, not on components, it actually worked out cheaper for them to have the low-end rigs costing more, so they could be pushed over $1k and claimed back on tax :p:

[Chosen.]

Why not go for an OEM Server, like Dell or HP? What are their uptime requirements for the server? If it goes boom, will they wait for you to replace a motherboard or a PSU? Can they wait for RMA?

A standard Dell server with Next Business Day warranty can be had for a few quid.

[SoulsCollective]

Looked at those options, but wasn't feasible. Primary concern was data security - not 100% uptime. Server will be on 24/7, but 90%+ of access scenarios will be during office hours - so redundancy and capacity were more important than eg next-day replacement (although we offer our own service contracts with quick replacement), and none of the Dell or HP options in a similar price bracket offered hardware RAID with BBU and UPS.

[B.E.E.F.]

That's a great setup.