There's no such thing as an average server, but for just about all your everyday computing needs one of these Intel Xeon-based servers is likely to do the trick.
A month ago we published a review on high-end servers. In that review we looked at an Ipex quad Itanium II based server, a quad AMD 846 Opteron server, a Sun V240 dual UltraSPARC server and a Apple dual G5 Power Mac. Each of these were running different operating systems.
However, Intel has dominated the traditional Microsoft Windows-based server market over recent years with various incarnations of its Xeon processors.
In this review, we take a look at the current crop of Intel Xeon-based servers running different flavours of Microsoft 2003 Server. We invited Dell, Hallmark, HP, and XENON to submit these servers. From the wide range of differing specifications we received, there is sure to be one to suit your target application--from the relatively diminutive 2U rackmount chassis with four processors from HP through to the entry level dual-processor Hallmark pedestal chassis, up to the 4U rackmount XENON power machine with four processors and hot plug PCI-X cards.
Things to look for in a server
- Evaluate your intended application to ensure you are choosing the right scale/level of server for your company. There is simply no point in going over the top or underspending when rolling out servers.
- Scalability is important if you are intending on expanding your server needs in the coming months/years. So perhaps look for a quad-capable server currently configured with two processors. This will allow you to add two more processors and more memory later instead of replacing the whole machine prematurely.
- For ROI, make a balanced decision between application and costs, ensure that you are getting good return on investment by not tying up all your capital in assets that are not providing quantifiable returns. Keep in mind the previous two points when making this decision.
- Performance vs price. Again the more power for less money means that the server will technically last longer and perform the application better at a cheaper cost than poorer performing more expen-sive machines.
However don't compromise on quality of build/components or service. There is no point buying a machine that is only up 80 percent of the time even if it is only half the cost of a system that is up 99 percent of the time.
Hallmark, Xenon? Why include these two almost unknown brands, yet exclude IBM who is one of the largest x86 server manufacturers?