Supermicro SC846 E1-R900B

Advantages: Cheap, reliable, functional.
Disadvantages: Heavy. Takes a long time to start.

...Memory slots (8 in total) to take up to 8 GB of RAM Memory. Right, performance..... In the time we have had our servers (2 years) we have never had a hardware failure. This says to me that they are very reliable. In that time, I would say they have been on for 99.5% of the time (barring downtime for upgrades). This says that Supermicro have built a very robust and reliable server. We have also not suffered from any device conflicts relating to the server itself. My only concern is that it does take a long time to start up. I know this is partly configuration of the software but I have also been told it could b e related to the server architecture. Set up? Very straight forward. It comes mostly assembled from the manufacturer and the instructions for configuring the equipment are very thorough. They also have a great technical support... Read review

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Advantages: Great case, lots of space, room for expansion
Disadvantages: customer service, sharp edges.

...Supermicro are not someone you are going to come across at pc world. In fact, unless you are into building your hardware, its unlikely you have heard of them. While their product is faultless in reliability and quality, i would highly recommend going elsewhere for the average "joe bloggs" pc tinker person. We will get onto that later. firstly, lets review this case. With the advent of our new bespoke software system being built, i need to put together some high quality servers at an affordable price while maintaining the professional consistency present in our other hardware. So, rather than buy something off the shelf like a dell or compaq, im building them in house. before you go to the trouble of finding all of the bits that go into the server, lets get a nice big case with plenty of space, easily maintainable... Read review

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Advantages: i820 Chipset that is stable, can force 133Mz FSB
Disadvantages: None that I can think of !

...Lots has been said about the Intel i820 chipset not working well on SDRam based motherboards but I personally have had absolutely no problems since I bought my PIIISCD back in April. I initially chose the PIIISCD as I was looking for an i820 based board that allowed both 100 & 133 Mhz FSB and was not disappointed when my board arrived from Dabs. Setup was extremely easy and quick and within no time my PIII 550E based machine was up & running. Supermicro are not known for their ability to overclock well but as things had been so simple I thought 'what the hell - I'll force the 133FSB & see what happens'. To my amazement the PC booted straight up with the processor running at 733Mhz & after a bit of tweaking (adding an extra fan to keep the temp below 40 degrees) my PC really was fireing on all cylinders. I would definitely... Read review

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