Computer Specs

I've been wondering this for a while. How much do specs really matter for a server, besides the fact that it's all based on what the server is used for. Would it be wise to spend good money building a decent computer for a sole server sytem, or just to put together whatever bits and pieces you have to create a server?

This will propbably get nowhere right, it'll just comeback to "Depends on what its used for."

Enlighten me on this

So long as your hardware is within the limitations of the operating system you're using, then you have a server. Typically though, a server would inlcude at least one network card and perhaps a tad more memory than usual depending on which services you might be running and their own requirements.

Operating systems working as a server are usually configured to give priority resources to services (running in the background) rather than programs. If you have Windows XP Pro for example:

Right-click 'my computer' icon
Select 'Advanced' Tab
Under 'Performance', click 'settings'
Select 'Visual Effects' Tab
Click 'Adjust for best performance'
Select 'Advanced' tab
under 'Processor Scheduling' click 'Background Services'

While you will lose all the fancy 'themed' effects of Windows XP, you'll give the system more resources to best perform as a server.

it depends what its going to be used for

You do have to think about how many visitors the site will get and how many processes it will run, are these processes resource demanding?

When you think about a hosting company, they normally have dual processors and a good chunk of ram, but also host hundreds maybe thousands of websites. So if your running only one website, you should be able to knock a server together using bits and peices.

I've got a server at home with an Athlon XP 1400 and 512mb ram, its more than capable of running a good number of websites without much problem, as long as these website are just html with bits of php and mysql in them.