Fujitsu Primergy TX120 S2 review

Fujitsu's latest entry-level server is aimed mainly at small businesses that are short on space and don't see any benefits in the latest Xeon equipped systems. The TX120 S2 also targets specific environments that value their peace and quiet, such as public libraries.

It's a compact little box that sits vertically with the supplied stands. Access security is good as the flip down front panel can be key locked to block access to all front ports, the disk bays, power switch and the extra expansion bay. This also stops the chassis cover being removed.

It may be a baby server, but it packs a punch in a number of departments. It supports low cost, low power Core 2 Duo processors with the review system supplied with a 2.53GHz T9400 module. This has a modest TDP of 35W but you can go even lower as Fujitsu offers a 2.26GHz P8400 that pulls only 25W.

Storage options are good. The base server has two SFF hot-swap bays at the front, next door to an optical drive, plus a dual-function expansion bay alongside. Local backup operations are a possibility as our server had a Tandberg RDX QuikStor drive, but you can go for a half-height USB DAT drive instead.

Alternatively, you can dispense with local backup and use the spare space to fit an extra hot-swap cage with room for two more SFF drives. The motherboard's embedded six-port SATA controller has a four-port connector so all drives can be linked to this where it offers support for mirrors and stripes.

We had the optional LSI PCI Express RAID card fitted, which adds support for SAS drives. Its internal connector is wired to the drives individually using a break out cable and it will do dual-drive redundant RAID6 arrays as well as RAID5.

There's a lot to cram into the chassis and with the cover off it looks cramped inside, but Fujitsu's canny design affords good access. The processor is mounted at the front of the board and has a cooling fan right in front of it.

A small plastic shroud also directs air over the four DIMM sockets, which can be flipped back for access. The processor is mounted by a small passive heatsink and isn't embedded so you can remove it for upgrades. A second cooling fan is placed between the drive bays and power supply, but they're virtually silent.