HP MicroServer vs Fujitsu MX130 S1 – which is the best SMB starter server?

After using both the HP MicroServer and the Fujitsu MX130 S1 with Windows 2008 for a few weeks, (I’ve just published the articles) some thoughts then.

The HP MicroServer is very well designed, I have a few hesitations:

• The DVD drive needs to be standard – yes you can get around without it possibly. But I can imagine if I shipped one to dad, the first thing he’d say is where’s the DVD where do I put in my Windows CD? In future you might get away without it, or if you’re network booting it or using ESX it’s not essential, handy nonetheless.
• 1GB RAM isn’t that much these days, we should be looking at 2GB these days.
• Fitting memory isn’t particularly easy due to form factor – but then how often were you planning to do this?
• VGA video – should we be thinking about DVI these days? I had to look around for a vga screen in the office

The Fujitsu is equally well designed though I have a few hesitations:

• No hard drive on the entry edition – something should really be standard, even if it’s 200GB enough to get started
• Questions over scaling up additional storage in terms of internal neatness
• DVI video port – shouldn’t it be VGA -but then an adaptor is included so I can’t really complain
• Is it a re-badged desktop? Do I care?

The winner then – the FUJITSU MX130 S1

If you’re wanting an all round starter server, something to get you going as much as it pains me saying this (I am afterall a massive HP fan), get the Fujitsu, get a hard drive, get Windows 2008, a monitor (if you can’t borrow one) and you’re set.  I can sense my colleagues talking about expansion and the ability to neatly add more drives, but for the average SMB that I and colleagues meet, where the server sits under Jenny’s desk, occasionally has server guy reboot it once a month or patch it, the Fuitsu is ideal, for a number of reasons:

• DVD drive is standard
• Keyboard as standard (in the box shipped to us from reseller)
• Form factor is familiar – it’s like servicing a desktop
• DVI to VGA adaptor standard – so you can use either type monitor
• More powerful cpu – fine for a file server it’s not entirely necessary but it makes Windows just that little bit smoother or it certainly feels that way
• 2GB RAM, so out of the box it will run Windows and your anti virus software nicely

I don’t know if it’s a perception thing or of perceived value, it’s the feel of the Fujitsu, the nice easy to recycle cardboard box which felt like it contained everything. In the box I had:

• Spare hard drive SATA cables (as there was no hard drive in the unit we ordered in it’s defence)
• Keyboard – really a keyboard? But then the company recognizes that you might need one
• Manuals, driver dvds and instruction booklets.

It felt like the Fujitsu guys had thought “right we’re shipping our customer their first server what will they need?” Something that no doubt HP did, but they then thought did you need/want a DVD drive? Did you want 2GB RAM, and I take it you have a keyboard? They’re giving you scalability, but does the target market want that?

It’s often the little things that matter, the keyboard, the DVD, all designed just to make life that little bit easier.

A colleague had got into a long debate with me comparing the two as I ordered both in the same week. He praised the custom nature of the MicroServer, the attention to detail they had made with the design, with the form factor, pointing out that the Fujitsu had a silly name, that it was just a desktop with an old processor with server written on the case. “Indeed” I replied, “indeed, but I think you’re missing something. The spec is actually quite good, the form factor is fine, it’s not massive in size, and I’d argue it’s form factor is something of a benefit in some respects.”

Many times in the past working with remote clients, sites asking them to ‘fit a new hard drive in the server’ resulted in unnecessarily complex “oh a server you say, Bonnie is a desktop engineer, she doesn’t do servers” conversations, sending them something that looks like a desktop might have made that life for me just that little bit easier. Asking them to fit a replacement disk and network boot it might not seem as scary as a thing on the front with a key and many drive bays.

Is it scalable, is it a server in it’s industrial strength and purest form?

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