What makes a good file server?
 

I bought a Playstation 2 with hopes of making it a server, but it's only got 32 MB of ram and I think it would be best suited for a CGI/database server. Now I'm looking for a good fileserver that will send really big files across the network.

How fast does a fileserver have to be? Would it need a slow, yet powerful processor to get the data out the door, or would the processor have to be both fast and powerful?

Thanks.


--- And another thing:

How much ram is enough. Older computers can only hold so much. Is 256 MB enough?

Depends totally on your own situation, but I've recently replaced my mp3/file server.

It used to be a P1 233 / 128MB Ram. Never missed a beat. Average file size was 5 megs, and cranked out music to me and a few other people all day.

Now it's a P3 1G / 256MB Ram. Only reason I upgraded it was playing around with the new Novell Linux stuff wonked about the 128 megs.

For just files, any 5 year old PC should do just fine.

We have a linux file server running with the following config which supports abt 15 users

celeron 500
128 mb ram
100 mbps network


this will give you an idea

Just one IDE hard drive can easily output more than 100 megabit network. Though I go with SCSI for a file server because they have the lowest total (hard drive and controller interface) latency.

A 80386 can easily be used as a file server.