Pros: This build quality of this server is excellent and is very roomy. It's very well designed, easy to work on and has very few, if any, sharp edges. The server is also extremely quiet. It wouldn't be a problem having it next to a desk at all.

Cons: Some trouble with the drive activity lights while set up as a RAID array. They'll blink red on every reboot until I open the Intel software and set the activity lights on each drive. It doesn't affect the operation really, but seeing drive led's blinking red doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies. Even though there are 6 SATA ports on the MB, only 5 are connected to the backplane (one is for the CD\DVD drive) No onboard video, but then again, it's a workstation so it's not really a con, just an extra thing to buy. Supermicro support is touch-and-go, it depends on who you speak to when you call.

Overall Review: Overall I'm very happy with this build. I'm running it as a test server running Hyper-V with dual Nehalems, 24GB RAM and 4X640GB WD Black's in a RAID10 set. The server is very fast, but I wish the storage was a bit faster. Although, 150MB/sec sustained sequential write isn't horrible with 4 SATA drives and an onboard controller. If I had the budget, I would have bought the 8XSAS version. Maybe I'll try a RAID card to see if that helps.

Pros: Setup Throughput Functionality Ease of use This is a great NAS device for small businesses and/or power users. The interface and included tools/applications are quite nice and useful. I feel that it could easily run test or development database(s) using iSCSI. Remote connectivity and FTP are worth the price alone. I have no hesitations recommending this device to small business people, digital media junkies and/or technology professionals. Really anyone who has lots of data to manage and keep safe.

Cons: Price Looks (It's full-figured and matronly, not sexy)

Overall Review: Initially, I was hesitant to spend this much on something that looked like a toaster, but once it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. I loaded it with 6 Samsung 1TB SpinPoints and created a RAID 5 set across all 6 drives which gave me 4.57 TB of usable space. Next, I carved out an iSCSI LUN and configured the initiator at the host to mount the volume. It worked like a charm, no issues. Then I thrashed it with IO Meter for 2 days to burn the drives in. The IO rates were excellent with very little latency. Afterwards, I tested the sequential write throughput by copying 700GB of large files to it. The Cisco NAS produced a sustained 95 MB/s write throughput. Some spikes were a bit higher, but it never went below 95 MB/s. I was predicting terrible performance, but it was impressive and satisfying to see this device working at near Gig-E line speed.