Posts Tagged ‘server’
Ask Engadget: Best SSD under $150?
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 27th, 2009
SSDs still aren't cheap, but the smaller ones have definitely come down quite aways in price. Anyone got a particular 32GB or 64GB platter that they're hearting at the moment? Go ahead, let your crush be known."I'm looking for a solid state drive, around 32 to 64GB, for use in my web server. The drive will contain my web sites and the operating system, either Windows Server 2008 R2 or Ubuntu. Large storage is handled by a separate RAID array, so capacity is not an issue. Rather, I am looking for the fastest, longest-lasting, and most reliable drive under $150 that is suitable to my application. Any thoughts? Thanks!"
Ask Engadget: Best SSD under $150? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsData Robotics introduces 5-bay Drobo S, enterprise-ready DroboElite
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 23rd, 2009
Data Robotics has been quietly raking in the dough (and trying to match up supply with demand) ever since it launched its 8-bay DroboPro back in April, and now the company is making yet another bold move: doubling its product line. Starting today, the traditional 4-bay Drobo will be joined by the quicker Drobo S, and the DroboElite will be added at the high end for those in the enterprise. The Model S ups the ante by adding a fifth drive bay in order to allow for two drives to fail without any data being lost — a feature that was previously reserved for the aforesaid Pro. It’s also boasting an ARM chip with a 50 percent faster clock (compared to the Drobo), enabling the FireWire 800 performance to see a 20 to 25 percent boostt; moreover, an eSATA socket has been added alongside the tried-and-true USB 2.0 port. Users will also be able to switch between single- and dual-drive redundancy via the software control panel, though you should be warned that the DroboShare NAS adapter will not work on the Drobo S. We spoke with Mark Fuccio, the firm’s senior director of products and marketing, who told us that the functionality was left off due to the possibility of a “bad customer experience.” In essence, the network throughput would crawl compared to a direct connection, so the company simply opted to avoid the headaches rather than cater to those of you who demand NAS functionality on every external HDD to hit the market.
Moving on, the DroboElite is carving a new path for the company, one that caters to high-maintenance enterprise users looking to serve up to 16 hosts while providing up to 255 smart volumes. The Elite is basically a Pro on steroids, with room for 8 hard drives, single- or dual-drive redundancy and an all-new connection method. If you’ll recall, the Pro provided a single gigabit Ethernet port (iSCSI), FireWire 800 and USB 2.0; the Elite ships with two gigabit Ethernet sockets and nothing more (aside from a USB port used only for device management), so it’s pretty clear that this one isn’t looking to satisfy the home consumer market.
Both devices are shipping out today, with the Drobo S starting at $799 (with no HDDs) and being sold at the same outlets as the Drobo (which isn’t vanishing, by the way). The DroboElite gets going at $3,499, though it’ll only be sold through outlets such as CDW and the like who specialize in medium-to-large business sales. Oh, and just in case you’re curious, the existing Drobo will continue on at its $399 price point (MSRP), though we’re told that smart shoppers should find it for less near Black Friday and throughout the holiday season.
Filed under: Storage
Data Robotics introduces 5-bay Drobo S, enterprise-ready DroboElite originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Drobo S Data Sheet [PDF], DroboElite Data Sheet [PDF] | Email this | Comments
ASUS ships Windows Home Server-packin’ TS mini NAS drive
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 18th, 2009
The Windows Home Server train has all but stopped this year, but with CES just around the bend (and Microsoft's software engineers free from the burden of readying Windows 7 for launch), it looks as if the steam is picking up once more. Hot on the heels of its first 3D laptop, ASUS has introduced its TS mini NAS drive for home media junkies. Outfitted with a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, 1GB or 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a gigabit Ethernet socket, six USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA connector and a smattering of LED indicators, the drive can be purchased as we speak in 500GB and 2TB editions. Aside from streaming multimedia throughout your home network, the device can also back up ten total PCs automatically and subtly make you dependent on its reliability. Which, as you know so well, is just a precursor for bowing down when the Robot Apocalypse gets underway.Continue reading ASUS ships Windows Home Server-packin' TS mini NAS drive
Filed under: Storage
ASUS ships Windows Home Server-packin' TS mini NAS drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsHP MediaSmart EX495 Windows Home Server Review (Better Time Machine Support!) [Review]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 23rd, 2009
The HP MediaSmart EX490 and EX495 are the new top-of-the-line Windows Home Servers from HP, which are good enough to pretty much be the de-facto Windows Home Servers on the market now. These new units keep up the tradition.
