The Altos R300 from Acer is a very compact server. The server did not ship with any operating system installed. However it did come with a handy utility called Acer EasyBuild v5.3 which contained management software as well as installation wizards and device drivers. We decided to install Microsoft Windows 2000 Server on the Acer and this was completed with the minimum of fuss.
The server houses two 3.5in IDE drive units which are connected via a Promise TX2 RAID card, thereby giving the administrator security in the knowledge that they would be able to configure the system to hardware mirror the data being stored on the drive unit. The power supply is a single unit with no redundancy and rated at 203 watts.
Internally the expansion is understandably limited, the Promise RAID controller occupies one PCI slot while there is one spare PCI-X slot, however this is only one of the smaller half-height types and the length is also very restricted. Underneath the lid â€" when it is removed â€" is a handy quick reference guide. There are three small but very noisy fans drawing air through ducting across the CPU heatsink and out through the rear. This machine would have to be the noisiest out of all four servers in this review; the sound of 40 of these servers in a rack would be quite overwhelming. But it is far better to be noisy and cool than quiet and overheating. And fitting this much punch into such a small space must have its compromises.
Overall this is a very neat and relatively powerful server. Definitely on the small side which depending on your requirements may be perfect, providing additions such as other cards and tape backup units will not be needed. The overall design and build quality is excellent, certainly in the top 10 percent of the servers we have seen in the recent past.
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| Product | Acer Altos R300 |
| Price | AU$2499 |
| Vendor | Acer |
| Phone | 02 8762 3000 |
| Web | www.acer.com.au |
| Interoperability |  ½ |
| Very good OS support: MS, Linux, Unix, and Novell. Good range of ports. | |
| Futureproofing |  |
| Very limited expansion capabilities. | |
| ROI |  |
| Excellent price for a utility server, particularly considering the performance. | |
| Service |  ½ |
| Three-year onsite next-day warranty included. Quicker response times available. | |
| Rating |  |
