RE: Silent HA PC

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> I have an Intel P4 2Ghz (512Mb RAM) running HA stuff and a few other
> little chores, including CCTV, HV, TTS etc and I would have expected
the
> machine to have coped with all that and more. It doesn't!
>
> You would expect that a machine (okay it runs SETI as well) of this
power
> should easily cope with the load but the more it runs the slower it

You'd think that, wouldn't you? :/
I agree m8 - we're asking PC's to do too much.  Not, I think, because the
CPU's can't hack it, but because software is so friggin bloated and buggy
these days that the more you add to a system, the less stable and/or
speedy it becomes.

Case in point:  Just built a "Server" for a client with a 2.8Ghz
P4, with
hyperthreading etc etc, 1 gb ram, 250gb hard drive blah blah.
Installed XP and it ran like a dream.
"Ah", thinks the client (and lets be homest, we're all guilty of
this),
"as the machine has that much power, maybe I'd like to run <instert
proggie here> on it."

In his case, he'd like to play the odd game, so bung in a decentr graphics
card.
Oh and the motherboard monitoring stuff is cool so add that.
And the network link status
And how about a CD/DVD burning proggie, one of the ones with a little tray
icon so we can do drag to disk burning
And might as well bung orifice 2003 on there, with outlook that seems to
always run so the login screen can tell u how many waiting emails there
are......etc etc.

So now, whilst the machine is still fast, it ain't as fast as before all
this cr@p was installed - and it will only get worse as more and more
things are added.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I need a number of small, low
powered, quiet servers, each only handling a handful of tasks - and a
completely separate machine for "power" use.

The problem with this though is of course the space all these servers will
take up.
A 1U rack with built in PSU is too damned noisy, even if you replace the
PSU fan, because it still has to run at high speed to shift the air
around, and switching to external PSU's just increases the space
requirements and cabling nightmare.....

As with most things in life it seems, u gotta compromise somewhere - or be
filthy rich, buy a mansion, and build your own soundproofed, air
conditioned comms room ;)

cheers,

T.