Broadberry CyberServe XE5-102S v3 review

Broadberry’s pizza-box server shows that good things do come in small packages

IT Pro Verdict

The CyberServe XE5-102S v3 delivers a mighty hardware spec in a tiny rack chassis making it ideal for hosting a wide range of business apps in the smallest of rack spaces

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Innovative chassis design; Remarkable hardware/size ratio; Low cost 10GbE upgrades; Good value

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Small storage capacity

Under the hood

The CyberServe presents a very well-designed interior and we found all key components easy to get at for routine maintenance and upgrades. We have the RS400-E8-PS2-F model so the six dual-rotor cooling fans are all lined up at the back behind the motherboard.

Directly in front are dual CPU sockets and the price we've shown includes a pair of 1.9GHz 6-core E5-2609 v3 Xeons. Each socket is flanked by eight DIMM slots and if your pockets are deep enough for 64GB LR-DIMMs, you can push capacity to an app-crunching 1TB.

Overall noise levels are surprisingly low as well. The fans do whine a bit but this won't be an issue in a rack cabinet and even when on the lab bench, we didn't find them intrusive.

The server includes full remote control and power management as standard features

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.