ATX Server Requirements

[BRMCINC]

Hi, I am new to the forum.  I did a quick search and did not see this topic, if we missed this topic I'm pretty sure someone will point us to the right thread. 

We are researching purchasing a new server.  We wanted to find out what type of processor and memory we need to have at a minimum so we can run 4 years of ATX   We read the specs for each year, and wanted some guidance on how to figure what we would need server wise when several systems are access ATX for either one year or multiple years at the same time (5 computer connected to the server).  Microsoft,  Payroll software (peachtree/clientwriteup)

We are looking at the Dell T330  with 3.8GHZ  8M cache 4C/8T Turbo with a 16 GB DDR4 with 1 TB hard drive  

For one year this is fine we were unsure when adding multiple years operating at one time if the specs took this into consideration, or is there is some guidelines we need to look at.

Thanks for the direction.  

 

[Abby Normal]

Just get the fastest computer you can buy and definitely get an SSD. I have 10 years of ATX installed on a server/workstation, running on an i7 3.5Ghz with 16GB of RAM, but you're mostly only running 1 or 2 years at any time.

[Catherine]

What Abby said.  Whatever you get, get the fastest.  Get more memory (RAM) than you think you need.  Get bigger drives than you think you need - preferably SSD.

[MAMalody]

While I don't disagree with the above, why not just call ATX and ask them?

[Abby Normal]

I find the Base and Better ATX system requirements to be ridiculously low. The Best should be the minimum.

I have 16GB RAM and often run at 50% used. If I only had 8GB I'd be running out of RAM.

[Jack from Ohio]

2 hours ago, Abby Normal said:

I find the Base and Better ATX system requirements to be ridiculously low. The Best should be the minimum.

I have 16GB RAM and often run at 50% used. If I only had 8GB I'd be running out of RAM.

DITTO!

[Pacun]

I normally buy a server with 3 hot swappable hard drives and I create a hardware RAID. Just because Tax season is crazy, I would have an extra hot swappable hard drive on line so I would buy 4 drives. The server should have 32 Gigs of RAM and 3 or 5 years of onsite support. As mentioned above, you can have 10 years of taxes on the server but you will be opening only 1 year or 2.

If you work from NOVA (not the college), we can meet at Starbucks (make sure we buy a coffee because I am always sleepy) and we can share knowledge or lack of it.

[Abby Normal]

12 hours ago, Pacun said:

hard drives

You should switch to SSDs. The prices have come down considerably and the performance leaves HDs in the dust.

[Jack from Ohio]

45 minutes ago, Abby Normal said:

You should switch to SSDs. The prices have come down considerably and the performance leaves HDs in the dust.

Agree 100%

[Pacun]

Well, just in case you have forgotten... SSD is a hard drive or do you think it is a soft drive???

[Jack from Ohio]

14 minutes ago, Pacun said:

Well, just in case you have forgotten... SSD is a hard drive or do you think it is a soft drive???

SSD = Solid State Drive.  In reality, it is not a drive, but a very large and powerful RAM chip with programming burned into it.  No moving parts.

[Pacun]

So, I guess they are not tangible and hence the name soft drive, correct?

[Abby Normal]

The only 'soft drive' I know of is in baseball.

We used to have floppy disks.

[Pacun]

I have included Server 2016 OS, 4 hard drives, two power cords for redundancy, 32 Gigs of RAM. Just the hard drives cost more than the computer I am using. how about yours?

 

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