Product Reviews

Over the past couple of years we've watched NEC's family of server products maturing and improving rapidly - not just in terms of build quality but also in specification and value. Although mainly concerned with SMEs, NEC did make a bold move last year into the larger enterprise market with the unique Express5800/320La-R fault tolerant server. The company is pushing further into this territory with the Express5800/140Hd. With quad-Xeon MP processors on the menu, the machine is aimed at applications such as supporting large databases, online transaction processing and running mission-critical applications.

Rather than build its own system, NEC has opted to source all its components from Intel. Consequently, what you have here is an Intel SPSH4 server platform consisting of a complete chassis and SSH4 motherboard. We saw the rack-mount version of this package in the shape of the Xinit Systems SharqServ 440 and now we get to see the pedestal alternative, which at first glance does seem slightly better built.

It certainly looks a lot better value too, as although the processors are slower than those supplied in the SharqServ, the 140Hd costs less than half as much and also manages to squeeze in a decent RAID controller. The lockable plastic front door feels flimsy but behind this you'll find plenty of room for storage expansion with a five-bay hot-swap cage and room for a second cage below. The reason for this doubling of storage space over the rack-mount version is that the trio of hot-swap power supplies in the 140Hd are all located at the rear rather than taking up the remaining space at the front. Once again, the 140Hd looks better value as you get all three power supplies includedÊinÊthe price.

For server management NEC has supplanted Intel's Server Management suite of utilities with its own ESMPRO tools. Installation blues are eased considerably by NEC's Express Builder utility, which is supplied on a bootable CD-ROM. Its simple menu system offers plenty of help in configuring the server and loading your chosen OS. ESMPRO looks a better bet than Intel's management software as it runs a routine that automatically scans the network and builds a map of all discovered devices with different coloured icons showing

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those servers running the ESMPRO agent. These can be remotely managed and selecting one allows you to remotely shut it down and wake it up, browse a detailed hardware inventory and view performance graphs of selected components. For the latter you can add thresholds which, if breached, will post a message in an Alert Viewer utility. Plenty of notification options are available, too. The Alert Manager tool can warn you via email, network broadcast, pager, printer, SNMP trap or even by creating a file or running a program.

NEC scores highly with its remote web access. This component provides a slick browser interface, which can access the hardware inventory, provide details of voltages, temperatures and fan speeds from the onboard sensors and allow server power to be remotely controlled. The same interface also provides direct access to the event viewer tools. There's even more as NEC's MWA can remotely control the server via its COM2 port irrespective of its state, and the RAID controller comes with a useful Power Console Plus management utility.

Physically, the 140Hd is an imposing brute that's very solidly constructed. Releasing two thumbscrews allows the rear part of the side panel to be removed; behind this you'll find a well-designed and accessible interior. The motherboard is actually an amalgamation of three components, with the processors and memory located on their own daughterboards. The memory board is easily removable and offers 12 DIMM sockets, while the ServerWorks GCHE chipset supports up to 24GB of PC2100 memory. Leave the processor board alone if possible: although it's simple to remove, it can be difficult to get back in. There's plenty of room to expand as up above are eight PCI slots with four 64-bit/100MHz ones offering hot-plug capabilities.

Standard storage duties are handled by the embedded Adaptec Ultra320 SCSI chipset, but NEC has improved this with an LSI MegaRAID PCI controller card nestling in one of the 100MHz slots and equipped with 128MB of cache memory. You get decent storage for your money, as the 140Hd comes supplied with a pair of 36.7GB, 15K Seagate Cheetah drives configured in a mirrored array. As with the rack variant, cooling is extremely well catered for with a bank of six fans located behind the drive bays. These are accessed from the front section of the side panel and, although Intel still insists on using cheap foam supports, the fans are easily replaced and also remarkably quiet.

Overall, Intel's Xeon MP server platforms impress thanks to a fine combination of expansion potential and fault tolerance, although build quality feels better on this pedestal version. NEC has taken a solid product, added a good management and monitoring bundle that's superior to Intel's software and brought it in at a price that competes strongly with Dell.