"server"

[cristoforo]

Maybe a stupid question...but is a dedicated server really something "different" or just another pc "dedicated" to storing all the data with perhaps more hard disk space than the other pc's and perhaps RAID going on? Does the processor make a difference on that computer? I assume the other computers are only taking info from the server...all the processing goes on in each render node. I'm asking because I am wondering if I can use an older computer (which is MUCH slower in rendering) as my dedicated server? That computer can then be the hub where backburner manager is, backburner monitor, the printer, etc. Is this not such a good idea?

[DaForce]

A "server" is often just a glorified desktop.
For the most part what is often called a "server" is called that purely because of its use not its make/build/components.

Depending on the needs and uses for the server you could certainly get away with an older machine. But if your going to have lots of machines accessing it for textures and max files..etc.. you will need fast HDD's maybe even a raid setup. Fast network (gigabit) and probabaly a decent amount of memory and a somewhat decent CPU.

What are the specs of the "older" machine your thinking of using.

[cristoforo]

The computer is (5) years old....a Pentium 4 2,4 or 2,6 Ghz(Cannot check now because the computer is being worked on...hard disk died!) 2 GB RAM and I think it has a gigabit network (at least my other computers have a gigabit). It would be serving right away (4) computers and hopefully within a month or two a total of (10) computers. Would I need to put Windows XP server on the machine or can I leave regular XP? I'm hoping to be able to put the computer to use.....as a render node it is no good. If it can become the server I can then free up the computer that is now acting as the server and a render node, which is a Pentium 4 3,6 Ghz 4 GB RAM and gigabit network.

[DaForce]

I imagine that would probabaly be ok. Server is usefull as it allows more connections at once I believe.. but you can get a TCPIP.sys patcher which fixes that for XP anyway

But the server does have better user based file/floder restrictions, but if you jsut need to share stuff for everyone XP should do the job just fine.

[cristoforo]

I think I will definitely put XP server on the computer. I'm just a bit worried about all the connections being a bit slower in comparison to the computer that I use now as the server.