SERVER: HP ProLiant ML110

This entry-level server from HP ProLiant ML110 comes with P4 2.8 GHz, 256 MB ECC RAM, 36 GB Ultra320 SCSI hard disk and is based on the Intel 7210 server chipset. For expansion, it has provision for 4 GB of RAM and four internal disk drives. It also has two free PCI-X and PCI slots. However, it has no external SCSI connector to connect devices. The server offers no fault tolerant features such as RAID, hot-plug hard disk and power supply, but comes with ECC RAM. It also does not have any out-of-band management hardware and no error indicators, but provides tool-free access to its cabinet. When compared with the P4 and Xeon servers that we reviewed (Shootout of the Month, page 122, PCQuest, July 2004), the performance of the HP ProLiant ML110 server in Web serving benchmark was very good, even better than some dual-Xeon based systems with up to 2 GB of RAM. This is because of the fast CPU FSB and 1 MB L2 cache. However, the file serving performance was one of the lowest, because of lesser RAM. Adding more RAM is surely going to improve performance for both file and Web serving, more so for file than Web. At Rs 59,900, the price is competitive with Zenith's and RDG's P4-based servers (Shootout of the Month, page 122, PCQuest, July 2004).

The bottom line: Although, the server is low on RAM, features such as Ultra320 SCSI and PCI-X slots make it a good buy.

Anoop Mangla