The power of one chip

By J.B. MilesSpecial to GCNWhen you talk about entry-level and midrange servers these days, you're often talking about multiprocessor Pentium machines running Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000. But there are cases in which single-processor Pentium III servers might be best.Scalability is key to server performance and is a big part of the appeal of multiprocessor systems. By adding more processors, memory, hard drives and storage subsystems it's fairly easy to build extra performance into multiprocessor systems. But you also can significantly boost the performance of unichip servers without adding an extra processor or two.For this guide, I scoured vendor Web sites and online sales outlets for single-processor servers with 500-MHz or faster Pentium III CPUs, plenty of expandable RAM, one or more high-performance SCSI hard drives and a good combination of 32-bit and 64-bit PCI expansion slots. I excluded any server from this roundup if its manufacturer wouldn't specify exactly how much a base server configuration'processor, RAM, hard drives and expansion slots'would cost.I loved what I saw. A year ago, I wouldn't have believed that I could buy a Pentium III server with a 500-MHz to 800-MHz processor, 128M or more of RAM, a 9.1G or 18.2G hard drive and a good assortment of expansion slots for less than $2,500. But most of the servers listed meet these criteria.Six of them'Axis Systems' Metropolis GX9-S, Ion Computer Systems Inc.'s ISP1100, Micron Electronics Inc.'s NetFrame 2100, Royal Computer Inc.'s PowerServer 7080, Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.'s M500D and XTechnology Inc.'s XS2-550P3S'are priced less than $2,000.In fairness to the companies listed in this guide, every manufacturer sets different standards for what it considers to be the base models of its various server families. This makes a direct comparison of price and features difficult.By adding another 64M memory chip, Boldata Technologies Inc.'s $1,409 CSS 1650S with 128M of RAM would still represent an excellent buy. Even if their base models included 128M of RAM and 18.2G hard drives, Compaq's ProLiant ML330, IBM's Netfinity 1000 and NEC America Inc.'s Express5800 LS2400 would still be priced competitively.Among servers listed at or near the $3,000 mark, chances are good that they came standard with extra hard drives, a RAID controller, pre-loaded NT or Win 2000, and other niceties that are not bundled with the lower-priced models listed.So if you check manufacturer specifications carefully, any one of the servers listed in the accompanying table could make your 'A' list, depending on your criteria. Here's what you will get if you buy one of them: All the servers listed include 500-MHz to 800-MHz standard (non-Xeon) Pentium III processors with 512K of Level 2 cache. The Pentium III has been through enough versions to be considered a highly dependable performer, and it is available at a lower price than the 550-MHz or 700-MHz Xeon.Upgrading to a faster Pentium III shouldn't be a problem once higher-speed versions become available, but who can seriously quibble with an 800-MHz processing speed in a workgroup server? All the servers in this roundup come with a minimum 64M of synchronous dynamic RAM, expandable to 1G or more. For entry-level performance, 128M of RAM usually is sufficient, but you can easily upgrade to 256M, 512M or more as your requirements dictate. SCSI hard-drive technology has evolved rapidly enough to keep pace with the demands of fast and powerful processors and memory-intensive applications. The 80-Mbps Wide Ultra2 SCSI and Ultra2 LVD SCSI are the most popular formats currently used in Pentium III servers, but the newer and faster 160-Mbps Ultra160 format is beginning to make inroads, even in lower-cost servers. Hard drives of 9.1G and 18.2G running at 7,200 rpm are currently the most popular choices.Base server models generally are priced with one hard drive, but some come with more drives as an incentive to buyers.All other things being equal, U-Tron's ProEXC.PH2, with a 600-MHz Pentium III, 256M of SDRAM and two 20G Wide Ultra2 SCSI drives represents a fairly good buy at $2,250. Typical servers in this category offer at least five drive bays, some or all of which may be hot-swappable. Look for a good assortment of dedicated 64-bit and 32-bit PCI slots among the devices listed. Most also come with a 16-bit ISA slot or a combination PCI/ISA slot for legacy 16-bit devices. All but one or two of the servers come in tower or pedestal configurations. As you would expect, a full tower configuration offers the most bay and expansion slot options; a midsize or minitower case design will have fewer. Network interface cards, also known as NICs or network adapters, are installed in servers to make network connections. The most popular are 10/100-Mbps Ethernet cards. Most of the servers in this roundup don't come with network adapters, but they can easily be purchased for $100 or less. Redundant array of independent disks storage technology, by which two or more hard drives are combined into one logical drive to increase data security, isn't usually a feature of entry-level servers, but it can be. It requires the purchase of a hardware RAID controller and extra hard drives, and will add to the price of your system. In lieu of this, many low-end server users depend on software mirroring, which enables data that is recorded on one hard drive to be mirrored on another. Tape backup usually is an optional feature among enterprise servers, but it is a good idea even for small servers. Tape backup systems are inherently expandable, but keep in mind that their capacities should exceed the total capacity of all the disk drives in your server.Unichip servers lack some of the security features generally available in enterprise servers, such as RAID, disk hot-swapping, dual failover, hot-plug PCI slots, temperature sensing and redundant components.A tape backup system could help prevent a disastrous data loss. Dozens of very scalable tape backup systems are available. An uninterruptible power supply doesn't come with any of the servers listed. My unequivocal advice in this regard can be summed up in eight words: Get one now. Don't go home without one.XXXSPLITXXX-