VA Technologies CentriX-200

Comparing the CentriX-200 with the ranks of Xeon rack servers shows this Opteron solution holds its own in terms of build quality, although this particular example falls down with its lack of integrated management features and the question mark hanging over the Promise Serial ATA controller. When stacked up against a dual 3.06GHz Xeon Systemax Mission 7702 server, the Opteron delivered a competitive performance. Using SPEC's CPU2000 benchmark, the VA achieved a SPECint_base2000 of 790, while the Systemax managed 792. At least with regards to the integer-based work tested by the SPEC benchmark, the Opteron 242 can clearly hold its own against the current pinnacle of Xeon server CPU achievement.

As we observed with the Armari RM-O60-1MS, AMD's Opteron has the measure of Intel's Xeon for rack-server applications and looks a worthy alternative. However, the Centrix-200 and its Rioworks motherboard don't deliver the full set of features we've come to expect in a high-performance rack-mount server.

Author: Dave Mitchell