HP ProLiant DL560
A very well-engineered compact 2RU rackmount chassis houses the components for the HP server, including four Xeon CPUs--that's right, four Intel Xeons in a 2U chassis. There is a redundant power supply, a RAID controller, but only enough room for two hard disk drive units in the machine, which are accessed by removable bays on the front of the server.
Internally as with all HP/Compaq servers we have seen in the past, the engineering, design and construction is faultless. It is truly the little things that these servers include that set them apart from the others, such as the integrated ILO capability, the 21 internal LED indicators that signal the engineer directly to the component(s) that are not functioning as they should, the HP SmartStart OS assisted support tools CD for server setup, right down to the inclusion of a small nylon bracket with an allen key on the rear panel to aid technicians in removing the power supplies.
There are three PCI-X ports inside this unit with one of them occupied by the RAID card. There are six memory slots available, four of which were occupied by 1GB modules in the server we tested.
The server was shipped to us without any operating system, however with the SmartStart CD we easily installed Windows 2003 Server and then Windows 2000 Advanced Server.
Just about the only possible issue/limitation we could find with this machine was the fact that it only has two drive bays, however in this day and age of direct attached and network attached storage this is probably a moot point.
Overall, this is a very well executed compact powerful server. Perfect for clustering or running those large storage arrays.
| Product | HP Proliant DL560 |
| Price | $17,795 |
| Vendor | HP |
| Phone | 13 13 47 |
| Web | www.hp.com.au |
| Interoperability |  |
| Runs a wide variety of operating systems, but limited space for expansion cards. | |
| Futureproofing |  ½ |
| 2U chassis is perfect for those needing many powerful CPUs in a small area but may not assist those needing expansion capabilities. | |
| ROI |  ½ |
| Very good price for a great performer. | |
| Service |  |
| 3-year parts and labour warranty. | |
| Rating |  ½ |
Hallmark, Xenon? Why include these two almost unknown brands, yet exclude IBM who is one of the largest x86 server manufacturers?