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Dell Serves Up a Winner: Page 4 of 17

The front of the machine has a normal, as opposed to slim-line, CD-ROM and floppy drive. However, though it's easy enough to remove the drives--by squeezing the two clips on either side of each one--IBM's system for replacing these drives is clearly inferior to those of Dell and HP. These drives have standard cabling rather than pluggable bays, so you have to take the top and processor covers off to reconnect the data and power cables. The system has space for three 5.25-inch, half-height devices and one 3.5-inch floppy disk drive bay, plus the 12 hot-swap bays for hard disks. The IBM server also sports five PCI-X slots and one legacy PCI 2.2 slot. That's fewer than Dell's, but adequate.

IBM has included an advanced version of the old ISMP (Integrated Systems Management Processor), called the ASMP (Advanced Systems Management Processor). This discrete processor, whose excellent technology IBM migrated from its mainframes to its PCs, monitors the Intel side of the machine and collects data. The ASMP has a few new features, along with all the old ones that made us like the ICMP. Both control the LightPath diagnostics tools, but the ASMP also integrates with IBM's Director server-management software, and features SMTP traps and remote booting.

IBM's standard software is under active development. IBM Director, for example, is a sophisticated method to control or monitor your IBM servers in conjunction with the ASMP. Servers are connected via built-in RS-485 ports to provide out-of-band management. The Director must be set up on a separate server, but it provides a wonderful way to support IBM's systems. You can also get a separate, $499 management board, which will provide not only all the ASMP's functionality, but Ethernet out-of-band management, remote system control and a number of other features. Companies planning to deploy this machine remotely should consider adding this card. The eServer also includes ServerGuide to aid in OS and machine setup. We used ServerGuide to build our test x255 and found it to be smooth and untroubled.

The IBM system performed adequately in all our tests. It turned in middle-of-the-pack Iometer test results, but edged out HP and Dell in our Chariot test because the unit's NIC outperformed the others. In the Web Avalanche test, the IBM came in a close second, with 4,212 transactions per second, using an untuned copy of Microsoft Internet Information Server.

The unit comes with a three-year warranty, provided by IBM's giant Global Services division.