Fujitsu MX130 S1 and Windows 2008, the SMB platform of choice

I’ve been running Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Foundation on Bernard, our Fujitsu MX130 and I have to say it’s been a pleasant experience so far, Windows 2008 out of the box is very easy to use, the automated installation which is adapted for our server as it’s the reseller kit was very good, and it runs smoothly.

So what’s the spec?

• 4GB RAM (probably more than you need for Windows 2008 as a file server)
• DVD drive was fitted as standard, we just had to add a hard drive, so we ordered a 1TB drive from amazon

So how is it setup ?

Simple, we installed Windows 2008 R2 Foundation Server, joined it to our network and it’s now a mini file server on demand, linked to our Mac (where I do my main work) and our HP MicroServer (Marjorie).

So what would my first server cost if using the Fujitsu offering:

• Fujitsu bundle which included 2GB RAM and an internal dvd drive – £148
• 4GB memory bundle to make Windows a bit smoother – £35
• 1x 1TB hard drives – standard SATA ones from Amazon – £45 each from Amazon.
• Windows 2008 R2 Foundation – £130
• Acer 19 inch widescreen TFT monitor – £54 – it was the cheapest/most price and function accessible one and I love it.

So total cost for a Fujitsu server for the SMB space, where you want your own offline server would be £412 which is slightly cheaper than the MicroServer, though there are numerous ways to calculate the costs, and this excludes the current cash back offer.

Top likes:

• DVD drive is standard (it’s not in the HP MicroServer – though you could argue that it’s not necessary with USB/network boot)
• There is something quite procedural about the setup, you load Windows, run the driver cd, all very normal.
• Familiar format and quiet – you hardly know it’s on
• Everything is ready out of the box (except the hard drive in the version we bought)
• Windows install (as with the HP MicroServer) which we wrote about here, was about six mouse clicks and then you had to set a password, effortless.
• Deploy as a file server now, when you run out of space, or it’s time to upgrade, make it your ESX test platform or baby NAS with FreeNAS. It could also be re-deployed as a desktop if a separate video card were purchased for Windows 7 – though I’m not sure that’s officially supported.

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