Researching 1U barebone servers

I’ve been liking barebone servers more recently. Sure they’re still a little more expensive than purchasing parts separately but when it comes to a 1U or 2U the convenience and security that comes with knowing all the parts are going to work together is often worth the price. I have a couple of projects where these servers might be needed but some of the architectural details still need to be resolved and as such a couple of models might work well given the different contraints.

6 memory slots, no hot-swap bays

This configuration is for servers that may not have hard disks at all and boot via ethernet or flash.

• Supermicro 6015V-MRLP

This is the cheapest Supermicro barebones server with the Intel 5000V (Blackford) chipset and the cheapest dual processor Socket 771 server.

8 memory slots, 4 hot-swap bays

This configuration is for servers running RAID.

• ASUS RS160-E4/PA4

This is an Intel 5000P chipset, dual Socket 771 barebones server. I think ASUS knows that they need to offer a little bit extra for the price in order to compete with Supermicro and Tyan.