Working in my current SME company, lots of data need to be save, so I made them a data base using MS Access with my limited knowledge. However, now having more and more data, I think we need a server computer.

Looking at dell computer, look up in the server selection, seem pretty expensive, and not so great. Then I think is this really I need?!?!

Look again into Personal Computer section, price is a lot cheaper, with reasonable good performance. 2.8GHz Core-dual CPU, 2GB DDR-2 RAM, 160GB HD, and the price cheaper than the lowest end of server they have. The lowest end model of server is just a 2.6GHz celeron, 256 DDR Ram, 80GB HD.

Is it ok (in terms of performance) to use a PC as a server? This is what I am using now, and I am not sure is it good enough or not?!?!

How large is your company? It's perfectly reasonable to use a PC as a server, as I do it at home depending on how much people will actually be using the system. Most large companies need servers because they have many people accessing the computers at the same time and need RAID capabilities and better cooling.

This is something I've been pondering on.
Vassago, would you care to give a few pointers on using a home PC as a server?
Is it necessary to run Windows Server OS?
Would it be possible to set up a PC with WinXP Pro as a pseudo-server?
I'm thinking...chock it full of hard drives, connect the printer to it, connect it directly to the wireless router. Then it would be a print server, file server, etc...but it wouldn't be a true 'domain', right?

Sergeant. This is exactly what I have done. My server serves as a file and print server. Eventually, I plan on adding a hot swappable hard drive rack to it so I can change out the hard drives on the fly without powering off the system. I don't have a domain set up as I don't really need one at home, so not sure of the process on running a domain in an xp only environment.

Hi There

By connecting several computers (running winxp etc) you are using whats known as a peer to peer network. To create a Domain you require a dedicated file server runing a server os (windows 2000, 2003 server etc)

The purpose of using a dedicated server with server os is when security is an issue, ther are greater facilities available with server os operating systems.

Please feel free to contact me if you need any advice setting one up