Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Server- Hardware vs OS advantages

Please don't. Your posts and videos have been invaluable.

I remember trying to network a couple Windows for Workgroups machines when I started my practice in the 90s. What a mess! Undoubtedly, doing the same with Windows 7 machines would be a more rewarding and productive endeavor.

I'm in a rural practice (like the original poster), and I've taken the server route (SBSE) for my AC deployment (still in trial). For me, it's the more robust solution. I've built a few desktops from "scratch" in my time, and followed Sandeep's hardware recommendations (see the sticky) for my AC server build. The most difficult thing was installing the Adaptec 6405 RAID controller's driver, but most docs aren't going to build their own server, anyway. And, as Sandeep alluded to, Microsoft has done a great job at simplifying the administration of SBS ("administration" makes it sound scary, but it's simple).

For me, the benefits of running AC on a server outweigh the costs (~$280 more for the operating system, another $1000 or so for the hardware, and a tiny learning curve). But peer-to-peer is certainly a viable option. And AC costs the same either way, which is nice.