SUPERMICRO SYS-5015A-PHF 1U Intel Atom D510 Dual Gigabit LAN w/ IPMI Server Barebone

Pros: Excellent system for light duty applications. I use 5:" 2 for AD/DNS/DHCP, 2 for forefront TMG (firewall/gateway), and 1 spare.

These systems are all running Windows Server 2008 R2 which only comes in 64bit flavors. I've also installed CentOS 6 in both 32/64 bits. These systems run incredibly well considering their laughable processing power.

Using Intel Burn test (linpack) they score just over 1GFlop. That's with all threads maxed. For reference, I've pulled around 6GFlops from an old AM2 4400+ @2.2Ghz, 20GFlops with a gen 1 core i3 @3GHz, 22GFlops from an Opteron 2.2GHz, and 45GFlops from a Core2Quad @3.7Ghz. This benchmark is deff not the end all to be all, but it should show somewhat were the Atom is in comparison.

Cons: There are no fans in this system other than the 40mm in the PSU. These CPUs are rated for 100c operation but screw that. A problem arose with the upper systems running hot because of the lower systems (think - all of the hot spots are inline in top of each other in a rack). I installed (rather rudentarily) two 40mm fans in each. Mine run around 50c-60c at idle. This is still rather hot. A better heat removal plan would be excellent and some speed step to go along with that.

Other Thoughts: - I would recommend running these with SSDs. I've installed 160GB SATA drives in them and mostly the sluggish experience I do have is drive related (booting, shutting down, updating).
- I also had one problem with one of the server where the IPMI would not turn off. That presents a rather serious security risk if not addressed. Supermicro has suggested I turn it back on and cold reboot then back off and cold reboot and to return it if that doesn't work. I suppose after a year and a half that 3 year warrantee is much appreciated.

Pros: I bought this router for the small technology business I work for. It is being used as our edge pfSense router. This hardware is a great feature / value balance. Everything on this board (expect the software RAID) is will supported on pfSense 2.0.x. No odd workarounds are needed to get pfSense working. The NICs are high quality Intel nics.

Also, this is the cheapest current board I could find that had an IP KVM built into it. Most server boards charge the cost of this whole system just for IP KVM addon boards.

Cons: This unit should have had some front USB ports. There was plenty of room for it on the case and they existed on the motherboard. Since this is a non-railed case, easily accessible front USB port for things like mouse / keyboard / cdrom / floppy drive for server setup are important. The IPMI can be used after that.

Also if you get the 2.5 inch drive cage you will be very hard pressed to find a PCIe card that will fit with the remain space. Supermicro should have spent a few extra $$ to make the case a little wider / deeper so it could fit both comfortably. There was plent of room to expand it in the U1 /19" rack spec. Also not having the riser card as part of the retail box where there is only one possible configuration was really cheap.

Other Thoughts: I'm not sure if the IPMI would support non-native(default) VLAN. I didn't have that issue, but another person may.

I also noticed that many people of complained about the noise. I have to say, this is not deigned to be quiet. This is RACK MOUNT case. It is designed to be in the server room, not the bedroom. If you wanted something silent, by the bare motherboard and get a specialized case/PSU. Use the right tool for the job.

Pros: I ordered this to replace a very loud p4 asus 1u server, Running sme server 8.0beta7 w/4gb ram works perfectly. This is now my in house router,firewall,web,file,and email server. Compact design, and a light energy footprint. Like that it comes with long sata cord to reach the hard drive area. Its speed of processing is outperforming my older p4 with 4gb of ram.

Cons: only 2 usb ports on the back solved with usb hub, 5 screws to open the device (hand twist off screws would have been better) wish it had space for 2 3.5" hdd's instead of only 1 for raid 1.

Pros: The Intel NICs and IPMI sell this for me. The low power is a nice bonus.
After running production trials with these (I think I'm up to about 15 of these deployed) I'm satisfied with them enough to get another ~90 possible to go. Very versatile for a lot of applications.
You can install the OS on a flash drive plugged into the motherboard's vertical USB slot (watch out - either get a 90 degree adapter or a Lacie Moskeyto) but I haven't had luck going that route (I/O issues on both cases)

Cons: No 64 bit support but that's an Atom limitation - also means 4GB of ram is your boundary.
No DVD/CD knockout on the case.
You can install ESXi on these but be forewarned you will see an error on the health page from the fan status. Not a big deal since it doesn't have a fan (except the PSU). Use the slick onboard IPMI for health monitoring instead.
You can also install XenServer but it will complain about no 64 bit support and thus no Windows support.

