Some businesses are putting microservers into small remote offices to provide basic file sharing functions with AD access controls. In these scenarios it would be very useful to be able to remotely monitor and manage the server from the head office, but the MX130 is devoid of these features.
The MX130 was supplied to us with Fujitsu's ServerView software installed, but as the server doesn't have an embedded iRMC2 controller there's little you can do with it. We were advised that this will be rectified later this year with the release of a ServerView agent for local management only, along with the ServerView Installation Manager software.
HP's MicroServer is currently your best bet if you want full remote management. For only 55 extra you can have the Remote Access Control PCI Express card. It's surprisingly sophisticated as it has web browser access, hardware monitoring, power controls, virtual media services and KVM-over-IP remote control.
Fujitsu's MX130 S1 has a reasonable hardware specification, is remarkably quiet and has good expansion potential. However, its desktop PC chassis is not designed to provide easy access to the hard disks and if you want full remote management capabilities then HP's little MicroServer is a much better choice.
Verdict
The Primergy MX130 S1 is compact and quiet with good expansion potential but, apart from support for ECC memory, doesn’t offer much more than a standard desktop PC. HP’s MicroServer may have a slower processor but it costs less, its hard disks are far more accessible and it beats Fujitsu easily for remote management with its optional RAC card.
Chassis: Desktop CPU: 3.1GHz AMD Athlon II X2 255 Memory: 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 expandable to 16GB Storage: 2 x 1TB WD SATA cold-swap hard disks (max 2 x 3.5in or 6 x 2.5in with optional 2.5in disk mounting kits) RAID: integrated six-port AMD SATA controller Array support: RAID 0, 1 Expansion slots: 2 x PCI Express, 2 x 32-bit PCI Ports: 12 x USB2 (2 front, 6 rear, 4 internal) Network: Gigabit Ethernet Power: 250W internal supply