What it still does
HP's Windows Home Servers are exceptional because they take the standard Home Server build and add a bunch of extras on top of it. For example, HP was the first one to introduce support for Apple's Time Machine, which has been improved here so that you can do a complete restore in the event that you have to start your Mac up from scratch.
They've also still got the media streaming (DLNA compliant), web/iPhone streaming and iTunes server built in, as well as a media collector that sucks in media from all your regular machines on the network into one place on the server. All of this stuff is just improved.
What it does even better now
The greatest group of improvements is how the EX495 now works with Macs. Time Machine functionality was there before, but ran into problems when your Mac went down and you tried to do a fresh restore directly off the network. Now you get a separate disc to use so you can treat the Time Machine backup on the server as a standard Time Machine backup for restores.
But the most important feature on a day-to-day basis is the fact that the Home Server console works natively on Macs—even though it's just a remote desktop connection to the server anyway. You can now do on your Mac all the management actions you could on the PC, like setup new users, update your Home Server, perform diagnostics or configure video conversions.
Then there is the added ability to do media collecting on Macs, basically sucking off any videos or music you've accumulated into one network-accessible place so other machines can access it. It beats having to remember to manually place those things on the server yourself.
Of course, Macs can also access the web interface for Home Server management just like PCs can.
More power, more storage and better processing
Shoving a Dual Core 2.5GHz or a 2.2GHz Celeron processor and 2GB of RAM on these machines might seem like overkill for something that's just used to hold stuff and stream it around the network, but HP puts that to good use.
In our tests, the EX495 was able to convert a DVD movie into a full resolution h.264 and a phone-streamable 300MB movie in about an hour and a half, give or take. Very useful for not sucking up your main machine's horsepower to convert videos when you can just vomit them onto the network and have it be done by a slave machine.
The improved processor is very noticeable from just using the remote console. Clicking around to set up the photo publisher, or the media server, or adding BitTorrent plugins were much faster than the previous generation EX485 and EX487 machines. It's not even comparable to the LX195 budget versions.
At $700 and $550 respectively, the MediaSmart Servers definitely aren't cheap. If you've got an older version, like the 485/487 series, the improvements probably won't be enough to warrant you spending so much for another machine that has similar functionality. If you're new to the Windows Home Server realm, this has pretty much everything a PC or a Mac user would want to hold their data, stream their media and backup their information. [HP EX495 and HP EX490]
Apple gives Mac mini a spec bump, adds dual-HDD Mac mini server
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 20th, 2009
Apple is today introducing an all new machine in the Mac mini server, a system that's formed in the exact same enclosure as the standard mini but without an optical drive of any kind. Instead, there's room for an additional hard drive, and the $999 model ships with two 500GB HDDs. It also includes Snow Leopard Server (unlimited clients), a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, a GeForce 9400M GPU and the same port assortment (meaning no mini-DisplayPort) as found on the other guys. It's hard to say just how well something like this will do, but we're guessing Apple doesn't much mind if it remains a niche product. Catch Apple's official blurb after the break.
Continue reading Apple gives Mac mini a spec bump, adds dual-HDD Mac mini server
Filed under: Desktops
Apple gives Mac mini a spec bump, adds dual-HDD Mac mini server originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSGI announces Octane III personal supercomputer
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on September 22nd, 2009
Octane III Delivers Unparalleled Performance, Energy Efficiency and Ease of Use to HPC Users in Office Environments
Intel Developer Forum 2009, San Francisco
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SGI(R) (NASDAQ: SGI) today announced the immediate availability of Octane[TM] III, the company's first personal supercomputer. This new product takes high-performance computing to a new level by combining the immense power and performance capabilities of a high-performance deskside cluster with the portability and usability of a workstation. The Octane III is uniquely suited for workplace environments and supports a vast range of distributed technical computing applications.
Octane III is office-ready with a pedestal, one-by-two-foot form factor, whisper-quiet operations, easy-to-use features, low maintenance requirements and support for standard office power outlets. While a typical workstation has only eight cores and moderate memory capacity, the superior design of the Octane III permits up to 80 high-performance cores and nearly 1TB of memory for unparalleled performance.
"Octane III makes supercomputing personal again," said Mark J. Barrenechea, president and CEO of SGI. "Our customers have been asking for office environment products with large core counts that are easy to use and whisper-quiet. Octane III brings all of this to the HPC professional, and enables a new era of personal innovation in strategic science, research, development and visualization."
