[Asterisk-Users] Second Hand Servers - How Powerful?

Steven Critchfield
Tue, 27 Apr 2004 10:46:54 -0000

On Tue, 2004-04-27 at 11:40, Adthrawn wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking at setting up a small production system - predominantly for
> voice mail and IVR (with a few extensions and hold music MP3's).
>
> I've found a couple of IBM X330 servers, with dual 1.13Ghz P3
> processors.
>
> My question is; is a dual 1.13Ghz P3 server sufficient to run for
> real-life demands?

I'll agree with Jeb's comments mostly. It depends on what
"real-life"
means to you. My main switch is a single 800Mhz Celeron. It has it's own
app running on asterisk, a PRI of phone lines, and a channel bank for a
legacy Dialogic based application. Add to that a couple of VoIP users, a
extremely lightly loaded postgres install,  and you have a good look at
our main asterisk server. Rarely sees .5 load average.

> So what I'm asking - is it a good server? It's a nice rack mount,
with
> a 10K rpm SCSI 36gb disk, and is weighing in at only ?600 ($1100).
> Built in slim line CD, PCI slots (one with an Ultra WD SCSI card)...

Sounds like a nice box, maybe a tad pricey. I think we just purchased a
new Dell with a 2.0 Celeron 40gig IDE drive. Comes with dual GigE card
and a nice VGA and USB out on both the front and back panels. Add to
that a real warranty and it is pretty nice at just over $1200.(1U just
like the X330) Downside to the Dell was that it has the higherend PCI
slots. The dual GigE card takes up the PCIX slot, and when I needed to
use a standard Realtek ethernet card, it wouldn't fit in the remaining
slot. I think the remaining slot is a 64bit slot.

Either way, the price for the X330 seems too close to equivalent new
costs to be a great deal. The warranty of new has great value even if
not fully utilized.

> Hmmm - I bought a Sun Netra X1 for the same price - and that's an empty
> box with an 80's looking motherboard (but alledgedly is only 2 years
> old, and is used for telephony)...
>
> I'll run Red Hat (probably)...

Eww, why would you handicap the hardware....
--
Steven Critchfield  <critch@basesys.com>