Broadberry BDS-1020A-T review

General remote management tools are provided by Supermicro's SuperO Doctor III utility, which offers a slick remote web-browser management interface. There's plenty of system information to hand with a complete list of all system components. You can monitor general system health or critical system components. You may also select fan speeds, voltages, processor and chassis temperatures, plus chassis-intrusion items. If any thresholds are exceeded, Doctor can send out warnings via pagers and emails. The utility is able to create reports on the system in CSV format, send out email or pager warnings if errors are detected, and different access permissions may be granted by creating a user list. Basic remote-control facilities are also provided, allowing the server to be shut down, reset or powered off. The RAID card gets in on the management act too, as it's supplied with Adaptec's browser-based Storage Manager utility, which provides good local and remote array administration tools.

As the battle between Intel and AMD starts to get nasty, it's clear the latter's new dual-core Opteron processors are going to be tough to beat. As we observed in our exclusive review of the first dual-core Opteron pedestal server from Armari, while Intel's dual-core Pentium processors are tackling the desktop and entry-level server markets, its dual-core Xeons are unlikely to appear until early 2006. This gives AMD a clear run at the mid-range and enterprise server markets. If the BDS-1020A-T is anything to go by, it really should increase its market share, as this system offers an excellent specification for the price. And, the fact it delivers four physical processors in a 1U chassis won't go unnoticed in markets with a demand for high-density processing.

Author: Dave Mitchell