Need Help. Best Requirements for New PC for SQL Server 7

[mmarcos]

HI All,
I need help. I was wondering if you guys might know the answer on this. We are in the process of buying a new PC for our SQL 7.
What is the best hardware requirements for this? Currently, we're thinking of buying a server ( 1.2 GHZ P4 512MB 36.4 SCSI drive(s) and having raid 1 for array. )
Another option that we're looking at is a Workstation 6000 2.0 GHZ XEON with 512MB of memory and same SCSI drive(s) with raid 1 as well for array.

Would it matter really whichever PC we end up buying? Processor speed, between a 1.2 and a 2.2? Would that be a factor? Should I focus on getting a faster processor?
What about Ram? Does the amount of Ram matters as well? And last but not the least, disk access and array. IDE OR SCSI. Would that make a difference. Raid 1 or 5, does it make a difference?

If anybody out there can recommend me a site, or provide me documentation, I will be truly grateful.

Feel free to contact me at marvmarcos@msn.com.
Thanks.....Marvin

 

[malkyb]

HI - I am DBA for a public service body. I would say that processor speed is not your main concern. Transaction processing rates will ultimately depend on database structure and application design, and not on raw processor speed.
You don't say whether you are running a client/server environment, or as single user on a desktop. How much will you be relying on communication links, or networking between user and database? Also how big is your database going to be? You need to consider all these. I would say that for reliability, RAID 5 with a hot swap capability is a good idea for reliable storage. You can implement RAID 5 on as few as 3 hard drives - you don't need 5 or more (common myth). Search the

http://www for

RAID topics, to find out the advantages/disadvantages of the different configurations. These will depend on what your application is doing (e.g. number crunching or OLTP or Decision support, etc, etc).

Buy as much RAM as you can manage, to minimise swapping/paging - it's relatively cheap.

Give some consideration also to a backup strategy, and where you're going to store the backup data.
Online = more disc, - faster, but danger of losing it all at once
v.
offline = tape drive or similar - slower but reliable

Hope some of this is helpful

malkyb