Fujitsu Siemens Primergy TX300 S4 review

The ServerView server-management tools have seen significant improvements recently and the TX300 S4 comes with an embedded iRMC controller as standard, which provides remote web browser access even if the server is powered down. The tidy web interface offers good access to the server allowing you to control power functions and view the status of critical components. Fujitsu Siemens now steps inline with HP and IBM, provideing server power-management tools where you can choose between best performance or minimum power settings and schedule them for different times each day.

Just as with HP, you also get power-monitoring facilities, where you can view a bar graph showing current consumption along with peak and maximum power, while a line graph underneath shows a power history. It's worth noting that these power features come as standard whereas HP charges extra. And on the subject of power we found the TX300 to be reasonably green. With both 700W hot-plug supplies installed, our in-line meter registered a modest 233W with Windows Server 2003 R2 idling along and 330W with SiSoft Sandra pounding all eight cores at 100%. When running the same test with the power-management controls set to minimum power, usage never went above 290W.

The TX300 S4 offers a very tasty specification for the price and backs this up with plenty of room to expand. Providing you're not put off by its sheer chassis size, the TX300's high build quality, extremely low noise levels and bundled management tools make this our top pedestal server choice.

Author: Dave Mitchell