Upgrading Hardware -Worthwhile or Not?

[chrislaf]

Hi all,

 

Looking for some advice here. I am considering a number of upgrades to my Backup Server computer and would like to know whether they are worthwhile or not.

 

 

 

Current configuration:

 

Backup Server

 

Power Computing PowerCenter 150 (PPC 604), 3GB IDE drive, 160MB RAM

 

OS 9.1

 

Retrospect Desktop 5.0.236

 

10BT ethernet

 

1 TR-5 and 1 TR-4 internal tape drives

 

 

 

PowerBook G3 (client)

 

OS 10.2.2, 40GB HD, 256MB RAM

 

AirPort card installed

 

 

 

iBook Graphite (client)

 

OS 9.1, 6GB, 64MB

 

AirPort card installed

 

 

 

AirPort Base (Graphite)

 

 

 

My network is a mix between AirPort (2 laptops) and 10BT ethernet (server). My Backup Server backs up my two clients to tape over the network. I get about 19MB/min. The hard drive on my PowerBook has about 35GB of data and I usually backup up everything.

 

 

 

Now for my questions: I am considering purchasing a Sonnet G3 processor upgrade (probably 400MHz) and was wondering if it will improve my backup speed considerably (over 19MB/min I get with the PPC 604 over my 10BT network)?

 

 

 

I am also considering purchasing an external high capacity firewire drive (120GB) and an internal one (120GB). Is this a good addition to just using tape? Right now I need 6 tapes to backup my PowerBook (3 TR-5 and 3 TR-4's).

 

 

 

I will probably purchase the Hard drives in the next few months, but was really wondering if a processor upgrade card will make much of a difference in terms of speed.

 

 

 

I would also like to keep my upgrade costs practical and down to a minimum if possible.

 

 

 

I welcome suggestions about the variety of strategies I could use.

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

Chris