ASUS RS520-E6/ERS8 2U Server Barebone Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 DDR3 1333/1066

Pros: 4 eggs for the following:
- the layout of the internal components appears to have been well thought out
- quality Asus motherboard
- case (itself) appears to be well constructed and durable
- quiet compared to various other rackmount units

Cons: Dropping an egg for the following:
- included screws are cheap (easy to mess up). Quality screws should be included at this price point.

- *NO* internal power points or even a place to tap. (This is the first time that I've seen this at this price point).

- cannot readily purchase the second power supply module (difficult to locate and ridiculously high priced when you do)

Other Thoughts: Have not had any issues to date. Works as expected. If an additional internal power tap is not required - I would purchase again.

NewEgg's excellent service!!!

Pros: Great Value, excellent function, plenty of drive space. Relatively quiet. Out of band server management.

Cons: Additional Power Supplies hard to get.
Pike 2108 hard to get.

Other Thoughts: I built two of these to replace extremely old servers. One is for SQL server with Dual 6 Core Processors, 24GB of ram, OS in Mirror, DATA in Raid 5 using a Pike 2108 Raid Controller. This server is ridiculously powerful.

Second server is a DC and file server. Similar specs but I used the onboard raid vs a pike card and Dual Quad Core Processors. I have 0 heat issues and it is in a rack with 6 other servers, APC, switches, Firewall etc. I built two of these for about $3000 less than the comparable HP Server and these perform better.
Do your research on Approved RAM AND PROCESSORS.

Pros: -Good price
-Slot for 2nd power supply
-Dual Processor
-Solid Construction
-RAID standard

Cons: Like others have said, this unit comes with 8 hard drive bays but support for only 6 SATA. You need to purchace a hard drive controller card to do more.
BEWARE OF FAULTY HARDWARE

Other Thoughts: I purchased 2 of these units and populated both of them with the same type of ram and processors. One unit came online just great. The other unit gave me an error durring POST stating that "Memory module DIMM A-1 failed to pass cpu memory test" I replaced the ram and the error continued. I replaced the cpu and the error continued. Had to RMA that unit for replacement.

I give this product 4 eggs because it really is great. One egg knocked off for possibility of faulty motherboard inside.

Pros: Economically priced.
Lightweight, quiet design.
Lots of drive bays

Cons: Backplane is greater than capacity

Other Thoughts: This is a great barebone server but it should include the PIKE card as this only has 6xSATA from the factory, with one used by the slim DVD drive. I wound up removing the DVD and rigging SATA cables to get 6 of 8 of the backplane to have drives, then just booted off an external USB DVD drive for OS install.

I have had NO instability problems. It has been rock-solid with 100% uptime for over 2 months. Using dual Xeon 5620's and 24GB of RAM, Linux 64-bit with KVM virtualization for 8 VM's (mixed Windows and Linux).

Pros: Form Factor - Ability to use 3rd party RAID card - remote management.

Cons: Reboots suddenly with no warning. The only explanation I can find is heat. Power supplies are all but impossible to get. I've had 3 of these and I'm having to replace them all with other systems that have better heat management. Even though they based on the same chip set, I've had no reboot issues with the replacement hardware.

Other Thoughts: I'm extremely disappointed in these units. I thought I'd found a manufacturer I could base a line of products on, but instead I've found a money pit and a very large stain on my reputation.