Dell PowerEdge 830

The system came supplied with a 3GHz Pentium D processor topped off with a mighty passive heatsink, while the memory contingent was made up of a pair of fast 512MB PC2-4200 modules. There's room to expand, as the motherboard supports up to 8GB of memory and also comes with plenty of expansion slots. This system is the SATA variant and the base server provides four basic embedded SATA ports, but RAID comes into the equation as the price includes Dell's CERC 1.5 six-channel controller card. This is an Adaptec-manufactured card equipped with 64MB of embedded cache memory and it supports all the usual RAID options.

The storage picture looks even better, as you have a trio of 74GB Maxtor SATA/150 drives included and pre-configured as a RAID5 fault-tolerant array. These are mounted in an easily removable disk cage with room for a fourth drive. Usefully, Dell has wired in the extra SATA and power cables ready to receive the extra drive. A large plastic shroud directs air through the front panel, over the hard disks and on to the processor heatsink, with a single 12cm fan at the rear looking after cooling. The 830 therefore looks a far better candidate for a small office than Supermicro's 733i pedestal chassis, as once the variable speed fan has settled down we found noise levels were very low.

The PowerEdge 830 impresses on a number of counts and offers a good hardware specification for the price. There's plenty of power under the bonnet, making this a good investment. But the remote management features really make this server stand out, as does Dell's excellent Gold support package included in the price.

Author: Dave Mitchell