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Intel-Based Servers

An Intel-based server can be either "home-built" (designed by the user) or built and configured by the manufacturer, as shown in Figure 6.1. An Intel-based server runs on most operating systems, including Windows NT, Windows 95, UNIX, and Solaris. The Intel platform represents a growing share of the Web server market. Because of Intel's edge in the market, many new server technologies will be available for the Intel platform before they are for other platforms.

Figure 6.1: An Intel-based server, manufactured by Hewlett-Packard.

A downside of the Intel platform is that the numerous combinations of internal components can make it difficult to isolate a specific problem. These different components can cause conflicts, or they could turn out to be incompatible with one another. For example, a combination of the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), including the network card and disk controller, could crash the server. BIOS is the core system that tells the computer how to react to problems. But with each manufacturer pointing at another manufacturer, pinpointing the problem on the intranet server is anything but straightforward. However, to minimize this drawback, select a manufacturer or integrator that assembles and tests all components of the server together for the specific application at hand.

An Intel-based system can start as low as $2,000 for a low-end Pentium system with 16MB of RAM and 1GB of disk storage and go as high as $8,000 to $12,000 for a Dual Pentium Windows NT system with 128MB of RAM and 4GB of RAID storage.

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