Dell PowerEdge R210 review

In the drive for greater energy efficiency, the low-profile rack server is proving to be a valuable ally. We've seen an increasing number of these products over the past few months and now Dell wants a piece of the action.

The successor to the PowerEdge R200, the latest R210 entry-level rack server targets SMBs with limited rack space, and claims to have the smallest energy footprint of any PowerEdge server. The most significant feature is that the R210 delivers support for Intel's latest "Lynnfield" Xeon 3400 processors.

There are major changes in chassis depth with the R200 stretching back 21.5in, whereas the R210 reduces this to only 15.5in. The R210 also uses a smaller 250W power supply as opposed to the 345W power supply of the R200.

Most of the front panel acts as a grille to improve airflow, but it also sports Dell's four-pack LED diagnostics display, a pair of USB ports and a DVD drive. The LCD control panel isn't an option for the R210, and if you want the new gun-metal bezel it will cost you an extra £12.

Storage options haven't changed. Both the R200 and R210 support a maximum of two 3.5in SAS or SATA drives. If you want better storage and RAID array choices then check out Broadberry's CyberServe X34-RS100, which supports up to four 2.5in SFF hard disks.

The base system uses the embedded SATA controller, which includes Dell's PERC S100 RAID software solution that can be activated from the BIOS to provide support for mirrors or stripes. There's also the PERC S300 firmware upgrade that brings in support for SAS drives. It adds RAID5, although for the R210 this is largely academic.

An unusual feature for a rack server is the eSATA port snuggling in between the USB and video ports at the rear, which offers some useful external storage expansion options. If you don't want to use it the port can be disabled in the server's BIOS.

Internally, everything is tidy, with easy access provided for both hard disk carriers. The processor is located in the centre of the motherboard and mounted with a solid passive heatsink. Four DIMM sockets sit to one side and support up to 16GB of UDIMM memory.