ASUS TS500-E6/PS4 Pedestal Server Barebone Intel 5500 Dual LGA 1366 Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series

Pros: For the short time it is stable it works well.

Cons: We are a tech support company and purchased two of these units a few months apart. One worked for a few months with no issues and the other worked for only a few days. The same issue presented itself on both systems. The warning light on the front bezel came on and couldn't be cleared. Once the light comes on the system will not reboot without a full power drain. This of course occurred after newegg's 30 day return period. ASUS tech support has no clue but claim both must be faulty units. ASUS only offers refurbished replacements and as of yet have none available. Both systems were assembled with approved components and a standard 3 drive RAID 5 run by the on-board controller. Replacing the unit already in production will cost us and our client thousands.

Other Thoughts: As a long standing customer we are highly disappointed.

Pros: Great machine

Cons: Machine is expandable
the cage and the extra accessories to expand it to an extra 4 H. drives can be acquired from http://us.estore.asus.com/

Pros: Great system and setup. Runs's my 2x 5160s w/48gb of ram surprisingly quiet (when it starts up it sounds like a helicopter taking off but then quiets down) and cool. No problems installing Win 2008R2 Hyper-V or Linux. I have 5 Win servers running concurrently.

Cons: Expandable to another 4 drives, except this costs about $400 additional and the disk board does not come with any ribbon cables so it's impossible to use! (Asus support told me that they don't sell the cage and card w/cabling, btw. I wonder if they actually have any buyers?)

Other Thoughts: I have 4 300GB WD 10K rpm drives and wanted to add a couple 1TB drives for shared drives but the expandability is problematic. For 500 more you can upgrade to the 8 drive version with a board that doubles the memory and the larger power supply, which is probably worth the price.

Pros: -easy setup
-built nicely... Inside is easy to work in
-IP KVM is amazing (doesn't require extra network port either)
-great scalability for the decent price

Cons: -tiny power supply
-software raid only!! (easy to fix with an expansion card)
-only 4 drive bays (check this out to expand: http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=2083)

Other Thoughts: I went back and forth on a few models before I bought this as a home server. I am thoroughly pleased with the purchase and will probably buy another one this year. G for it!!

My setup:
tS500-e6
2x intel 5520 @ 2.27 ghz
48 gig ram
Windows server 2012 hyper-v

Pros: FAST. Quiet. Very easy to assemble and not at all hard on a budget.

Cons: BEWARE! With 6 RAM slots, if you use only 1 CPU you can only use THREE (3) of the RAM slots. Plan your memory config accordingly!

Other Thoughts: RAM issues aside, this is one hell of an impressive machine for the price. I HIGHLY recommend it for small businesses!

Pros: System is great out of the box, performs well.

Cons: -Technical Support for ASUS Servers is a Nightmare. After adding a Second Processor and another 24GB of RAM, Motherboard fried. Called ASUS 8 times over 3 days and with their phone and system problems it was horrible. Finally after 3 days and 18 calls, they finally got it together (I hope) and are sending a replacement Motherboard, and I guess I will have reconnect everything. I won't be buying again just because they are too much pain to even get a call into.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issue with the motherboard and the service you received.

If after removing the second processor and additional 24GB of ram caused the system to not POST, please try to clear CMOS.

Turn off the system. Turn the switch on the back of the power supply to OFF. On the lower right corner of the motherboard is a jumper marked "CLRTC", move the jumper from positions 1 and 2 to 2 and 3. Wait about 30 seconds, and move the jumper back to positions 1 and 2. Power on the computer. Are you able to POST?

Again, we apologize for the quality of service when you contacted us for support and we thank you for taking the time to let us know. Without you telling us, we would not have known about our call quality. If you have more information about the specifics of your communication when you contacted us, such as a case number or RMA number it will greatly help in our investigation.

My email is cl-benson@asus.com reference #C1037-924.

Regards,
Benson
Asus Customer Loyalty

Pros: Great server for the money. Runs ESXi as a "supported" platform including PCI pass-through. Runs cool with a single CPU. Supported the E5620 Xeon with no BIOS updates necessary.

Cons: No obvious ones so far.

Other Thoughts: Great bang for the money.

My Configuration:
- Intel Xeon E5620 Westmere 2.4GHz
- Patriot Signature 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered
- 2ea Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB

Pros: Good machine, well laid out, plenty of room inside, documentation is ok. No bios update needed for the E5506 processor. Its also on the VMWare ESXi 4.1 HCL. I especially like the integrated IP KVM feature.

Cons: Software raid only. No mention in the manual of how to get past or disable the intrusion detection (hold down CTRL as the system POSTs to bypass intrusion detection).

Other Thoughts: Onboard raid is software based which you cannot use with ESXi 4.1 (it will allow you to use the attached drives separately however). I did buy an Intel RS2WC040 raid card to make up for this.

Final spec (to use ESXi 4.1):
-ASUS TS500-E6/PS4 Pedestal Barebone Server
-1xE5506 2.13Ghz QC Intel Xeon
-12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Patriot Signature
-4x1GB WD Caviar blacks WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
-Intel RS2WC040 PCI-Express 2.0 x8 SATA / SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) Controller Card

Pros: Very sturdy, well-built item. Well-designed and thought out.

Cons: Manual could use more technical details on the board. Seems to be written at a more consumer level.

Other Thoughts: NewEgg recommended Crucial memory kit CT3KIT51272BB1339 for this server but WARNING it is not compatible and the board will not POST with it installed.

Pros: 1. Expands to 48 GB, DDR3 ECC Memory
2. Can run the Xeon E5620s
3. Faster than any HP Full systems I have used
4. 4 SATA Drives and great RAID capability
5. 2x1 GB Intel 82574L NICs

Cons: 1. BIOS chip had to be shipped to me to support the Xeon Processor
2. 4 Drives in a Hot Plugs (Hot Plug cages for your drives are included) but once you use these you cannot really add more. I removed the DVD and made a Mirror for two more drives, wish this could hold more drives!