A business, any business, runs on information, both gathered and produced for dissemination to clients and employees.  Increasingly this information is gathered and disseminated via the Internet and that means web application servers with all manner of hooks and add-ins that require raw processor power more than storage capacity.  These "Front-end" servers usually have at least two processors and up to 4GB of DDR Ram.  Our business has relied on Dell PowerEdge 1U rack-mounted servers in the past to perform this vital role in our enterprise.  So when it came time to buy new servers we once again went with Dell, this time opting for the *Dell ***PowerEdge 1950** 1U rack mountable server.       **The Server** The *Dell* **PowerEdge 1950** is the follow-on the very successful single use **PowerEdge **1U** **rack mount server boxes.  Like the PowerEdge 1750, and the 1850, the **PE 1950** is small server; the smallest rack mountable footprint available from Dell.  As a result everything about the **PE 1950 **is compact, but amazingly easy to access; the top cover comes completely off the unit exposing the motherboard, processor assemblies, RAM slots, cooling fans, and other essential components.  The new **PE 1950** servers integrate high-performance Dual-core Intel Xeon 5000 and 5100 series (previously codenamed "Dempsey" and "Woodcrest") processors that feature higher clock speeds, lower power consumption (up to 25%) and enhancements in memory technology.  And they do so without increased complexity or cost.  Other enhancements include fully buffered DIMMs in up to eight slots; SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) hard drives for faster, more reliable data transmission and reduced thermal output; TCP/IP Offload Engine, and; enhanced virtualization technology. The **PE 1950 **server supports dual 64-bit Intel Xeon dual-core 5000 or 5100 processors with processor clock speeds of: 5000 Sequence: 667MHz or 1066MHz; 5100 Sequence: 1066MHz or 1333MHz and up to 4MB of L2 level cache (2MB cache per core).  The **PE 1950** features the Intel 5000x chipset that supports two 64-bit PCI-X slots, a maximum 32GB of DDR2 667 SDRAM in eight slots. The **PE 1950** ships with the new PERC 5/i for (RAID) control of SAS 3.0 Gb/s hard drives with 256MB of memory.  Optionally the **PE 1950** can be ordered with traditional PERC 4e/DC dual-channel PCI Express controller, or the PERC 5/E adapter for external RAID storage.   The **PE 1950 **(base)** **is capable of housing only two hot-pluggable (swappable), 2.5 inch SAS (10k or 15k) or SATA hard drives in sizes ranging from 36GB - 300GB for up to 600GB of storage at various speeds.  But the server can also accept SATA drives as well (80GB, 160GB, and 250GB). The front of the black **PE 1950 **is taken up mostly by the two SAS drive bays.  To the far left are (2) USB ports, a monitor output, and a small blue LCD panel for diagnostics.  Underneath the LCD screen sits the DVD drive; the server does not ship with a floppy drive.  The front of the unit is covered with a removable, lockable black and silver bezel with a cut out for the aforementioned blur LCD panel in the upper left.  The round silver Dell logo is placed in the center of the faceplate.  The back of the **PE 1950** is equally as compact; here you will find a serial port, embedded video port; dual NIC's, another (2) USB ports, and the ubiquitous mouse, and keyboard ports, as well as two hot-swappable 670W redundant power supplies.     **My Viewpoint** We currently use our small, but growing supply of **PE 1950's **as web application front-end servers, a role for which they are ideally suited.  However, because the **PE 1950 **is highly scalable, the box could just as easily be used as a specialized server such as a Windows 2003 domain controller, but the limited redundancy makes this a risky proposition for an Enterprise.  And the lack of high storage capacity makes the unit unsuitable for duties as a file server however, in a small or medium sized company this functionality might be acceptable.   The dual core Intel 5100 processors coupled with fast RAM and 15K SAS hard drives make the **PE 1950** a performance star.  Actual, real world throughput (file transfers to and from the server), is outstanding, especially when it comes to serving up web pages and or SAN Front-end performance.  The **PE 1950**'s in our inventory are at the top of the performance curve, and they are dependable and boost enough power to meet all of current and future application needs.  If you are looking for a reliable, versatile, powerful and reasonably priced application server, the small-footprint Dell **PE**** 1950 **Enterprise-class** **application server will most certainly fit the bill.   

TheBard

Aurora, IL