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Systemax is closely associated with desktop PCs, but it also offers a variety of rack and pedestal server systems. The Mission 5502 is a 1U rackmount system offering good performance for tasks such as hosting firewalls and Web serving.
Based on a Supermicro P4SCE motherboard, it supports a single 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU, based on Intel's 845P Canterwood chipset running an 800MHz front side bus and with 4GB of PC3200 ECC DDR-SDRAM memory. LAN connectivity is provided through dual-integrated Intel 82541EM Gigabit Ethernet NICs.
Unsurprisingly for a rackmount chassis, there's little room for expansion. Internally, there's only a single 32-bit 33MHz PCI slot. The dual hot-swap drive bays were filled in our review model with 36GB Western Digital Serial ATA Raptor drives - a maximum capacity of 320GB is supported at present. The integrated Intel ICH-5 Serial ATA controller supports RAID levels 0 and 1.
There are two system fans providing plenty of airflow through the chassis, although they're noisy in use. Neither these nor the single 250W power supply are hot-swappable. Intrusion detection is available on the motherboard, but it wasn't implemented in our system. Basic status LEDs are situated on the front panel.
Using WebBench 4.1 and NetBench 7.02 running Windows Server 2000, the Mission 5502 showed good Web-serving performance, fully utilising the P4 3.0GHz HT processor and the high memory bandwidth from the dual-channel 400MHz PC3200 memory. Although not designed for 24/7 environments, the Serial ATA drives performed well under heavy loads and are more than capable of handling a small office environment.
No operating system is supplied, but a CDROM provides the relevant driver files for the major operating systems, such as RedHat and Microsoft servers. Additional management software includes Intel's LANDesk Client Manager and Supermicro's SuperO Doctor utility for environmental monitoring.
Overall, the Mission 5502 offers good performance, but it's obviously limited in its expansion capabilities. However, it's dual-drive capability ensures a reasonable internal storage capacity. A three-year, on-site warranty is offered, with cover available five days a week and eight hours a day with an eight-hour response time.
Contact: Simply (0870) 727 2100
www.systemaxpc.co.uk
Specifications:
- Case 1U rackmount
- CPU Intel 3.06GHz Pentium 4
- Memory 4GB PC3200
- Chipset Intel 875P
- Graphics Onboard ATI Rage XL 8MB
- Hard disk drives Two hotswappable Serial ATA bays
- Expansion slots Single 32-bit 33MHz PCI
- Optical drive 24X CD-ROM drive
- Other drives 3.5in. floppy disk drive
- Warranty Three years, on-site (five days/eight hours, eight-hour response)
See also:
A well-built device with specs and a price to suit a small business. 14 Sep 2004
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