small office network - buying advice

[DNA2907]

I'm soon to open a new business and I'm pondering what kit to buy for the network - I need to balance the need for reliability and easy expansion against cost.

The office will have to 2 full time employes and one part time.
Central to the business is that filemaker pro database, other than that its just, email, docs and normal stuff like that.

We'll be at trade fairs 3 times a year so need a laptop and access to the database.

Does the below sound optimum:

mac miniserver
2 X imacs (basic config)
1 X MBP with SSD (+plus apple display for use in office)

or could I ditch the mac mini and run server from one of the iMacs ?

any thoughts ?

 

[blevins321]

That sounds like a pretty good setup. I would upgrade the RAM in all 3 machines though. I've noticed FileMaker can be somewhat of a hog with it. You can save some money by upgrading it yourself (very simple to do - see iFixit) and buying it from Newegg. If it'll just be for office work, there's not really a need to splurge on an Apple display. Any brand will do. I've had great luck with Dell.

You might as well just run the FileMaker server on an iMac especially if it'll be running all day anyway. Definitely invest in a couple USB drives for Time Machine backups. They're cheap for massive sizes these days - 2TB for under $100.

 

[DNA2907]

Thanks for the reply.

If I have one of the 2 iMacs running as a server can is still work fine as a workstation ?

 

[cmassage]

I doubt that you need OS X Server (Mac Mini Server) which is complex to set up and run.

I would run Peer-to-Peer networking with the iMacs. Then get an external monitor for the MBP for your 3rd, part time employee.

 

[blevins321]

Thanks for the reply.

If I have one of the 2 iMacs running as a server can is still work fine as a workstation ?

Yeah, it'll work fine. Here are the instructions. Depending on how much data will be involved, you might consider a NAS as a central storage location for all the Time Machine backups, the database, etc...

Try Synology. Their 2-bay model can utilize drive redundancy, so if one drive inside dies, the data will still be safe. You can do Time Machine with this drive too for all of the computers on the network.

 

[NsK]

im in the same boat as you, but I am wondering if Filemaker is the way to go for inventory system. I have looked at Lightspeed, Hotsale and checkout but they are pretty expensive.