[FX.php List] [OFF] Mac Hardware for FMS?

[Joel Shapiro]

Hi all

Hardware's not my strong suit...

I've got a new client that's contracted me to switch them from Lasso  
to PHP.  Their current hadware/network setup (FMS + other duties on 1  
machine, Lasso/WebServer on another) is unstable and their IT  
consultant is recommending they buy a new machine instead of trying  
to clean up all the problems they're having now.

I've recommended they switch to a one-machine FMS config and move  
everything else to the other server.  The IT guy is suggesting they  
get a new Mac Pro for the FMS machine for $3700, but that seems  
excessive to me.  (Is it?)

(The IT guy regularly "likes to have a second hard drive in there  
mirroring the primary one, to lessen the downtime potential".  I  
already got him to exclude the live DBs from his nightly SuperDuper  
clone backups, but it seems to me that for an FMS-only machine, it's  
really only necessary to regularly backup the DBs and maybe the logs,  
and everything else on the machine can be "cloned" just whenever the  
OS or website is updated... since everything except the DBs should  
remain constant... right?)

I'd appreciate any thoughts or recommendations.  Can you think of  
other Macs that would be fully sufficient but not as expensive?

TIA,
-Joel

## CLIENT:
  - Nonprofit agency w/ 12 FMP users, although rarely if ever all at  
the same time.  A couple users work in the DB all day long.
  - Their FM/PHP website is used 24 hrs/day for class registrations  
and "store" purchases.  They receive up to 40 orders per day through  
the site.
  - DB was migrated to FM9 by their previous FM consultant, and  
contains 25 .fp7 files.

## CURRENT FMS MACHINE*:
Power Mac G5
Dual 2 GHz
3 GB DDR SDRAM
OS X Server 10.4.11
*This machine is also used as a file server and had been used as a  
Now Up-to-Date server
Lasso/Web Server is on an even older machine (I can't get specs right  
now)

## RECOMMENDED FMS WPE MACHINE:
Mac Pro $3,699.00:
Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
6GB (6x1GB)
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
One 18x SuperDrive
OS X Server 10.6.x*
* Snow Leopard would require them to get FMS10; they have FMS9 now.