IT Pro Verdict
Small businesses looking for their first purpose server should put the Primergy TX100 S3p at the top of their shopping list. It combines a solid build quality and near silent running with plenty of storage and a good helping of memory. Even better is the low price making this little pedestal server an absolute steal.
Fujitsu's latest Primergy TX100 S3p pedestal server is designed to offer budget conscious SMBs an affordable purpose built pedestal server.
Fujitsu pushes its servers harder than any other vendor by stress testing them through 5,000 boot cycles, so it should be one of the most reliable out there. The Primergy also aims to be green, with Fujitsu offering a 250W 84 percent efficient power supply, as included in the review sample, or a 94 percent efficient model. The latter also supports Fujitsu's optional 0-watt feature which allows the server to be placed in a zero draw standby mode.
The server supports the latest Ivy Bridge Xeon processors which also do their bit for the environment as the die shrink to 22nm lowers their appetite for power. The review system came with a 3.1GHz Xeon E3-1220V2 module which has a low TDP of 69W.
Since the older class Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz Xeon E3 32nm model has a higher TDP of 80W, the new generation should deliver significant power savings when the server is under load. We confirmed this with the review system pulling 30W in idle and peaking at 70W under heavy load from Sisoft Sandra. Typically, we've seen similarly specified servers with the older 3.1GHz 32nm Xeon E3 drawing around 33W in idle and 91W under load.
The TX100 presents a tidy interior and has room for two hard disks in its base and two more at the front
Solid build quality
The server is well built with a solid steel chassis and easily removable side panel. Security extends to a slot for a Kensington lock at the back which will stop the side panel being removed or the entire server being nicked.
Internally, the tidy design provides easy access to all components with all cabling securely tied up out of harm's way. The storage arrangement is unusual as two LFF drive bays are located at the bottom of the chassis with two more at the front.
Coined easy change' by Fujitsu, the drives are held in plastic slides and can only be unplugged and removed when the server is powered down. The price for the review system includes a pair of 500GB Seagate SATA II drives so there's room to grow. Fujitsu offers 500GB, 1TB and 2TB enterprise SATA drives and the power cables are already in place to receive them.
The embedded RAID controller can be managed using Fujitsu's web based utility but the chip only supports mirrors and stripes
