For the system configuration take a look to: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap#Servers
Yes, that's where I looked at - but I'm no hardware man, so..
For tools are now also alternative servers from Fossgis online,
I know that there are somewhere servers to play with (osm also has dev servers), but there is no known procedure to get an account on them. Furthermore there already is a bunch of cool guys having a toolserver account and it's not likely that they're going to apply for another dev-server, just to play a little with the osm data.
so we should concentrate to the main target to bring the maps fast into Wikipedia.
Yes, we should. But we should also not ignore the possible uses of cassini.
So it is perhaps simpler to replace the 4 HDs be bigger ones, add ones or do something else. I hope our hardware experts like Mark Bergsma have an idea.
First we should decide if we need sth. of the parts of ptolemy and if not, Marcin can continue his work. Next we can decide what our plans are with cassini.
Peter