Question for IT folks

[Bob Thomas]

I got a question for anyone that may know anything about servers.

I have to puchase a new server for work. The company that manages our Data Management System suggested we get at least a 30 gb hard drive, 2 gig RAM and misc. items. They also suggested we get a pentium 4 processor.

Since I have never purchased a server before and have little knowledge, does anyone have any suggestions on where to get a good server with these attributes? I contacted Dell and Gateway. So far, gateway seems to have the better deal but they use the Xeon processor. What's the difference between the Pentium 4 and the Xeon?

Any do's or don'ts when buying these things?

Thanks for the help