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Thread: Small Office setup ??

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    Question Small Office setup ??

    Hey all,

    I really hope someone can help me please, this post contains hardware questions and network so I have posted this in both forums just incase, hope thats OK?!

    I'm looking to setup a small office which includes 6 PCs and a network with access to a shared drive of at least 1TB.

    Heres my shopping list for the PCs all from Scan:

    x6 LN9858 - Asus TA-212 Black/Silver Midi Tower Case with 350W PSU 4USB = £224.82

    x6 LN11596 - 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 = £159.61

    x6 LN16583 - Logitech Deluxe 250 Wired Keyboard, PS2, Black = £35.18

    x6 LN17165 - Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1* 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) = £556.95

    x6 LN18719 - Logitech 910-000275, Value Optical Mouse, 800dpi, PS2/USB 1.1/2.0, 3 Buttons, Black = £32.08

    x6 LN19234 - 80 GB Seagate ST380815AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms = £145.65

    x6 LN19718 - Asus P5KPL-VM, iG31, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/1333/800, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA = £223.41

    x6 LN20623 - 17" Hanns-G HW173AB, Silver/Black, Widescreen, 8 ms, 1440x900, 500:1 = £441.26

    x6 LN23007 - Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM = £89.46

    x6 LN23991 - Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E5200, Socket 775, Wolfdale Core, 2x2.5 GHz, 2MB Cache, Retail = £341.15


    Net Total £1,914.54
    Carriage £51.50
    VAT £344.06
    Total£2,310.10

    I can build them OK but I'm not 100% that all the above will be easily compatible, ie the mobo fitting the case and anything else I might of missed??

    Now for the network....

    I will need to have a shared drive or a couple of shared drives which all the PCs can connect to, this I've never done before!

    Would the best thing to have is a wired network using the following:

    Netgear GS108UK 8 Port Gigabit 10/100/1000 ProSafe Unmanaged Switch £51.10

    x1 LN20046 1TB LaCie 2big Network (2-disk RAID) Ethernet Gigabit - USB 2.0 / RAID 1 £211.49

    Or even this one

    x1 LN22962 1.5TB (2x750GB) Buffalo LinkStation Pro DUO NAS Box inc GBit Lan,USB Raid 1/0, Remote Login Via Web £246.74

    Connected through a shed load of Cat5...

    Using Vista Business, would doing the above be do' able and more importantly fairly easy to do?? If not how could I make it easier?


    Lastly, what would I need if I wanted to connect all the PCs to the Internet, could I still use the above switch and connect that into a modem/ router?
    Or would I need a router that has 7+ ports?

    Thanks very much for looking and even more if you reply...

  2. #2
    Splash
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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    A small NAS like that *may* fulfil your requirements however I have a couple of questions.

    Firstly why Vista Business? Were you planning to make use of a Windows domain? If so you'll be needing a domain controller.

    Secondly - backups. How are you going to manage this? RAID on the NAS is not a substitute for backups.

    The switch you specified should be fine for a small network such as you specify, but how certain are you that you won't need to expand this network (perhaps a networked printer etc)? You're leaving yourself no room for growth if you're intending to connect to the internet (which will take up one switchport). You've also not mentioned how you intend to assign ip addresses (though I guess statics will be ok)

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    mush-mushroom b0redom's Avatar
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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    At the risk of being flamed to death. If you're building a company network, I would buy pre-built. You really won't save that much money building them yourself, and it will vastly reduce the headache.

    As Splash said - how are you planning on backups? Are you planning on having a domain etc....

    Also you've not mentioned what these systems are going to do. If they're office based, you can probably get away with a lower power chip, and add a little more RAM.

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    I'm with Boredom here, you may get a better deal going to Dell.

    If your set building them yourself then the E5200 is potentially an issue the mother board you selected will support the chip but may potentially require a BIOS upgrade, this will all depend on which BIOS the boards are shipped with, you will need BIOS version 0902 not sure when this was released, 0904 was released at the start of August, however that does not guarantee the BIOS will be the current one.

    I am not sure if Scan would be able to open the boxes and check the BIOS revision for you? And possibly even flash them if they need it? Could be worth asking though!

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Thanks for the replies so far...

    To answer the questions above,

    Firstly, Vista Business- I wasn't planning in using a domain controller as I want it to be as simple as possible.... Would Home be better then?

    Secondly, backups- I was hoping the NAS would be sufficient using RAID1... this is my first office network so I don't know really !

    Thirdly, The switch- I would be looking to add another 6 to 12 PCs and printer next year into the network, but without using a server I don't know what else to use!

    Fourthly! Assign IPs- Presumed the router/ switch would assign them like my home one!?

    Lastly, Spec of the PCs- I would like to build instead of buy, this is just preference as it will be easier for me to write off

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    What mobo would be better than please with that cpu?

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Quote Originally Posted by thun0r View Post
    What mobo would be better than please with that cpu?
    That is where the problems start, few if any of the G31/G33 boards will support the E5200 from the first BIOS revision which is the only one you can guarantee to be on the board.

    Like I said your best bet is to ask Scan to open one up and check for you, this will probably cost you money though, alternatively you can just buy an additional CPU (again money but maybe less than Scan would ask for checking and flashing, if they even offer the service) which is guaranteed to work in the board so you can flash the BIOS's if required, the original BIOS release for the board supported a fair number of chips see this page for more details

    http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...model=P5KPL-VM

    the lower the number for the BIOS revision the better the chance the motherboard will have a BIOS that supports the chip.

