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Date:      Sun, 01 Apr 2001 21:38:10 -0700
From:      "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com>
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Is this good enough?
Message-ID:  <F222T6Z3LstPGtPrPrv000144af@hotmail.com>

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For a mail server?
I don't know, I think you need to upgrade your video card...

Seriosly though, a DX/2 66MHz with qmail can handle hundreds of thousands of 
emails/day (provided they are evenly spaced).  A GHz Athlon is more in the 
class of a 3D modeling workstation or a dynamic content server. The system 
is complete overkill, so yes it will work great.
When you get that 10,000 users, you may need to upgrade the RAM, but I don't 
know because I have never really run such a huge mail server.
If you haven't purchased the system yet, I would put less money into the CPU 
(though Athlons are very cheap) and more into RAM and disk speed. Not that 
you will notice any difference until the system is put under extreme use.

If you have purchased the system, I would actually underclock the processor 
to 600MHz or so. Athlons produce copious amounts of heat (1GHz dissipates 
about 55w). This should allow the system to survive if the CPU cooling fan 
dies (thogu 600MHz will still kick out some heat)
I would also get a very good heatsink, like an Alpha pep66t or a Swiftech 
MC462 (the best CPU cooler available, and loudest).
Not that the CPU will die with a mediocre cooler, but the small expense is 
very much worth it for a server!
Be sure to use a good heatsink paste for the contact point between the 
heatsink and CPU core! The best is Arctic Silver 2 paste. If you need links 
for where to get this stuff, just ask or look them up on google.

You may also want to get a hard drive cooler, such as the cooler sold at 
3dfxcool.com.

>Hello all. Is the computer specs below sufficient to handle e-mail traffic
>for  200 users(current) and expanding to 10,000 users in the future(maybe 
>in
>20 years time, let's give it the benefit of the doubt) on FreeBSD? I'm sure
>it can; but I need replies from the FreeBSD gurus, hackers, and other
>advocates to agree with me/confirm so that I can convince the people in my
>workplace to use this machine below as the mail server. I'll print every
>replies from you guys and show those who don't believe me and include it in
>my report, if it is necessary. Let's unleash the power of FreeBSD.
>
>1. AMD 1GHz Athlon
>2. 256MB RAM (can add more if needed)
>3. Wide Ultra2 SCSI 30GB HDD(can add more HDD in the future)
>4. 3Com 3C905B NIC
>5. Matrox Millenium 16MB video card
>6. The rest are pretty basic; peripherals, etc.
>
>
>btw, i'm not subscribed to both questions and hardware.
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