Advantages: Very low cost
Disadvantages: No potential

...of the coin, if you are just starting up a new business, need somewhere to store your newly created spreadsheets and powerpoint documents and cost is an issue, where better than £500 worth of IBM server in the corner of your garage? It's always going to beat the £300 super clone server your mate can build you because he'll probably be on holiday in Benidorm when it all falls over just before tomorrows big meeting. IBM on the other hand won't be. Sorry if your new business is building super clone servers for new businesses but that's just how I see it. Oh and for an extra £150 take a look at the HP ML150G2 as it has a Xeon processor or if you can stretch to an extra £1000 buy a mirrored IBM X226 (See my X226 review)... Read review

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Advantages: fast
Disadvantages: hard to think of one

...This intel dual core processor with 2.4Ghz speed (total speed of 4.8Ghz) with a 2MB Cache can handle an awful lot of demanding programs runnning at once and for the amazingly low price its a very good processor. This processor is also compatable with 64 bit computing. It has an LGA775 Socket which is compatable with most motherboards (up to you to check these things) if you are looking to upgrade or build your own pc. If you are looking to buy a processor i would highly recommend this one or several similar ones, but you need to have IT experience and know what you are doing before paying out for one of these. It comes with a 3 year limited warrenty so it is really set to last.... Read review

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Advantages: Established, good value, stable, large L2 cache
Disadvantages: Not the cheapest nor the best performing

...This processor, based on the highly successful Pentium III core is well established in servers - the large (up to 2mb) L2 cache allows good server performance for multiple users. It can be used in dual or quad array, and currently is available in speeds of up to 800mhz. New competitors in the field, including P4 Xeon and AMD MP Athlon 'Palomino' may be ahead in terms of performance, but currently P4 Xeons cost the earth, and P4 is doubted to be much better performers than PIII anyway. The AMDs are currently unreleased to the market, therefore leaving the PIII to take up the slack in small server markets. Its core enhances over the PII Xeon make it a more viable option, and price drops to keep the PIII competitive with AMD and P4 make it economically sensible. The PIII's stability (key feature for a server) plays an important role... Read review

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Advantages: 4 cores, great performance, future proof
Disadvantages: may require bios update, high power consumption

...Based on the same quad core architecture as Core2 Extreme QX6700 but with lower speed, with 4 cores this processor is really recommended especially for multitasking,multimedia encoding applications, but in generally is good at everything. The speed. The processor speed depend especially of the aplications used, in some is slower than a dual core processor but in four cores optimized applications this processor rocks. Ease of installation: A little difficult because of the socket 775, require the main board to be removed from the case, check the cooler to click with all 4 connectors. Stability: As all Intel processor is great but I recommend using a good 3'rd party cooler Power consuming. This processor uses 120w max, recommend a 500w power source. Other:check the main board/bios if support quad processor before installing, you may... Read review

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Advantages: power,redundancy,expandibility
Disadvantages: Price

...The configuration I use is : 2x Xeon 3.6GHz/800MHz (1MB L2 Cache), 4x 512MB ECC 133MHz SDRAM,48x-20x IDE CD-ROM drive, Dual Broadcom 5721 Gigabit Ethernet, ATI Radeon 7000M, IBM 5U x 24in Tower To Rack Conversion Kit ,5x146.4 GB 10 000 rpm Ultra320 80-pin hard drive,Serveraid 7k SCSI raid card, Remote supervisor Adapter II card. Operating System provided by IBM as well ( part number 90P0221) Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Standard Edition. Packaging and manuals: Server is very well packaged,rack conversion comes with explanation for conversion, but the whole conversion is not intuitive at all.Picture provided in installation instructions not very helpful. Bit and pieces included in the packages ,as keyboard and mouse for Server.IBM Director and Serveraid manager CD, plus OS CDin the box, OS pre-installed. Set-Up. Set up is quite easy... Read review

