Well, I spent the good part of two days rebuilding my baby. A Cobalt RaQ4i Rack Server. My first ever rack mount server is still going as strong today as it was when I got it.

I’m having issues with a Scsi drive not spinning up properly on my Compaq DL360 so I rebuilt the RaQ as a backup just in case.

If I could get a hold of another RaQ4i or even a 550 I’d be a very happy girl. Unlike most servers I think the RaQs’ look sexy (yeah ok for a computer) and having customised mine to my preference I like the usability of them.

Ok, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to purchase this off Trade Me when I saw it.

Heck, how often do you get a 1u rack mount server for under $100 that is a reasonable spec machine. Dual processor with a gig of ram.

It’s now running the web sites I have and doing a very good job of it so far. It seems to handle running Fedora reasonably well and the installation was no cause for concern. It sounds a bit like a jet because of the fans in it, so it’s been nick named "The Jet" I would hate to imagine the noise of a rack of these things.

I was watching an IBM xServer which went for $255 but unfortunately it was a little out of the budget at the time.

I was installing Fedora 9 for my dad the other day. He was looking for a test bed server solution and as it was being installed on Mum’s computer I figured Fedora 9 provides a nice desktop solution too.

While I feel Fedora is stable on the most part to provide me a desktop pc I still don’t know if I’d run it as a full time, live server.

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