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Well I'm not that set on the CPU or the mobo and i dont want to take the chance of buying 12 non compatible items, just the price really as they are cheap and not too slow... looking on scan its hard to see what else to use to be honest..

    So my question is what CPU and mobo at a similar price would be a good idea?

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    what about
    -Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E2180, Socket 775, Allendale Core, 2x2.0 GHz, 1MB Cache
    -Asus P5KPL-VM, iG31, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/1333/800, SATA II, uATX

    In a Asus TM982 Black MicroATX Case ??

  10. #10
    Splash
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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Quote Originally Posted by thun0r View Post
    Thanks for the replies so far...

    To answer the questions above,

    Firstly, Vista Business- I wasn't planning in using a domain controller as I want it to be as simple as possible.... Would Home be better then?
    If you don't need any of the functionality of Business I'd look into one of the cheaper flavours that does everything that you need. You could always use the Anytime Upgrade if you needed Business because of the addition of a domain further down the line.

    Secondly, backups- I was hoping the NAS would be sufficient using RAID1... this is my first office network so I don't know really !
    No, no, no! Don't rely on a RAID array. If your NAS goes pop you lose your data. Plan for backups, with a regime to meet the requirements of your business (it may be necessary to implement a big, complex schedule, or keeping a week's worth might fit requirements). Please don't ignore backups as I promise it *will* bite you in the ass sooner rather than later.

    Thirdly, The switch- I would be looking to add another 6 to 12 PCs and printer next year into the network, but without using a server I don't know what else to use!
    In which case I'd lok at buying a 16 port switch, that way you can always hang another switch off if things get any bigger.

    Fourthly! Assign IPs- Presumed the router/ switch would assign them like my home one!?
    An unmanaged switch will not assign ip addresses. A router *might* dependent on what you buy, but only if it has a built in DHCP server.

    Lastly, Spec of the PCs- I would like to build instead of buy, this is just preference as it will be easier for me to write off
    I have to admit that I'm going with the other guys on this front - can you afford the downtime if one of the PCs fails? Do you want to be spending your time troubleshooting, or would you prefer to be able to log a ticket and have the vendor come and sort it?

    Other than that - keep at it, don't let our pessimism get you down and remember that we're here to help.

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    I know you said you want to self build, but I would seriously consider something like this:

    http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...LAID=239939044

    ...then maybe jack up the RAM if needs be - they come with mice and keyboards.

    You could even buy another one, and install OpenFiler for your network attached storage.

    I'm not sure of the different versions of Vista, but it really depends on what the machines are being used for, and how much you want to grow the network.

    Initially it sounds like you could have an ADSL modem/router, and plug it in to a 16 port switch. That's only likely to scale up to a point, and then you'll need to consider SDSL/leased lines.

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Thanks very much... its hard to know what to do...

    I think I would really like to stick with my own PC builds, my nephew builds them and I would like to throw a little money his way. He'll do the fixing if needed as and when its needed.

    With regards to the mobo and cpu issue I am now having what about using a barebones stystem like:

    Asus T3-P5G31A, S775, iG31, DDR2 800MHz/ 1066MHz(OC), PCI-E (x16), SATA II, On Board VGA

    I take it the only thing I need to add is my cheap cpu from above, hdd, memory, optical drive and OS!?

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Having just upgraded an office from the setup that you describe I would seriously recommend going the Vista Business way first hand... especially as you've already mentioned the addition of a server at some point... the upgrading is a pain in the behind.
    My client tried to cut costs this way (by using Vista Home) then expanded so that we had to put a DC in... THEN the fun happens.

    RAID IS NOT A BACKUP - it is a redundancy solution. Plan to have at least some sort of Offsite backup once a week. Plan big too. (My clients in 6 months have expanded so big that they now fill a 300Gb tape drive just with their user data and exchange store - we're now in the process of re-doing their strategy *sigh*)

    I'm with Splash - if there are already expansion plans in the system, plan for them now. If they're anything like my clients, they'll want the moon on a stick... yesterday. Get a big switch with spare patch ports etc, over spec on the amount of data size they'll need.

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    Jay
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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    □ΞVΞ□

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Quote Originally Posted by thun0r View Post
    Thanks very much... its hard to know what to do...

    I think I would really like to stick with my own PC builds, my nephew builds them and I would like to throw a little money his way. He'll do the fixing if needed as and when its needed.

    With regards to the mobo and cpu issue I am now having what about using a barebones stystem like:

    Asus T3-P5G31A, S775, iG31, DDR2 800MHz/ 1066MHz(OC), PCI-E (x16), SATA II, On Board VGA

    I take it the only thing I need to add is my cheap cpu from above, hdd, memory, optical drive and OS!?
    Barebones are basically, Case, PSU and motherboard so if your paying £40 for a motherboard you can get a case and PSU for £85 to match the price of the one you linked to. Makes it a bit more expensive.

    Oh and have you considered an AMD setup? Decent motherboard can be had for £40 (690G or 740G chipset) and you could get an energy efficient 2.3GHz duel core for £40 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144637

    Equally you could get the same barebones but in AMD flavour.

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    Re: Small Office setup ??

    Just buy them from Dell, its easier, cheaper in the long run and if anything goes wrong you just send it back without any other hassle.
    □ΞVΞ□

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