Review: CAD2 Focus 6025B-3R

This 2U rackmount server offers more storage than you can shake a stick at

Written by Dave Mitchell

IT Week, 05 Mar 2007

This article is part of group review of six 2U servers

The Focus 6025B-3R exemplifies the key benefit of 2U rack servers over 1U devices: it comes with tons of storage. In fact, the server offers more hard-disk real estate than nearly all the other review systems put together.

It achieves this feat by employing a pair of high-performance 147GB Fujitsu 15,000rpm SAS disks that look after the operating system, and a trio of 750GB Seagate Sata drives for data storage. And if that isn’t enough, the eight 3.5in hot-swap bays at the front of the unit provide extra room to add even more drives.

Despite the Focus’s storage bonanza, CAD2 has not skimped elsewhere. The server sports a pair of 5160 Xeon processors – the fastest dual-cores currently available – and teams them up with 4GB of fully buffered memory.

The Focus is a complete Supermicro SuperServer package, containing the SC825TQ chassis and X7DB3 motherboard. Internally, the design is very simple, with the chips and memory covered by a single transparent shroud and cooled by two hot-plug radial fans. A third fan cools the expansion slot area. Although overall operational noise levels are higher than many of the other review systems, they are not overly intrusive.

Storage fault tolerance is provided by a ZCR (zero channel Raid) PCI-X card, which commandeers the embedded SAS channels and supports Raid-5 mirroring and striping. More expansion options can be brought into play if half-height cards are installed, which allows all of the available PCI-X and PCI-E slots on the motherboard to be utilised.

For general remote server monitoring, the Focus provides Supermicro’s SuperO Doctor III utility. It has not seen any significant changes over the past couple of years, but the rudimentary web interface still provides plenty of operational data.

The price also includes Supermicro’s new remote management card, which comes with a dedicated network port, and the Raritan KVM chip facilitates web browser access for remotely monitoring and controlling the server.

Next review: Dell PowerEdge 2950

Product overview

Price: £3,999
Manufacturer: CAD2: 0800 180 4801
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Verdict

CAD2's server offers a feast of SAS and Sata storage as well as good performance and plenty of room for expansion. Only a weak warranty really lets it down.

Pros: Masses of storage; fast dual-core Xeons; good memory contingent; tidy internal design; good expansion potential.

Cons: Remote management features not as good as Dell and HP rivals; very basic warranty; could be quieter.