A computer geek's guide to building a 64-bit server on a budget

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Interesting TechRepublic article :

Technology professionals enjoy building things. We experiment. We’re curious. We’re driven to learn how things work. When it comes down to it, we love designing cool projects.

We’ll happily sacrifice popularity in the process. Author and programmer Paul Graham notes in his essay “Why Nerds Are Unpopular” that there’s something else young thinkers want more:

“…to be smart. Not simply to do well in school, though that counted for something, but to design beautiful rockets, or to write well or to understand how to program computers. In general, to make great things.”

That’s why the hacker magazine 2600 has been publishing for 25 years. It’s also why O’Reilly’s Make magazine, Instructables.com, CNET’s Weekend Projects, and events such as Maker Faire prove so popular.

So imagine my brief epiphany early in the spring when I realized I had a genuine new project on my hands. I needed to install and test Windows Small Business Server 2008, and I needed to do so fast. Two clients had pressing needs to deploy the new OS, but I hadn’t had a chance to first familiarize myself with the new platform. My trusty basement test lab didn’t boast a system capable of running the new 64-bit server platform. My faithful 64-bit black box, whose birth is recorded on this very site, had run its course.

I reviewed my options. I could leverage my business’ Dell purchasing account and have a PowerEdge on site in three days. Or, I could do what any self-respecting geek would do and just build it myself — from scratch — on a weekend when others typically devote quality time to being cool or hip.

It was an easy decision.

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