Supermicro RTG RX-2280i review
This Ready To Go (RTG) system starts at just under £2,000, so if you need an affordable Xeon E5-2600 rack server with next day delivery, the RX-2280i is for you.
The RTG RX-2280i scores well for value as although it comes with a basic hardware package it delivers it at a tantalisingly low price. You’ll be hard pushed to find a cheaper Xeon E5-2600 2U rack server that’s available off the shelf for next day delivery.

Remote control
KVM-over-IP remote control is a standard feature and can be accessed directly from the home page just by clicking on the thumbnail. This also provides virtual media services so you can present a device on the host PC to the server and use it to boot from.
Two options are available for storage and RAID management as the LSI card is looked after by the MegaRAID Storage Manager web application. The embedded SATA ports are managed with Intel's Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise utility which provides tools for creating RAID arrays and email alerts if drive problems are detected.
Conclusion
The RTG RX-2280i comes up short on features when stacked up against Dell's Powedge R720and HP's ProLiant DL380p Gen8 but beats them soundly on value. If you need a low cost Xeon E5-2600 2U rack server and you need it the next business day then the RTG should be your first port of call.
Verdict
The RTG RX-2280i scores well for value as although it comes with a basic hardware package it delivers it at a tantalisingly low price. You’ll be hard pushed to find a cheaper Xeon E5-2600 2U rack server that’s available off the shelf for next day delivery.
Chassis: 2U rack
CPU: 1 x 2.4GHz Xeon E5-2609 (max. 2)
Memory: 2 x 4GB 1066MHz RDIMM DDR3 memory expandable to 512GB
Storage: 1 x 300GB Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 SAS 2 hot-swap hard disk (max. 4 SAS, 4 SATA)
RAID: Intel C602; LSI SAS9211-4i SAS 2 PCI-e card
Array support: RAID0, 1, 10, 5 (Intel); RAID0, 1, 10 (LSI)
Expansion: 4 x PCI-e Gen3 slots
Network: 2 x Gigabit
Power: 2 x 740W hot-plug supplies
Management: Supermicro RMM with 10/100
Warranty: Silver 3yrs on site NBD
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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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