Seeking kit recommendation

We are a Primary with 250 on the role. Currently we have SIMS running on the Office PC (A Dell GX280) with 40GB Travan Backup. It acts as our SIMS Server and is workgroup accessed by one or two other SIMS set up computers - heads and receptions.

Now looking to replace the main PC and woiuld like to get it right! Any recommendations please on kit and how to have it all set up?

I would go for a dedicated server
Using Windows server 2003

Dual core xeon processor, 2GB Ram (4would be better) and a couple of 250 gb sata discs raided at level 1

Add a dat 72 drive and either using Windows ntbackup or purchase backup exec for windows server.

All the above should cost no more that £900-£1000 and will cope with all that a small school would need for the next 3 years or so.

By office pc I presume you mean that its being used by a receptionist etc as well as being the sims server?

It might be worth cleaning the pc up and sticking it in a dark corner to run the sims database and documents server's on its own, unless you plan to roll out class registration via sims etc you really won't need much resource wise when theres only 2 users connecting to it.

If you can afford to I'd go for the above, it'd be able to cope if you were to roll out class registration via sims.

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Originally Posted by Jamman960

By office pc I presume you mean that its being used by a receptionist etc as well as being the sims server?

It might be worth cleaning the pc up and sticking it in a dark corner to run the sims database and documents server's on its own, unless you plan to roll out class registration via sims etc you really won't need much resource wise when theres only 2 users connecting to it.

If you can afford to I'd go for the above, it'd be able to cope if you were to roll out class registration via sims.

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Thanks, I don't think the budget is going to be a problem. No thoughts on class registration through SIMS seem to be in play at present but we get a new headteacher next FY so anything could and probably will change. Showing my inexperience if we went for something like Mcshammer_dj suggested am I right in thinking that that sysatem would be just that - a SIMS Server and we would still need a second workstation for the Admin Officer?

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Originally Posted by speckytecky

Showing my inexperience if we went for something like Mcshammer_dj suggested am I right in thinking that that sysatem would be just that - a SIMS Server and we would still need a second workstation for the Admin Officer?

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I'd say thats about right. You'd really want a dedicated workstation for the admin officer (or rebuild the existing one after migrating the data). I guess the Server would become a Member Server on the usual school domain but you would use it only for SIMS, perhaps some file serving and maybe some other non-pupil apps (I remember a while back we both posted on a classroom monitor thread - that, or similar apps could go there I guess)?

In addition to what Mcshammer_dj said if you go for a Dell Server which you spec from their website you can make sure it is expandable and therefore even more future proof!!