In our office we use a computer to store all of our company/cleint data on and I am wondering how important some the components are for this type of use. I imagine that the faster the hard drive the better, but what about the memory, processor, and motherboard? No one uses the machine on a regular basis so would additional memory or a processor upgrade help speed up its ability to serve up our data files?

The machine has:
Windows 2000 Proessional
Asus P4P800 MB bios American Megatrends 1009.008
P4 2.4 GHz 512MB cache
1GB memory (2x512) running dual channel and 2 open slots
Maxtor 120GB HD 7200rpm IDE
(The boss wanted the Intel processor at the time, but I am slowly converting him over to the better side /wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /> )

Also, any idea how much benefit there is to upgrading to a 10/100/1000 LAN from our 10/100 Lan? Our business is an accounting firm that uses specialized tax preparation software in addition to several versions of Quickbooks and a time management program, all of which we keep the data files on our "Server." We have up to 8 computers trying to access these files during tax season (Mid January to mid April).

Thanks for your insights! They will be used the next time we upgrade the computer. /cool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cool.gif' />

QUOTE(ccut77 @ Jun 3 2005, 11:44 AM)In our office we use a computer to store all of our company/cleint data on and I am wondering how important some the components are for this type of use.  I imagine that the faster the hard drive the better, but what about the memory, processor, and motherboard?  No one uses the machine on a regular basis so would additional memory or a processor upgrade help speed up its ability to serve up our data files?

The machine has:
Windows 2000 Proessional
Asus P4P800 MB bios American Megatrends 1009.008
P4 2.4 GHz 512MB cache
1GB memory (2x512) running dual channel and 2 open slots
Maxtor 120GB HD 7200rpm IDE
(The boss wanted the Intel processor at the time, but I am slowly converting him over to the better side  /wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /> )

Also, any idea how much benefit there is to upgrading to a 10/100/1000 LAN from our 10/100 Lan?  Our business is an accounting firm that uses specialized tax preparation software in addition to several versions of Quickbooks and a time management program, all of which we keep the data files on our "Server."  We have up to 8 computers trying to access these files during tax season (Mid January to mid April).

Thanks for your insights!  They will be used the next time we upgrade the computer.  /cool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cool.gif' />
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Well that for a file server should work great. The processor memory look excellent. if you didn want a slightly faster connection then yes you could go to A sata drive, such as the WD Raptors, or you could go SCSI. You could also add more memory.

On the Gigabit lan, I have not seen it in action to say, but it may work a lot better for your operations. It would allow for some faster transfers.

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Im sure there is a benefit to going with 100/1000Mbps, but With only 8 computers accessing the network at a time, I don't expect that it would be needed or cost beneficial at this time. As your network grows (and it probably will) then it might be something to look into.