Need a home lab PC? 2

[JDeSimone]

I decided to buy a computer to help in studying for the server exam and ended up getting a used Compaq Proliant 3000 from Ebay. I wanted serveral things when I went looking for my study machine.

1. Multiple drives so as to be able to mess with the disk management stuff. Setting up software Raid etc. (not sure how much of this is on the exam).

2. A machine that would run Advanced server without having to hunt down various drivers for obscure hardware.

3. Something that I could very well be using in a production enviroment.

4. Would not cost a ton of money.

The server I ended up getting has,
2 - P2-450's, 512meg ram, 4 - 18.2 gig hotswap scsi drives, 3 - 9.1 gig hotswap scsi drives, smart 3200 array controller, management display panel, 2- redundant power supplies all housed in a heavy tower case on casters.

Total cost $455.00 plus delivery. Yes it's a bit overkill for the house but I figure I would have needed to spend far more than that for a regular PC.

Joe D.

 

[jtb]

Beautiful job! JTB
Solutions Architect
MCSE-NT4, MCP+I, MCP-W2K, CCNA, CCDA,
CTE, MCIWD, i-Net+, Network+
(MCSA, MCSE-W2K, MCIWA, SCSA, SCNA in progress)

 

[Zelandakh]

yikes - that's an amazing deal.

Is this News or are you just showing off???

 

[JDeSimone]

Well I would be lying if I said it wasn't a little braggin going on. Besides that though I knew that when I first decided to get back to work on studying for my MCP in server I wanted something would resemble what I was studying. Well buying an old pc or adding scsi and multiple drives to allow me to practice the drive management seemed to be an expensive proposition.

Being a cheap &*# I opted to check ebay and if I was going that direction I might as well check the price of older servers. I was amazed at what things were selling for. I could have saved even more money if I would have opted for a PPro 200 server with smaller 4.3 gig drives.

All in all I am very please with the server and figured if others were like me and actually learn better by doing rather than reading, I would pass along the information on my find.

Joe D.

A+ Network +

 

[Tragdor]

You could have also found a good one for really cheap at the Enron garage sale. I so mad that I missed it.

 

[JazzGeek]

darn good deal

Sebastian Jazzer
MCSE 4.0, Network+, A+, Web Developer