what takes to be a server??

[iwod]

A server for a small paid host, what is the spec usually like?
And how many people would THIS spec serve??
what connection would a paid host have ?? and T3, would that be enough??
And would the server just be like a normal PC using normal PC cases??
Would the Hard disk HAVE to be a SCSI?? or couls RAID ATA100 be enough?? What sort of RAID configation would it uses??
And more details on that would be appreciated.

 

[Chicken]

First, I'd be surprised if anyone replies to this post as you are really asking too much. It would take a few days to explain all of this partly because there are no hard answers (and explaining that, in itself would take longer than I'm going to spend).

I'll answer two:

And would the server just be like a normal PC using normal PC cases??

Generally you don't use normal PC cases, though I'm sure people do.

Would the Hard disk HAVE to be a SCSI??

No, though SCSI would be prefered.

 

[iwod]

Ok, I am sorry for such a long questions….. may be I should changed it slightly..
I have got a server with the following specs
AMD ThurderBird 1GHz
512 Mb Ram
MSI Pro Motherboard KM133 With IDE Raid Onborad
IBM 40Gb Hard disk x 2 with Raid 2 configed
Onboard savage graphics and onboard sound

Could this be enough?? And how many normal customer would that serve with a T3 connected??

 

[akersche]

your pc seems just fine and T3 should work out, too

just calculate how much bandwith you could get with your T3, if it would be used all up...
then divide it at least with 4. So you can handle peak times easily.
And than think, how much bandwith you wanna offer each of your customers....

than you get an idea

 

[jw]

one thing that is essential for a server and especially an AMD server is cooling. Generally, DO NOT put and AMD processor in a 1U type case, though it should be fine in a normal case. Make sure you have one whopper of a fan on your processor and even hard drive (hard drives going out is probably the most common hardware failure).