If you commissioned a gamer to build you a server then I would imagine that they possibly couldn't come any closer than the technicians at Altech have with the Apollo 64-R. This is certainly a machine that is outside the square when it comes to servers. It is definitely the first server we have seen at the Test Lab which has composite and S-Video TV outputs, surround sound audio output, SPDIF optical audio in and out, a firewire port, and an ultra-bright LED pipe projecting red light out the rear of the machine. And the performance Altech has squeezed from the AMD Athlon 64 processor running Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server is very good, coming in at second place behind the Acer machine in many tests.
The chassis this machine is built around is a very black Antech-designed 4RU chassis of very sturdy construction. The power supply is an Antec 430watt "true power" unit and there is an option for either redundant power supply or a redundant hot spare power supply. Given the 4RU chassis, these options are reasonable and certainly would add to the appeal of this machine if it was to be used as a server.
The Apollo 64-R has 512MB of memory (single Corsair PC3200 module) and two 80GB Seagate Barracuda serial ATA (SATA) drive units. The server is equipped with full height DVD-RW and FDD units. The mainboard has a VIA chipset and is manufactured by A-Bit; it is definitely not a server board or chipset, however it does appear to be of very good quality and construction.
The front of the unit, has plenty of expansion: five spare 5.25in drive bays and two spare 3.5in bays. Two of the 5.25in bays are taken up with the HDD units, but you would be very hard pressed to run out of expansion room in this chassis.
Overall, this is a glorified desktop performance machine built into a rack mount chassis. It would be much better to see the loss of some features such as the audio subsystem and the TV outputs in favour of a secondary 10/100/1000 network interface, and at least one serial port.
PCI-X slots would also be nice particularly in such a large chassis where they could be used. The more useless features incorporated into a machine, the more potential problems/faults can occur. The inclusion of the DVD-RW is a stroke of genius, especially if the machine is to be used as a test bed and needs regular imaging and backups completed. The level of expansion is excellent, most notably for externally accessible devices. Now where have I put those games discs?
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| Product | Altech Apollo 64-R |
| Price | AU$2130 |
| Vendor | Altech |
| Phone | 02 9735 5655 |
| Web | www.altech.com.au |
| Interoperability |  |
| Average OS support. Many ports included but not needed in a server. Missing serial port. | |
| Futureproofing |  ½ |
| Lots of space in the chassis, but mainboard only takes PCI, not PCI-X. The option to add a redundant power supply is also very good. | |
| ROI |  ½ |
| Well priced for performance, pity the mainboard was not more server oriented. | |
| Service |  |
| One-yeaR RTB warranty included is below average, however can be extended to three years onsite for only AU$121. | |
| Rating |  |
