For the Supermciro X7SPE-HF-D525 pfSense appliance I discussed in the linked post I of course wanted a chassis for my appliance and decided to purchase the CSE-502L-200B for just under $70 (see ebay and NewEgg). Oftentimes one does not need a massive chassis for a server. Frankly, with all of the mITX and mATX form factor boards out there,...
I just wanted to update everyone on the Supermicro X7SPA-HF-D525 and X7SPE-HF-D525 review that was posted earlier as I have had a bit more time running the unit, especially as a pfsense appliance. Areas that will be looked at here are a higher-than-spec memory limit (4GB is not the max!), power consumption, and a word about IPMI 2.0 connectivity....
One thing I have been looking at for a long time has been doing formal “awards” or best-buy ratings on things I review. What a lot of even regular readers do not know is that I probably only post reviews of about 1/3 of the product I look at. Frankly, if I would rate something as an overpriced 2...
The Supermicro X7SPA-HF-D525 and Supermicro X7SPE-HF-D525 boards reviewed today are somewhat unique, and let's face it; fairly expensive Intel Atom based boards. Both boards are centered around an Intel Atom D525 dual core 1.8GHz chip that can handle up to four threads through Hyper-Threading. While an Atom D525 is a fairly standard part, especially when it comes to low power...
One of the most popular SAS 6.0gbps/ SATA III controllers for enthusiasts is the IBM M1015. In its native form, it is a very capable host bus adapter (HBA) based on the LSI SAS2008 chip. With the low price on places such as ebay (see here for an ebay search for the M1015) and an enthusiastic community that has...
I have a fairly strong opinion that Intel's LGA1155 platform has a stronger set of single processor server motherboards than AMD. I actually hope the new Socket AM3+ based Opteron 3000 series will change this in the near future, but until then at the low end, Intel has the better overall platform (integrated Intel NICs supported out-of-the-box by ESXi,...
I arrived to work on the third day of 2012 only to find that half of the people in this vast room with seemingly well over 150 employees and contractors had managed to catch some sort of cold, flu or other reason to keep the coffers of Vick's and Robitussin filled to the brim. It occurred to me that...
One of the most popular SAS 6.0gbps/ SATA III controllers for enthusiasts is the IBM M1015. In its native form, it is a very capable host bus adapter (HBA) based on the LSI SAS2008 chip. With the low price on places such as ebay (see here for an ebay search for the M1015) and an enthusiastic community that has...
One of the most popular SAS 6.0gbps/ SATA III controllers for enthusiasts is the IBM M1015. In its native form, it is a very capable host bus adapter (HBA) based on the LSI SAS2008 chip. With the low price on places such as ebay (see here for an ebay search for the M1015) and an enthusiastic community that has...
Seagate followed, and in many ways out-did Western Digital in slashing warranties, even on their nearline storage disks. This shouldn't be a surprise since Western Digital cut its warranties last week and STH noted it is likely Seagate would follow suit.
Constellation 2 and ES.2 drives: 3 years (from 5)
Momentus, Barracuda and Barracuda Green drives: 1 year (from 5)
Barracuda XT...