[Tinsman]

What would you buy?

I'm the main designer in small marketing department. I have three workstations and a server to share files. I really have carte blanche to get anything I want. But having the same old equipment for this long, I've kind of gotten out of the loop as to what I may need and may not.

I do all of the high end photoshop, quark and Illustrator work so my workstation needs to be the workhorse. The other two workstations are primarily for help with layouts in Quark. I don't do web design or anything with video, multimedia, or audio (yet; the current equipment has had to last for nearly six years so who knows).

I'm thinking:
1. a tricked out dual 1.25 w/ 2 gb ram, and two 17" Apple displays (rather than the expensive 22 or 23" monitors.

2 & 3. Two 1GHz w/ 512 mb ram, superdrives, each w/ a 17" Apple display.

Some questions:
I do need to have some kind of server but does it need to be a Xserve? Can I work on a large Quark file directly off of the server? I don't want to be copying files from a server to the workstations to work on them if I can avoid it.

Why would someone need a superdrive and a combo drive in the same machine?

How about your favorite mouse or trackball device? I bought the new Kensington Studio Mouse and don't really like it. I have to admit I like the functionality on the Microsoft roller mouse on my PC ( I have one for work email, and some of the few other things I can't do on my mac at work).

Thanks for your opinions and advice!

Tinsman

[danielb0101]

Don't forget to save some money for software upgrades.. especially if you plan on moving to OS X.

Since you're a Quark user, do you have to use all the money this quarter/year? Quark should be available sometime next year for X. I don't think pre-orders are possible yet.

Also, I don't know about your network infrastructure, but can you use some money to upgrade your routers and switches? You might want to upgrade your local network (between your new G4's) with a gigabit network if possible. Sharing files between your own department would be super-fast.

You can have your new G4 server and your new G4's connected via gigabit and your G4 server connect via 10/100BT to the rest of the company's network. That would make you guys the envy of the company (if you're not already).

[suhail]

I would get the following:

1- A good PowerMac with two 17" LCD displays

2- A G4 Server, I keep all our files on the Server, even the Fonts, the only thing that resides on the local hard-disc are the apps. The fonts are all shared without any extra software, which is great because all the office can use the exact same fonts. I've used this Server setup for the past 5 Years and it's been great! (Before OSX Server came out I was using AppleShare IP)

3- A secure RAID-5 drive hooked to the Server.

4- A backup solution, you could use anything with lots of space for this, like a large HD, Tape Drive (DLT), and retrospect.

5- A good Switch which will speedup data transfer between workstations an the Server.

The good thing about a setup like this is that if a workstation went down, all the data including the fonts would still be accessable from any other workstation. The Server, especialy OSX Server, once it's setup you basically have no maintenance to do. The RAID solution: if one of the RAID drives fail, all you'd do is pull out the bad drive (Like a VHS cassette) and plug in the spare. That's it, send the spare back for a replacement spare. I used Winchester Systems for my RAIDs but they may be too expensive for your use, try the recent FireWire RAIDs, I heard they are just as good.

Spend it all

[Tinsman]

I'll want to spend it this year. We have a couple of weeks of down time before xmas at work and I need to set everything up then. I may be able to save some of the money to buy some software later 03, like Quark.

I really need to get up to speed on this stuff. I'm not really sure what a Raid is. Or how to configure a server.

I do like the idea of putting everything on the server.

1. I don't want a tape drive backup. There's no way I'm going to change tapes everyday. Would a separate HD be required or could this be partitioned maybe on the server.

2.And are you meaning a Xserve server or something else?

3. What kind of switch would be good?

4. What do I need to do to upgrade my LAN to get gigabit? Isn't that integrated in the new G4s?

What are some resources that I can use to learn more about all of this? Finding consultants isn't the easiest either.

[suhail]

RAID is a collection of HDs (usually 5+) that behave as one big HD, if one of those HDs should fail, you'd replace it with a spare, and the RAID system will use a simple algorithm to rewrite the data that was on the bad HD. There would be no downtime at all, nobody will be dropped off the Network, nor would they realize a network slowdown.

1. I don't want a tape drive backup. There's no way I'm going to change tapes everyday. Would a separate HD be required or could this be partitioned maybe on the server.
The seperate HD would not need to be partitioned, it is just for backup incase something happens to the data on the main RAID drive. ( A virus or someone erased files that they should've not, it happens all the time to designers )

2.And are you meaning a Xserve server or something else?
I would use an XServe because it's rackmount, I would rackmount the Server, Switch, and RAID drives in a small cabinet like Rack.
If you do not need to rackmount you can use a regular G4 Server tower.

3. What kind of switch would be good?
I usually use the 3COM SuperStack, others would have different oppinions about a Switch. I know many people prefer the SISCO.

4. What do I need to do to upgrade my LAN to get gigabit? Isn't that integrated in the new G4s?
To take full advantage of Gigabit, I would recomend to upgrade your Network wiring to a CAT-6 wire, you probably should have someone do that for you on a weekend because it takes a day. The other issue is that your Switch needs to be a Gigabit Switch, which are more expensive. However, the regular Network of 100MBits with a regular Switch gives you sufficient speed, it is very similar to your HDs speed, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you're doing Video, which you're not.