Octane III is easily configurable with single- and dual-socket node choices, and offers a wide selection of performance, storage, graphics, GP-GPU and integrated networking options. Yielding the same leading power efficiencies inherent in all SGI Eco-Logical[TM] compute designs, Octane III supports the latest Intel(R) processors to capitalize on greater levels of performance, flexibility and scalability.
"IDC research has shown a growing demand for high-performance deskside supercomputers, and the new Octane III personal supercomputer is designed to directly address the requirements of both the entry level HPC technical server market and the desktop workstation market with a high-performance cluster designed to help close the gap between the desktop and the data center," said Earl Joseph, HPC Program Vice President at IDC. "SGI workstations and servers have been highly regarded by HPC scientists, engineers and analysts, and the new system with up to 80 high-performance cores and 1TB of memory is certain to capture the attention of many HPC computing professionals."
Octane III is available in a variety of configurations:
* Ten dual-socket, Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor 5500 series-based nodes
* One dual-socket, Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor 5500 series-based workstation with advanced NVIDIA graphics and/or GP-GPU card support
* Nineteen single-socket, Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor 3400 series-based nodes
* Nineteen single-socket, Dual-Core Intel(R) Atom[TM] processor-based nodes
"SGI's Octane III offers a solution for workstation users wanting to reach dramatically higher levels of performance with minimal investment. With the support of up to 19 Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors, HPC users looking to enhance their workgroup productivity outside the data center can also utilize the benefits of the Octane III for faster discovery and quicker simulations," said Richard Dracott, General Manager of High Performance Computing at Intel. "With certification from the Intel(R) Cluster Ready program, Octane III will provide a powerful, easy-to-deploy personal supercomputer."
For a simple, out-of-the-box experience, Octane III ships as a factory-tested, pre-integrated platform with broad HPC application support - powerful enough for the most complex applications in the world. These include fluid dynamics, quantum mechanics, molecular dynamics, seismic processing, data analytics, rendering, visualization and computer-aided design, among many other HPC applications.
Octane III supports Microsoft HPC Server 2008, SUSE(R) Linux(R) Enterprise Server and Red Hat(R) Enterprise Linux operating systems. Linux configurations include SGI ProPack[TM] and ISLE[TM] cluster management software.
Octane III will be on display at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) at Moscone Center, San Francisco, Calif., on September 22-24, 2009, in Booth # 718 at the Technology Showcase in the HyperScale Community.
Availability and Pricing:
Octane III is immediately available with Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor 5500 series or Intel(R) Atom[TM] configurations. The base configuration price starts at $7,995. For more information about Octane III, please visit http://www.sgi.com/OctaneIII.
Filed under: Desktops
SGI announces Octane III personal supercomputer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSarotech’s WizPlat boxes 4TB NAS with BitTorrent client, biscuits
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on September 17th, 2009
[Via Akihabara News]
Filed under: Storage
Sarotech's WizPlat boxes 4TB NAS with BitTorrent client, biscuits originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsHP MediaSmart EX490 and EX495 Home Servers beef up Mac support
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on September 15th, 2009
Continue reading HP MediaSmart EX490 and EX495 Home Servers beef up Mac support
Filed under: Storage
HP MediaSmart EX490 and EX495 Home Servers beef up Mac support originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsHP’s MediaSmart EX490 and EX495 Have Additional Mac Functionality, More Video Encoding [Windows Home Server]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on September 15th, 2009
The previous HP EX-487 Windows Home Server was notable both because it was a good WHS, and because it had the ability to support Time Machine over the network on Macs. The EX490 and EX495 do even more.
One of the most important additions is the ability to do "bare metal recovery" on a Mac from Time Machine. This means you can completely restore your Mac from the network backup using the disc recovery utility that's bundled in. Also upgraded is the ability to do administration on a Mac.
There is also an included video conversion feature, which handles unprotected DVDs, as well as increased power (the 490 has a 2.2GHz Celeron and the 495 has a 2.5GHz Dual Core Pentium) and a "better" user interface. The ability to stream media from your iPhone or iPod Touch via a free app is included as well. And, of course, you get the standard Windows Home Server functions that we love using on a daily basis.
Preorders start today, but there's no solid word on a ship date.
ASUS TS mini home server makes its blurrycam debut
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on September 12th, 2009
[Via We Got Served]
Filed under: Storage
ASUS TS mini home server makes its blurrycam debut originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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