SUPERMICRO SYS-5018A-FTN4 1U Rackmount Server Barebone FCBGA 1283 DDR3 1600 / 1333

Pros: - Lots of power in this little box. 8 hardware threads is a great deal considering the power figures and price. - Intel quad gbe Ethernet worked flawlessly with newest versions of vsphere, pfsense router and ubuntu server virtual instances. No driver issues to report.

Cons: None at this time.

Overall Review: This is a fantastic little box for throwing a virtualization layer on and firing up small app servers that are hard to justify on larger, more expensive hardware. Very good fit for building a DIY router using pfsense.

Pros: Using it as a PFSENSE router and pushing 300Mbps out and 40Mbps in as IPESC traffic and CPU is only at 9%. Some testing before I placed it in production I was able to push 950~ each way with only 40 - 50% CPU used so a good 1.5 Gbps router!

Cons: None

Overall Review: None

Pros: 4 Intel NICs 8 cores. 4 DIMMs 1U Shallow Depth Works with VMware ESXi 5.5 U2 and 6.0.0

Cons: 6 SATA ports, only room for 4 bays. I wish this was 16-17" long which would still fit in most shallow depth wall-mounted network racks which would allow it to support an additional 2 drives and PCIe card.

Overall Review: I run VMware ESXi 6.0 on this box with 6 VMs. I might buy another for pfSense/Snort/OpenVPN Kingston 32GB DDR3 2 x 256GB SSD (Samsung 850 Pro) 2 x 750GB HDD (WD Black)

Pros: IPMI, lots of ethernet ports, quiet, low power

Cons: Not so easy to find compatible memory. Ethernet ports were on the wrong side of the box for our application.

Overall Review: We used Kingston memory (Newegg Inv #137015908) and it worked fine. The bracket to install 2.5" drives is MCP-220-00044-0N. It looks like Newegg has started to mention these on the same page as the computer. That may be chance, but if it is policy, then that bodes well for Newegg customers. The cooling arrangment appears to meet a concern that the disk drives might catch cold from a draft. There is a tiny fan on the CPU, and one in the power supply, but no baffles to direct air across the drives and CPU heat exchanger. I poked a bit of sponge in the box to prevent air from going to the exhaust fan without passing over any components. I expect that helped, but curiously the BIOS doesn't show any temp data.

Pros: cost, size, low-noise, low-power, 8 cores, IPMI, quad gigabit eth. It's not extremely fast, but makes a good home lab server, or even a work lab server if you're concerned about power consumption.

Cons: I have a couple of occasional issues at boot time. I suspect this is a firmware issue on the server, but it is transient and after a couple of tries, it comes up normally. I would consider this a showstopper under other circumstances, but for my home lab, it's just a minor inconvenience. Once up, it seems to stay up (CentOS 6.5).

Pros: - Great price point for the purpose I needed. - Has built-in IPMI so no need for a keyboard or monitor, just use the network cable on that and give it an IP. - Stone quiet which is always good!

Cons: None.

Overall Review: This is currently serving as a pfsense router and IDS/IPS box. It works really well. Super quiet and stable. Have recommended it to a bunch of my peers and friends who are security folks. Has 1 NIC for IPMI and 4 NIC's for other functions so lots of room for growth.

Pros: Running 5 VMware VMs. It runs the PBX and pfsense router without a single problem.

Cons: The memory is the worst part. Good luck finding DDR3 ECC SO-DIMMs. We tried running non-ECC and it would not boot.

Pros: * 1U Form factor installs perfectly in all racks * Sturdy construction * Reliable, super micro makes great devices * Front mounted IO makes it perfect for installation into a rack without extensive accessories like KVMs * The multiple network ports make it easy to run zones on a UTM if that's what it's used for * Plenty of space inside to install extra disks * Management interface

Cons: * Requires DDR3 SODIMM ECC memory which is much rarer than you'd think. Ended up buying 2x Kingston KVR16LSE11 and they worked perfectly. UTM now has more ram than most desktops in the office * As other reviewers have mentioned it CAN be a little flakey to boot * Only 1xSATA connection, 1x SATA Power, and 1x MOLEX Power. Require splitters to run more drives and additional short cables * The drive mounting holes didn't line up with the holes on the bottom of my SSD, not a huge con as as long as it's held in place with a single screw it's fine. * Raid, even software layer, would have been a nice touch * Still don't know how the management interface works..

Overall Review: *MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT RAM!* I found that the machine doesn't like to boot when cold or if it doesn't have good ram in it. Letting it sit for a minute and then hitting the RESTART button seems to have a very reliable chance of getting the machine to boot past initialization. Drive cages are "required" in order to have multiple drives / 3.5s (I think), the cages are not listed in the description unfortunately. I've used these SuperMicro ATOM machines for sometime as firewalls / UTMS. This one is currently handling a fiber 100mbit symmetrical line at full speed while running snort, squid, and antivirus without breaking too much of a sweat, an SSD is a must in this case. Would recommend these devices to anyone who's looking for a good device to use as a UTM, has some technical know how (to install and optimize a pfSense like product), and is not interested in spending over 2x as much for a comparable UTM device.