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Advantages: 4 cores
Disadvantages: none

...Excellent Processor, the usual simple to install and the stock fan does its job well. Very overclockable and can easily reach speeds of 3.0ghz without having to change the cooler. The fact this this processor is quad core is fabulous i upgraded from a dual core processor and noticed the difference straight away. Multi tasking is now a joy not a chore, a certainly if you use any sort of processor intensive applications you would find it a real boon. My render times in 3dStudio Max and Cinema4D have reduced drastically and enabled me to work much faster and happier. Gaming of which i do a lot has also noticed some improvements and will only get better as more and more people begin to use the new multicore CPUs. Also now with the recent announcement from intel that 6 core cpus are just around the corner the price of quad core chips... Read review

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Advantages: Small, lightweight, cheap
Disadvantages: Not very powerful

...We use three of these little servers in our environment. They don't take up much space, and can be used for basic tasks such as hosting websites, domain controllers and as virtual servers in test environments. The hardware is capable, if not very exciting. The dual core Xeon is the high point of the machine, providing decent performance for low end tasks. 1GB of DDR2 is just enough to get by these days, but the roles mentioned above don't require anything special. The servers we use all have the SATA option with mirrored RAID arrays. For the price, the performance is unbeatable. One downside of going for these servers rather than for one it's big brothers is that you cannot use HPs incredibly useful SmartStart software to pre-setup the machines for deployment. As these servers use SATA, Windows XP, 2000 server and 2003 server have... Read review

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Advantages: Quick, runs cool, easy to overclock
Disadvantages: None

...version, simply because it is far better at overclocking and you will be able to get greater speeds with the CPU being stable. Straight out of the box the CPU runs cooler than I expected anyway, which makes it able to reach clocks up to about 3.4GHz, which is very impressive. For the price you can't get any better. If you're thinking about buying a faster dual core processor like the E6750 or E6850, DON'T! More cores is the way technology is advancing, and although the dual cores may seem faster, these quad cores are far better, can over clock more and will last you longer in the long run as more and more programs begin to use four cores. This is an absolute bargain for what you get, and is simply the best processor you can get in terms of bang for your buck... Read review

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Advantages: small, easily upgraded with standard hardware
Disadvantages: should be dual proc

...I have the Econel 50 and unlike some of the more comon server platforms it offers quite a bit in terms of upgrade-ability. It is a little tight in there if you're adding more drives (3.5 &* 5.25) so I recommend keeping your cable management tight. It's a reliable build on the Intel Chipset and I've yet to see a BSOD! The Motherboard build is of expected server high quality and there is no sign of popping electrolytic capacitors around the CPU; there is ample cooling as the PSU doubles as the cooling (snug exhaust fit) over the large CPU heatsink. The installation tools that come on the setup CDs provide a pre-installation environment based upon a flavor of Linux and allows you to install Win 2K up to 2K3 Enterprise. Ideal for a budget server, not designed to be mission critical, would be great as a DUAL CPU or DUAL core as struggles... Read review

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Advantages: Good for vista, fast for every day needs
Disadvantages: Not as overclockable as core 2 duos

...that with this CPU and 1.5gb, you would deffinatly benefit from upgrading to vista from xp (just like i did). Even though 2 gb is recomended, i found this setup more than enough. One thing worth mentioning, this is one of the better overclockers out of thedual core range offered by amd, iv hit 2.7 ghz which performs like a 5200+!!! This cpu would sit comfortably in any system at 2.4ghz with slight increase in voltage though. The perfect ingredients for a budget vista setup would include this cpu as vista makes use of dual core for the operating system itself, 1.5gb of ram, although 2gb is fairly cheap now so you might as well go for that, and any graphics card that goes for £50 pounds. To summarise, this is a good upgrade path for anyone with an am2 socket motherboard with an Athlon 64 cpu. if you can manage to sell your existing cpu, with the money... Read review

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