Development system requirements

I have just taken the reigns from my associate on coding or new site, which will consist of a php-NUKE based blog (HTML) and e-journal (pdf), a phpBB BBS (HTML, of course), and a chatroom we haven't thought much about yet. Later, we'll be adding some special tools and other enhancements, as well as some auxillery databases. the DB software is MySQL

I'm just starting on the coding today. and I'm coming at it cold, being am embedded processor engineer by trade, who's only done the most basic HTML coding.

Before I get to far into this, I need some assurance that my old clunker wil handle the development task. I have a P! 166 w/80meg RAM and 3.2gb HDD, of which only about 1gb is available, in the old AT format box. There's a 4MB SiS 6326 video controller, a TMC1211 eithernet board to a DSL modem, and a 56K Ambient HaM telephone modem occupying the 3 PCI slots, with nothing in the ISA slots. I'm running 98SE with MS networking support plus a Wind River WinPoET for the broadband. I also have Office97pro and all the usual downloads, like WinZip, WS_FTPpro, Opera, Diskeeper 8pro, etc.

The system is quite slow. Flash and Media Player apps come out in super-slow motion. But I'm mostly concerned about disc space. Can I download a whole development system, including manuals, grafics libaries, etc. and still have space to compile and run tests locally, before uploading to the server.

I can't see all the files taking more than 1GB - as at the end of the day they are only HTML files and TEXT based files.

Would you have room to put another Hard Drive in if needed?

It seems ok, considering the small amount of server space mostt sites require, and the small downloads I've seen thusfar. However, that's only runtime packages and zip files - who knows how large they'll be when unpacked? And I haven't even seen any graphics libs yet.

As a matter of fact, what I've been working on here has a 3.2 gigger in the primary master slot, and a 1.2 gigger (the next largest disk I own) in the secondary master slot, on which I have a slightly stripped, but still internet ready, 98SE installation, Word and Outlook, and (planned) some other diagnostic tools. The primary slave is the CD. On the secondary slave, I was going to put a 540 megger with all the distribution for 98SE, Office 97pro, as well as the various downloads I use.

The 1.2 was (and still is, actually) a back-up system disk, to keep me in business, and make diagnosis/recovery easier, should the 3.2 crash. The 540 was supposed to be for an "install from HDD" set-up. However, my old system won't recognize anything but A: (the floppy), or C: as the system drive. So I have to physically swap plugs and change the BIOS settings if I need to run off the 1.2. As well, I have yet to find someone who's done a Win98 install from HDD deal; and I don't know if it's worth my time.

So, technically, I do have room for another drive. What I don't have is money for another drive. And, with HDD prices as they are now, if I could afford any drive at all, I could afford one much larger than my current one.

For a site like that you should be able to fit it all in 1 gig pretty easily. Most web graphics are .jpg or .gif, and are usually <1mb, (a few dozen kb is more likely) so you can fit a lot into that space. Whether you'll get so tired of the speed you'll want something else is still undecided (check out some barebones kits: cheap and good for development use, if you want)

I know what you mean with the speed thing. Running "format /u" doesn't do jack - the counter runs up to 99% and then it says "format terminated". So, I'm wiping the disc just now with EastTech FormatSecure. It's writing a pass of 1s and then a pass or 0s. And it is slower than ScanDisk; it says 19% right now, after at least 20 minutes. I don't know if 100% is both passes, or just 1, but I could be here all night.