Mac advise for small office server

[ibman]

I help a small nonprofit (read tight budget!) with an all Mac network of 2 G3 iMacs, 1 intel iMac, 1 Mac mini, and 2 eMacs. All are using OS X (10.3.9 & 10.4.11) The mini is used for file sharing and one of the eMacs is used as the dedicated database (Filemaker) server. The db server eMac is now giving a kernel panic every restart and the db is giving intermittent problems. It is time to replace this emac.

My question: What suggestions do you have (on a tight budget) for a replacement? A new Mac mini? A used G4/G5 tower? other?

 

[rolex54]

a mini would prolly be the most economical solution

 

[techound1]

This is on-topic only in that they're a non-profit on a tight, tight budget. Take a look at techsoupstock.org if you haven't already. They'll really help with software costs down the road (they do have some mac stuff).

 

[tersono]

A mini is probably going to be faster than anything you can buy secondhand for the money. However, it depends on whether you're really going to need that extra speed, or whether storage is more important to you.

If the latter, a Quicksilver DP867 makes a great file/web or general-purpose server and can handle 4 hard drives if required - making a good option for data security if coupled with software RAID 1 (mirroring).

If I were you I'd see how hard your filemaker database is hitting the eMac CPU - if it's getting pegged, I'd go for the mini, otherwise think about the G4.