Overview: What we found

by Neil Randall and Allen Fear (3/1/2004; updated 2/28/2005)

For this roundup, we look at a motley assortment of inexpensive tower servers as well as a few server alternatives that can help you save money and still provide basic file-sharing capabilities for a small workforce. Each of these devices costs less than $2,000 and is appropriate for small businesses looking to beef up their IT setup and provide file sharing to their employees.

Performance
We configured the tower servers in this roundup with a Windows operating system (either Windows Server 2003 or Windows Small Business Server 2003). CPUs were a mix of Pentium 4s and Xeons in the 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz range. The conclusion from our informal performance testing (see How we tested): If you can get a Xeon without paying too high a premium (as you can with the IBM eServer xSeries 225), do it. The chip might be overkill for most back-office basics, but it'll give you a bit of a boost now and handle increased loads as your company grows. The one downside to the Xeon: Because it runs hotter, it requires more cooling fans, which can make Xeon systems awfully noisy, particularly in small offices. We didn't do rigorous, formal performance testing; we simply tried to make sure none of these boxes were serious laggards.

Storage
These servers and server alternatives sport a variety of storage options--one of the most important components in a server. Most come in configurations ranging from 80GB to 1TB, and the towers support both SCSI and ATA (or Serial ATA). Some of the units come with RAID controllers standard. (RAID allows for one drive to back up the other--a must-have if your business depends on your server.) ATA offers more in terms of gigabytes per dollar, but SCSI is more expandable; you'll have to do your own math on that one.

Ease of use
We were primarily concerned with ease of setup, rather than raw speeds and feeds, because we believe that that is the main differentiator for small businesses. On that score, the server alternatives give the towers a run for their money; one reason: the biggest factor in setting up a server isn't the hardware, it's the operating system--in this case, Windows Small Business Server (SBS) vs. dumbed-down, browser-based configuration tools. While some towers come with extra setup and management utilities, most rely on Windows itself. Be warned: Despite the small-business label, SBS isn't for the timid. We think vendors should spend more time and effort developing software tools to make server setup easier for first-time (and second- and third-time) users. Of course, simplicity has advantages and disadvantages, making things easy to setup on the one hand but typically robbing you of some of the configurability of a full-fledged server. LaCie strikes an interesting balance with its Ethernet Disk, which runs Windows XP Embedded and occupies the territory between relatively dumb NAS, or network-attached storage, units and more robust and configurable tower servers. Conversely, the Mirra Personal Server sacrifices flexibility and configurability for ease of use, and though we see Mirra's value for true technophobes, we encourage you to consider exactly how you would like to share files before reaching for your wallet. The Buffalo LinkStation, the Iomega NAS 100d, and the Tritton WiFi are all NAS units that can take on some duties of a full-fledged file server, and all three rely on browser-based management tools designed to mask complexities.

Best of the bunch
After evaluating these servers and NAS units for ease of use, features, performance, and service, we came away with two favorites. On the high end, the IBM xSeries 225 is an extremely capable product at a surprisingly reasonable price. Of the others, we particularly liked the Buffalo LinkStation, which is a very affordable file server alternative for businesses who merely need added storage, backup, and file-sharing capabilities but don't need the additional power of a tower server. The differences among these servers and server alternatives are significant, at least for real-world users who just want to get some work done. To find out more about choosing the right model, read our "What kind of server do you need?" feature. And check out our suggestions for server upgrades as well.

Neil Randall teaches software interface analysis and design at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and has published numerous books and articles covering operating systems, networking, and hardware. Allen Fear is a senior editor at CNET.