What are some resources that I can use to learn more about all of this? Finding consultants isn't the easiest either.
This is the tricky part, if you're going to find a consultant, they need to be Mac savvy (hard to find), the other issue is they try to sell you stuff that they make more money out of. These are two points you should keep in mind while dealing with consultants.

Isn't our consultation good enough!

[DeathMan]

Originally posted by Tinsman:
What would you buy?

Some questions:
I do need to have some kind of server but does it need to be a Xserve? Can I work on a large Quark file directly off of the server? I don't want to be copying files from a server to the workstations to work on them if I can avoid it.

I'd not get an Xserve unless you were short on space. Especially for just file serving. You could probably go with a lowend g4. They've all got gigabit, so if you upgraded your network (switch, wiring) you'd be good to go.

Why would someone need a superdrive and a combo drive in the same machine? [/B]

You can copy from one cd to another this way. And the combo drives burn faster than the SuperDrives. I don't think its a very good deal. I'd get just the SuperDrive, and if you find you're losing productive time due to slow burning, look at upgrading later.

One thing I can say for sure: Studio Displays are the most beautiful things (screenwise) I've ever had the pleasure to view. Next to a CRT monitor, they are so bright. Makes CRT monitors look really bluish purple. In a bad way.

$25,000 goes faster than you'd think, so make soure you check out some benchmarks on the different systems. I think the latest Mac World has some.

[dadder]

Here's a simple suggestion:
WORKSTATIONS: Your workstations could be any of the new Dual Processor Macs. They are all PLENTY fast for what you are doing, even the low end Duals. The Apple Cinema Displays are pretty cool, but expensive. Look into the Formac displays before you make your purchase (www.formac.com).
NETWORK: Go Gigabit all the way. Farallon makes a Gigabit over copper 4 port switch for $1100. Hook your Gigabit equipped new duals to this Switch and then the Switch to your server. If your in a small shop, and want to get running quickly, just go down to Office Max and buy five 50-100ft ethernet cables and run them along the floor boards until you decide to have them professionally installed. You should store all your client files on your server and run them OVER your network (no need to copy the files on the individual workstation to work on them). These macs are all fast enough to run over the network.
SERVER: XServe Dual Processor. Speed. Ease of use. Ease of setup. Expandability. You can use the hard drives individually or by themselves or stripe the data later with them if you want. Plus, you can set it up to act as a network gateway/mail server if you are/will be hooked up to some kind of broadband connection for internet/email.
BACKUP: Dants Workgroup server runs on the XServe and you can simply backup your client files from one XServe internal drive to another XServe internal drive. If your drives begin getting full, archive data on the 4.7GB DVD disks that you'll be able to burn with your new SuperDrive equipped Mac(s).
POWER: I would recommend the APS 1400 UPS for the XServe for power blips and outages.
TRACKBALL: I swear by the Kensington Turbo Mouse Pro. I tell everyone to force yourself to use it for 2-3 weeks and you'll never go back to a mouse, even the optical.

[dadder]

OH YEAH...: We currently do not have the funds to actually rack mount our XServe so we have it sitting on some rubber feet we bought at ACE hardware for $1.89 and have it sitting on a desktop. Racks run about $1000 for new, $700 for used. Seems like a waste of money. Specially if you'll only be running 1 server. As you might have guessed, this is our set up at our agency and has been outstanding. We thought this through and tried to be as cost effective as possible with still finding equipment that could be somewhat of an investment (if that's possible) more than a tool.

[Tinsman]

Thanks for the input! You guys are great.

Here's the list. I'm waiting for approval from the finance department. I'll be getting around $1,100 back in rebates so I'll be able to get some other items like, power backup, speakers, maybe a different mouse, and some of those things that I may have overlooked. For a printer, I spec'd the Xerox Phaser 8200N for a printer. I had run out of time to do research and test prints. I had seen done some test comparisons on the Phaser 850 a while back and they were pretty good. Now I see there's a Phaser 7300 that's blazing fast with tabloid ability and duplex but it's quite a bit more money. http://www2.warehouse.com/product.as...cat=pc&bli

Let me know what you think.

1- Apple Power Mac Dual 1.25GHz G4/2GB RAM/120GB HD/SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)/56K Mod/ATI Radeon 9000
1- Apple 17 inch Active-Matrix LCD Studio Display (1280 x 1024)
1- Apple 22 inch Active-Matrix LCD Cinema Display (1600 x 1024) I was able to swing getting both a 22 and 17 for my machine!

2- Apple Power Mac Dual 867MHz G4/768MB RAM/60GB HD/CD-RW/DVD/56K Modem/NVIDIA GeForce4
2- Apple 17 inch Active-Matrix LCD Studio Display (1280 x 1024)

1- Xserve Dual 1.0GHZ G4/2GB RAM/60GB-ADM/24X CD-ROM/ATI PCI Graphics Card/OS X Unlimited Client
3- Apple Drive Module for xServe - 60gb

ETHERFAST 8PORT GIGA SWITCH 10/100/1000
CAT 5E PATCH CABLES
PHOTOSHOP & ILLUSTRATOR UPGRADES
Xerox Phaser 8200N 16ppm Blk/Clr 1000DPI 64MB Solid Ink Printer Network
Power User 128MB PC100 SODIMM Laptops (RAM FOR PRI NTER)
Norton SystemWorks 2.0 for Mac
2- KENSINGTON IRIDIO 3 BUTTON OPTICAL MOUSE (USB)

That's it.