Other Thoughts: If you need more CPU go with the SYS-5017C-LF and an i3 (N82E16816101383) but so far the Atom has outperformed my expectations. Especially with an SSD or Hybrid drive on it.
In one case I run ESXi 4.1 on a 4GB MosKeyto internally with a 1.5TB drive as the datastore. Over a few months the I/O on the drive got super slow. I moved the two VM's off (one Linux one 2K3) temporarily, swapped the disk with a 60GB OCZ Vertex SSD, added it as a datastore, and brought the VM's back. Still getting 11.33 MB/sec so there's some kind of hangup there.

Pros: Small
Quiet
Easy install

Cons: Could come with HDD screws

Other Thoughts: Using as an untangle bridge for about 25 users. CPU usage has yet to reach .5% Running, web filter, virus blocker, spyware blocker, spam blocker, phish blocker, and attack blocker

Pros: This little rascal comes in a convenient 1U format. At this price point getting the hard drive cage, it allows you to mount 2 2.5" drives, and a flex card for the PCI-E slot are well worth the price. I'm using this box with 2 TB 2.5" drives and 4 Gigs of memory to run 4 VMs including Android 2.2, Win XP, Win 7 and Ubuntu. It works great while taking little space or power. The fan is a little loud but in a lab environment you won't even hear it. Well worth the price.

Cons: The drive cage and flexible riser adapter weren't included. I don't think that it would have bankrupted SuperMicro to include these but it's not a deal-breaker either.

Pros: - Small
- Inexpensive
- Easy setup
- IPMI is wonderful though the lack of a user guide is frustrating for first time users

Cons: - It's louder than my desktop and full tower server combined
- Only 1 slot for HD unless you get the extra adapter to fit 2 2.5" drives
- It's loud
- User manual is practically worthless, doesn't even tell you the default user/password for the IPMI login
- It's loud

Other Thoughts: It's a good deal, but the whole "fanless" advert is very misleading. Sure, there's no CPU fan, but the PSU fan is horribly loud. Still a good server, just wish it was quieter.

Pros: Like others have mentioned, it's small, super quiet, inexpensive, has dual gigabit nics and a dual core CPU. I bought this for the sole purpose of running as a standalone Nagios server and it runs like a champ. It's monitoring 14 hosts / 132 services on CentOS 5.5 32-bit with 4GB of RAM and I have a ton of resources still to work with.

Cons: * Can't handle more than 4GB of RAM
* No area for a 2nd HDD

Other Thoughts: The pros far outweight the cons. My biggest needs are for inexpensive, strong hardware with super quiet performance. This hits the target 100%!

Pros: *Management interface is an aewsome feature!
*Dual core processor.
*Quiet.
*Dual gigabit ethernet.
*Reliable.

Cons: *Laptop memory.
*Can only mount a single HDD.
*PCIe 1U slot adapter not included. NEWEGG #N82E16816101331 works great.

Other Thoughts: Very happy with this unit. I am using this with Endian Firewall community edition with 5 servers behind it. Haven't had a single glitch. Great throughput and very little CPU utilization. The onboard IPMI is an awesome feature that includes KVM over IP. Can't say enough good things about this server.

I have tried this with WinServer 2008R2 64bit and it seems to work well. The Atom processors don't have much power, but it is small, quiet, and only uses about 25-30W under normal use. Good for basic server duties. Just remember memory and processor limitations.

Pros: Small, compact, about the size of a Cisco 2950T switch. Running W2008 Enterprise on it. Easy to install, O/S was easy to install.

Runs great with 4 GB memory. Perfect for a second server, file server and for specialty servers such as VPN/ISA.

Cons: only space for 1 hard drive mounting bracket. with this case, they could have drilled holes for a second hard drive mounting bracket in it as an option.

The PCI card riser requires a backplane to convert from vertical to horizontal and is not listed as an optional buy card.

Other Thoughts: I lik it. Skeptics might wonder how a Atom processor, laptop memory, and laptop hard drive can compare to big servers with quad cores, and ECC memory, but this server works pretty well for small businesses. I wouldn't want 50 users to access this thing all at one time, but for general server use, on a budget, can't beat it