What hardware is good for Debian servers?

[Enrico Zini <zinie@cs.unibo.it>]

Hello!

I had many problems with Asus, and it was one of the brands people said to be
good.  During my quest to solve many of these problems, I discovered that Asus
is likely to have problems, or just glitches, that make you loose time where
you shouldn't.

Now, since there are many servers to build and configure awaiting for us, I
would like to build some knowledge on what to look for and what to try to
avoid.

So, suppose I ask you to build a fast and reliable Debian server, something
that does file serving with samba, dials internet on demand via diald, spools a
couple of printers, serves faxes via Hylafax, processes e-mail from, to and
within the intranet and performs backups of what's on it.

What brand and type of motherboard, raid controller, CPU, modem and backup
system would you use, to be able to install Debian on it without risking to go
mad after some hardware flaw?

What are good brands of motherboards? Asus? Intel? Soyo? Tyan? MSI? VIA?
Others?  What are the ones to avoid like death?

I'd also would like to find multiprocessor motherboards without expensive (and
Debian unfriendly) Adaptec cards integrated on them, since high end servers are
likely to mount a custom raid controller like the Mylex AcceleRAID and don't
have a need for them.

Is there some internet site where to look for this kind of informations?  I
would like to avoid marketing hype and read about tests and real experiences,
possibly taking Linux and Debian into account.


				Read you soon! Enrico

--
GPG public key available on finger -l zinie@cs.unibo.it