Fujitsu Primergy TX140 S1 review

The Primergy TX140 S1 is one of Fujitsu's first Xeon E3 tower servers and packs plenty of features into its large chassis. Dave Mitchell delves deeper to see if it's a better choice than the latest entry-level servers from Dell and HP.

IT Pro Verdict

Pricewise, there’s little to separate the Primergy TX140 S1 with the new Xeon E3 tower servers from Dell and HP as they are all good value. However, Fujitsu beats Dell’s PowerEdge T110 II as it has more storage potential and better embedded remote management features. It’s a closer call between Fujitsu and HP, but we think the ProLiant ML110 G7 has the edge as it packs an equally good specification into a more compact chassis.

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Fujitsu’s ServerView software provides plenty of tools for remotely managing and monitoring multiple servers.

Fujitsu’s ServerView software provides plenty of tools for remotely managing and monitoring multiple servers.

Fujitsu's ServerView software provides plenty of tools for remotely managing and monitoring multiple servers.

Power redundancy isn't as option either as the TX140 S1 only supports a cold-swap 300W power supply. If you want dual hot-plug supplies, then HP's ML110 G7 is a better choice as it has a pair of 460W hot-plug power supplies.

Overall power consumption is similar to Dell and HP with our in-line meter recording a draw of 44W with Windows Server 2008 R2 in idle. With the SiSoft Sandra benchmarking app pummelling the eight logical processor cores, this peaked at only 99W.

The Primergy TX140 S1 has a good specification for the price and has plenty of room to grow making it a good choice for small businesses looking for their first proper server. However, its chassis is rather large so if office space is at a premium, we would suggest HP's ProLiant ML110 G7 which is noticeably smaller but generally just as well endowed.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Pricewise, there’s little to separate the Primergy TX140 S1 with the new Xeon E3 tower servers from Dell and HP as they are all good value. However, Fujitsu beats Dell’s PowerEdge T110 II as it has more storage potential and better embedded remote management features. It’s a closer call between Fujitsu and HP, but we think the ProLiant ML110 G7 has the edge as it packs an equally good specification into a more compact chassis.

SPECIFICATIONS Chassis: Pedestal CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220, 3.1GHz Memory: 8GB DDR3 ECC expandable to 32GB Storage: 3 x 146GB Seagate SAS SFF hard disks in hot-swap carriers (max. eight) RAID: Fujitsu SAS 6Gbit/s PCI Express with 512MB cache Array support: RAID 0, 1, 10, 5, 50, 6, 60 Expansion: 3 x PCI Express, 1 x 32-bit PCI Ports: 10 x USB2 (2 front, 6 rear, 2 internal) Network: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Management: Embedded iRMC S3 with 10/100 port Software: Fujitsu ServerView Suite Power: 300W cold-swap supply Warranty: one year on-site Next Business Day Options: iRMC S3 Advanced Upgrade, £192; Server 2008 R2 Foundation, £141 (all ex VAT) POWER CONSUMPTION Idle 44W Active 99W

Dave Mitchell
Dave Mitchell

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.

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