>SERVER BRAND: DELL
>- any problems with Dell?
>- I don't think I need rack moutable, just a tower is fine
>- are the extended support packages worth the cost?

Rackmount is more expensive but really handy in order to properly set up your entire range of equipement (switch, RPC, router, server).

>CPU: Pentium 4
>- should I get a server capable of having a 2nd processor added?
>- what advantage is there to getting a XEON processor?
>- what is the percent performance boost from adding a 2nd processor?

For Internet server, I will always recommend a dual processor. But, that will increase the cost by much. For dual processor, the standard is now at 2.4. If you go at one processor, you could reach 3 gigaherts. For high traffic, at least 4 transactions per second, yes, dual will do it. Going single, latency will occur.

>RAM: 1 gig
>- any reason to get more?

I've been told the new standard for all servers is at 2 gig ram. This is what I just purchased. RAM makes a good difference. So, the more you have the better it will be.

>DRIVES: 2 (or 3), 30 GIGs in RAID
>- what practical advantage is RAID5 (3 disks) over RAID1 (2 disks)
>- what is the extra cost for hot swappable? Is this worth the cost?

RAID solution is always an amazing technology. We had a failure last year and no one ever saw it. The alarm went in, we hot swapped the drive, synchronized the new one and bingo. Since two years, I've been with RAID with 5 disks. We're now at 10 as for rackmount servers, that seems to be a standard as well.

About hot swap, the fans, triple, are also hot swap. This is amazing.

>INTERFACE (mouse, keyboard, monitor)
>- do people find it is a pain in the neck to dispense with these.
>- Is PCAnywhere fine for remote console access?

We dropped PCA years ago. VPN is the way to go. Much faster, provides a greater security and is now standard.

>UPS
>- I am planning a small UPS that will shut down the server after 5 minutes without power, just to prevent data corruption.

For server, you will usually want something as powerful as 1.4 kilowatts or higher. With single server equipment, you should be able to last 20 minutes minimum.

>Spare Parts:
>- should I keep a spare nic and hard drive for failures?

With RAID solution, put at least 3 drives in it. So, if something happens, you just have everything in place to go through it. You can always buy additional drives just in case later on you would need one and no more on the market would be available.