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My boss has asked me if I could put together a good solid PC to run a small 4 PC network off of. What would you guys recommend for an application like this? The office is for a small construction company so the main use is Quickbooks and Peachtree along with general e-mail and document generation for the 3 other PCs. Last thing would you all recommend having the network run by a PC that is not actually used or can it by someone's desktop?

I would say a stand alone desktop pc would work fine for a server in this small network. I would suggest not using a pc in the "network" just so you dont have to hault productivity if anything with the server needs to be worked on. A very low-budget pc would work fine. p4 - 512 ram ect.. and pending on how much storage you need maybe a RAID 1 with two 1TB hard drives (or whatever is needed) just so your data is safe. all the PC would be doing working as a file/print/storage server. and for only 4 computers it wouldnt need any high end parts.. heck i bet a $50 computer off craiglist could handle the job. - of course with how inexpensive computer parts are now days you could prob build one for under $400 if you had an OS to use.. EX: price from newegg
Intel Pentium E6300 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
ECS G31T-M9 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail cpu motherboard combo $119
G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $16
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ400SXS 400W ATX12V $40
SYBA SD-LP-PEX2IR PCI Express Low Profile SATA II Controller Card - $12
LITE-ON Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDS118-04 - OEM $20
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM $80 x2=$160
Rosewill R102-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case $30
$397 plus shipping.

Merlin wrote:My boss has asked me if I could put together a good solid PC to run a small 4 PC network off of. What would you guys recommend for an application like this? The office is for a small construction company so the main use is Quickbooks and Peachtree along with general e-mail and document generation for the 3 other PCs. Last thing would you all recommend having the network run by a PC that is not actually used or can it by someone's desktop?

I agree with smack323 in that a high horsepower system will definitely not be needed but some more info would be helpful.

For instance, what do you mean by "run a small 4 PC network off of" (key questions is on the "run" part). If you need to setup a server then your needs will be different than if you just need to do file shares to share data to all of the other PCs.

When you say that this "is for a small construction company so the main use is Quickbooks and Peachtree along with general e-mail and document generation for the 3 other PCs" what, exactly, are the needs?

"Vague requirements gathering usually leads to unmet needs - daddyrabbit, Sept 30 2009" I would look at mapping actual requirements first, for example:

PC1 (the main PC) - Required to do accounting, invoicing, ordering, work order generation and publishing, email, and all backups (VERY important, more later).

PCs 2-4 - Need to have access to work orders, materials lists, other documents, email, and the web.

In the above scenario the ISP would be doing all of the email server management, the main PC would do all of the accounting and report and document generation, so the main issue isn't hardware but architecture (How is it put together, how are the shares setup, how does each PC access the broadband etc.) more info is required.

The one thing to add to smack323's system recommendation is a backup solution, tape or external drive. RAID is fine but if a sleepy crane operator drops a pallet of steel on the main PC, well in todays economy few small businesses could afford the loss

your description of PC1 and PCs 2-4 is right on the money. We do have an offsite backup service that backs up all critical data daily. I cannot thonk of anything to add to what you said PC1 would need to do. That is the PC I need to build. I don't have all the network info right now. They paid someone to set it all up and I think no one really knows what they paid for nor what they got for their money. This was all done before I came on now I need to figure out how to fix it. The "host" pc now is slow and seems to slow way down anytime the second PC is online. I don't know enough about network solutions to know what could be causing the slowdown nor really what the exact remedy could be. I assumed that IF I built a fairly nice system with a quad core CPU and 6 gig of ram and a faster HDD as the "host" I would eliminate the bog down problem.

Merlin wrote:I don't have all the network info right now. They paid someone to set it all up and I think no one really knows what they paid for nor what they got for their money..

Sorry Merlin but this is the (way too common) worst case scenario for a small office/business (somebody knew a friend of a friend who had a buddy that was a "computer guy" who drove a white and black VW that can do this cheaply but now is in prison etc). The first thing to do is CLEARLY identify and document the external services (e.g who is the ISP, who is the backup service, what is the company paying for). Where small businesses get into this quandry is that they can't afford IT staff, it's a bit of the puppy chasing it's tail syndrome, need IT to grow but can't afford IT.

Merlin wrote:This was all done before I came on now I need to figure out how to fix it. The "host" pc now is slow and seems to slow way down anytime the second PC is online. I don't know enough about network solutions to know what could be causing the slowdown nor really what the exact remedy could be. I assumed that IF I built a fairly nice system with a quad core CPU and 6 gig of ram and a faster HDD as the "host" I would eliminate the bog down problem.

IMHO bigger hardware is NEVER a good solution to software or network issues that present in a "it was working before: situation. Given that the network architecture, applications, and usage remain the same, reduced performance points to other issues like viruses etc.

I cannot find any fault with anything you say. I do not know if this setup EVER worked well or if it has always been sub par. Its is very possible that the main host PC now is riddled with Spyware and viruses. I will attempt to get real relevant info and see where it may lead. Thanks for the help thus far.