Requesting help with parts for a server

[greg20]

Hello everyone,

Our small business recently began using a Ricoh Aficio 240W wide-format printer/copier/scanner with the RW-240 controller (which is more or less just a PCI card and its software).

We upgraded from an analog wide-format copier to this digital model.

I need to build a server for it, so that the rest of the PCs in the office can use it. It will mostly be used for standalone copying and collating, although we do receive architectural drawings via e-mail that will be printed to it from client PCs occasionally. I setup and maintain the network here, built the PCs, run the Intranet server (an old Celeron box), etc, but I haven't purchased parts or built a system for a while.

Given the minimum requirements, I'd like to ask for some help choosing components for this machine. All it will be doing is serving the 240W. I don't need a keyboard/mouse, or monitor (I'll have one attached temporarily and then just TightVNC into it after it's setup).

Minimum requirements are given as:

XP Pro SP2

Processor: Pentium 4, Pentium III, Celeron, with min. 2 Ghz or AMD Athlon (min. Athlon XP)
Recommended: Pentium 4 2.0+ Ghz

FSB: Minimum 400 Mhz, Recommended 400+

PCI Bus: PCI 2.0 or higher

RAM: 1 GB or more

HDD: 20 GB+ free space

NIC: 10/100 Base T Ethernet (I'm going to be using a D-Link DWL-G520M as this is what we use with excellent results in our other server and client PCs, along with our D-Link DI-634M MIMO router)

CD-ROM drive

And the RW-240 controller card I already have fits in a standard PCI slot.

Basically it's setup: Printer -> proprietary cable -> RW-240 PCI controller card -> Server -> LAN

That's about it. It does say "Avoid computers with shared video memory." Although the server doesn't do anything graphics-intensive, they probably say that so that the majority of RAM can be used to store documents in the queue and not be shared with video RAM. I'd really appreciate help with good parts for this setup. Budget is hopefully $500 total (including OS), so anything above the bare minimums that would bring the price up into that range is fine. We do prefer to use Newegg.

I'm looking for a recommended case/psu/mobo/processor/ram/video card (low-end)/CD-Rom drive, and anything I left out (besides the NIC, monitor, and mouse/keyboard) combination.

Thanks!

[glc]

No problem.

Case: Enlight EN-7250-AKZ Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 300W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811116166

Motherboard: EPoX EP-4PDA6I Socket 478 Intel 865PE ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813123266

CPU: Intel Celeron D 340 Prescott 533MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor Model BX80546RE2933C - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112195

Ram: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145440

Video: MSI RX9250-T128 Radeon 9250 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Low Profile Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127148

CD drive: LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SHD-16P1S - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106028 (CHEAPER than a CD drive, believe it or not)

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116059

I get 486 bucks shipped. Motherboard has an onboard NIC.

Edit: OOOOOPPPPPPPSSSSSSSS! Forgot a $%#@&*% hard drive!

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST380811AS 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148148

$539 - is that doable?

[greg20]

Thanks a lot, glc!

That's very doable. It's actually going to be more like $600 because I'm adding a DWL-G520M to use wireless networking instead of the onboard NIC, but that's fine.

Thanks, I appreciate the help!

-Greg

Edit: Total is $600.88. I 'quoted' 'around $500-$600', so that's perfect. For where it's going to be, we'd rather go wireless than run a cable.

[greg20]

Just wanted to say thanks for the parts list suggestion.

The remaining parts came today and I assembled it with just a few issues. First, just FYI, although that board lists (and is pictured as) coming with SATA data cables, it doesn't. There's a "too late to be printed" insert in the manual that essentially says "sorry, we don't include those now." Luckily I had some left over from the last P4P800 that I replaced (using parallel ATA), so I just used one of those and didn't have to run out and pay inflated prices or wait for one to ship at a good price.

Everything else went well and it powered up and booted, and XP installed, all with no issues at all. As far as fulfilling its purpose, I installed the server and client software for the wide-format machine and got to play with that briefly. I was able to wirelessly plot some bridge blueprints with it from the other side of the office, so that was interesting. There are a few issues with XP file sharing permissions, but I'll work on those tomorrow. Out of gas for the night.

Thanks again.

-Greg