YouTube Video Review - Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5017R-MF Server Build

Published by Richard Parry on 12th Mar 2014

We've just uploaded our latest YouTube video - a review of a Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5017R-MF server solution for a customer of ours.

This system is a full Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5017R-MF, which is a fantastic entry-level 1U, Single Socket 2011 E5-Xeon enabled rackmount server. The SuperServer is in effect a barebones server solution that is based on the SuperChassis 512F-350B chassis and X9Sri-F Motherboard. It has 2x 3.5" bays pre-wired for SATA hard drives. While the chassis by default supports 2x standard 3.5” hard drives, these bays can be converted (used a Supermicro part) into either 1x 2.5” or 2x 2.5”. This would allow a potential maximum of 4x 2.5” Hard Drives or SSD’s to be installed.

Installed in this server is a single Samsung 840 EVO Pro 500GB SSD. These are excellent entry to mid-range SSD’s, with excellent IO throughput and IOPS support. For a simple installation such as this the SSD is perfect, and no RAID is required. It will be running Windows, so is mainly to support the OS and any operating software.

Each system for this customer are running with a Single Intel Xeon E5-2680V2 CPU and 16GB RAM – Made up of 4x 8GB Hynix Validated RAM running at 1866Mhz. This CPU is the latest V2, so has 10 physical cores with HyperThreading, so will present 20 available cores to a guest OS. This motherboard also has onboard VGA, dual Gigabit and a dedicated IPMI Network Interface for remote configuration, monitoring and management of the system. IPMI is a web-based dedicated system on many Supermicro boards (the –F in the model means it has IPMI) that allows any network/Internet connected browsers to access the server securely, and to view status information, but most importantly, allows remote KVM access, so you can control the server as if you were sitting in front of it with a standard keyboard and mouse. This remote KVM functionality works brilliantly and there are no additional licensing costs for this either – You would pay £200+ for this functionality from DELL or HP!

All of the products seen in the video review are available on our site to purchase individually, however if you would like to talk with us about a custom server configuration please call us on 0800 652 1649 or email us on [email protected]