Author: Brian Lee Page: 2

The first question was whether to build a new server from scratch or to buy a commercial one from Dell, Gateway, or IBM.  I wasn't too familiar with what Gateway or IBM was offering, but I knew that Dell had entry level servers for a long time.  Actually, I've been keeping my eye on the low end Dell servers for about 2 years now.  Back in the day, the lowest level server was the PowerEdge 1300 which was a SCSI system.  At the time it was about $1800 which was way too expensive for me.  As time progressed, the priced slowly dropped.  $1800 to $1500 to $1200.  Then a couple of name changes.  The new low end became the PowerEdge 300.  The price dropped even more since instead of SCSI, the disk subsystem was moved to IDE.  $1200 to $800.  Then another name change.  The low end became the PowerEdge 500SC.  $800 to $500.  Today, the 500SC hovers around $500 for the most basic configuration.  The case for the 500SC isn't as cool looking as the one for the 1300, but it's good enough.  A few months back, Dell was offering a $250 rebate on the 500SC bringing down the price to $250.  Sold to Mr. Brian.  Seriously, at $250, you have a great basis for a home webserver.  And this computer is a real server, not just a desktop machine drafted in to server duty.  It has a Serverworks chipset and ECC ram.  Very cool.  At this price, the server didn't have the exact configuration that I wanted but this was no problem at all.  I decided to build my own server using the Dell server as the core.  Here is the basic configuration that I ordered.

Base Dell PowerEdge 500SC:

• Processor: Intel Celeron 1.1 with 128KB Level 2 cache (100 Mhz FSB)
• ServerWorks ServerSet LE 3.0 Chipset
• 128MB ECC SDRAM
• 4 (168-pin, 72-bit) DIMM 168-pin sockets on system board
• 3 x 32-bit/33MHz PCI slots (supports +5V volt and Universal cards)
• 2 x 64-bit/66MHz PCI slots (supports only +3.3V and Universal cards)
• 2 Integrated ATA-100 controllers
• 2 x 5.25" Removable media bays all externally accessible (3.5" Floppy disk drive standard)
• 48X EIDE CD ROM standard
• 5.25" half-height bay open for optional internal tape drive or other storage media
• 3 Internal hard drive bays
• 20GB 7200 RPM IDE Hard Drive
• Integrated Intel 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
• 2 USB ports; 1 Serial port
• One 250W (min) PFC Compliant Power Supply
• Integrated ATI-Rage XL controller with 4MB of RAM (not upgradeable)

As you can see, the base configuration is not bad at all.  The only complaint would be that 128 megs of RAM is kinda skimpy.  Okay, it's really skimpy.  But other than that, it's a good solid system.  Once I got the PowerEdge 500SC, I started to play with it.

Let's take a look at the unit.  The server case is a nice charcoal black, like almost all Dell's these days.  Not a bad looking case at all.  You can see that there is ample ventilation on the front bezel so that air can be pulled through the case by the power supply fan and the exhaust fan.

There are two 5.25 inch bays that are externally accessible.  In the top bay comes a 48x Samsung CD-ROM drive.  The floppy drive is integrated into the front bezel.

In the back of the server you can see the power supply fan in the usual position at the top rear of the case.  The fan below the power supply fan is the exhaust fan.  This fan also acts as the cooling fan for the CPU via ducting.  We'll take a look at that later.  You can also see the integrated NIC on the I/O panel.

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