*BSD News Article 58415


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From: Doug Lerner <doug@gol.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: new machine for news - any suggestions?
Date: 8 Jan 1996 04:08:52 GMT
Organization: Global OnLine Japan (+81-3-5330-9385)
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Everything is working well on my FreeBSD machine, but I am afraid of 
overloading it if I add too much news.

Right now the machine is a DX-2 (was a DX-4, but that's a long story) 
with 16MB RAM and a 1GB Quantum Fireball SCSI hard disk.

I am using the machine for:

o SMTP mail
o NNTP for a few dozen newsgroups
o JIS/SHIFT-JIS conversion of all the messages
o uucp to a FirstClass BBS
o RADIUS for a Portmaster (just 8 incoming lines)
o X running just for my maintenance

The hard disk is partitioned into just one 100MB DOS partition and one 
900MB FreeBSD partition.

The FreeBSD partition regularly holds at about 24% full.

I want to start adding lots of newsgroups now, but I think this might 
start becoming too much of a load for this one machine, particularly if 
all 8 Portmaster lines become full and everybody wants to read 
newsgroups. So I was thinking of getting a new FreeBSD machine JUST for 
news.

o What do people think of this?

o What kind of machine is recommended, considering that this is just a 
hobbyist system and we are not rich? 

o How should the new system's HD be partitioned?

o Is it easy to distribute different newsgroups over different 
partitions?

Also, what's the deal with IDE disks? Most of the already-built Pentium-
based machines here in Tokyo come with IDE disks. I heard that they 
should be avoided with FreeBSD (and UNIX in general). What do people 
think? I can't find a single SCSI-based system anymore, unless I put one 
together myself!

In Tokyo, you can get a Hitachi "Flora" Pentium 75MHz machine with an 
internal 540MB IDE hard disk, 16MB of RAM, 4-speed CD-ROM, built-in 
modem, full color monitor, MIDI board, keyboard, mouse and Windows 95, 
Microsoft Word and Excel, etc., all installed for just around $1,500.

Any advice or discussions, particularly inside this newsgroup, would be 
greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Doug Lerner,
Tokyo