Florida Shooters Network

photohause wrote: ↑Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:18 am Whatever you do, stick with DOS

This is why it takes Photohause three days to reply...

I've upgraded baby!

+1 on getting a real server.

either way, don't over spend by buying brand spaking new hardware. try the dell outlet (outlet.dell.com) you can find some good deals on refurbed and returned hardware there.

before you buy, talk to the software vendors you're working with. if you are going to use some kind of medical practice management software or whatever, call them and find out what they recommend based on your usage/load.

CPU speeds have been stagnant for years. you'll find that the number of cores (logical CPUs) in a system are increasing -- so consider the the speed, number of cores (and thus the number of parallel operations), and of course the amount of RAM you need.

but again: just ask your software vendors. they'd be the best source.

You'd best have someone figure out what you need based mostly on the data you access and programs you run. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it as my only recent experience is on my home LAN, and Windows 10 set that sucker up pretty much by itself.

Back in the day I set up and ran a network with a 3Com server - no problems once it was installed but in the training course I managed to crash their inhouse network. The 3Com trainers couldn't boot the server back up, couldn't get any sensible error messages and never did tell me what was wrong. They just replaced it for the rest of the course and I noticed they kept an eye on me whenever I touched any of their equipment.

Someone stating a budget of less than $600 for a medical practice server isn't looking for a professional consultation on what they SHOULD actually buy...lol...

zeebaron wrote: ↑Fri Sep 21, 2018 8:32 pm Someone stating a budget of less than $600 for a medical practice server isn't looking for a professional consultation on what they SHOULD actually buy...lol...

He must be one of my clients...

Or mine!

If you don't need/care about today's latest greatest I might suggest you check out tiger direct. they have a ton of two year old stuff coming off lease that has significant savings and still has the horsepower you want. You can get refurbished machines with a lot of capability at reasonable prices. I have used them several times and have had great results. Windows 10, solid state storage etc. has been out long enough to work out the bugs. But I admit I still prefer 7 pro over the way 10 handles. But then there is the problem that new stuff is being written for 10 and 7 will go the way of other platforms. Unfortunately, I'm in a situation where cost is a primary concern and to the uninitiated like me there is no difference between a new and two year old lenovo with the same specs. BTW, I really do like the lenovo line.

Rchrd.miranda wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 5:24 pm If you don't need/care about today's latest greatest I might suggest you check out tiger direct. they have a ton of two year old stuff coming off lease that has significant savings and still has the horsepower you want.

I didn't think they were still around after CompUSA closed. Good to know.

There's a lot of cheap refurb business quad core i7-3770 PC's on eBay too for under $200 in many cases. Five years old and almost the same performance as the latest and greatest. Just throw in a Samsung SATA SSD and more memory if you need it and they're fast as hell.

Try Newegg.com I never bought anything from Tiger Direct because Newegg prices were always less. Also, Lenovo seems to have a higher problem rate than HP in a lot of models according to online user reviews.
With your apparent level of computer skills I'd avoid used systems. I only bought a "refurbished" HP PC last time because it was shortly after the introduction of Windows 8 and I guess the original owner hated that OS so much he returned it under HP's 30 day return policy. It was a new, almost unused PC at half price. With Classic Shell - that emulates Windows 7 - it worked fine for me.
Otherwise the average age of desktops before they start to run into serious problems beyond hard drive or power supply failures has been about 6 or 7 years for me, so those older Windows 10 PCs may not be economical. I passed on them when buying a new PC for my wife, got one on sale from Sam's Club.