Last but not least, look at the warranty offered. Will you need immediate service, or will next day suffice? Replacement of failed components, telephone support and onsite technicians all effect the cost of the warranty, so choose your options carefully.
We’ve looked at the specifications of the machines offered from the “big five”, and a general run down of what does what. Let’s talk specifics regarding pros and cons.
Some basics befall all the big players and form a common platform. All use a motherboard based on a ServerWorks chipset. The Compaq, Gateway, HP and IBM list three different names on their sites for the chipset, but some digging around revealed they’re all using the ServerWorks ServerSet III LE. Dell used the next model up, the ServerSet III HE model. All servers use onboard SCSI, LAN and video; this keeps costs down and allows for less clutter in the system. For the price range, all came with Intel Pentium III 933 MHz processors; ServerWorks chipsets only support Intel processors. As well they all came with a 9 GB non swappable OS or base drive and an ATAPI CD-ROM. The days of SCSI only are behind us.
After that they begin to diverge. For that kind of money I expected a hot swap bay to be included; unfortunately only Dell and Gateway complied. With RAM pricing so cheap, I expected to see 512 MB for peanuts; on average an extra 128 MB of RAM costs $120 from these big name companies.
The servers from Compaq and HP represent the lease amount of computer for the money. Both are small tower cases with limited upgrade ability and only 128 MB of RAM. Following on their heels is the IBM machine; a step up, but no leap from the bottom wrung. Second choice falls to Gateway; they use common OEM parts ( an Asus motherboard and CasEdge housing ) and put it all together for a very aggressive price. Top pick for the $3000 SME server goes to Dell with the 2500SC. Hot swap drives and the ServerWorks HE-SL chipset give this machine room to grow. Throw in redundant power supplies and a great case to come up with a solid winner.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
