The Asus Server TS500-E6/P4

Asus TS500-E6 P4

The Asus TS500-E6/PS4 is the only dual processor 5U server sold by the manufacturer. The TS500 is sold as a barebones server, so you have to buy it through a reseller. The base price is $699, which is low, considering you can outfit it with two Intel X5500 processors—and remember, that price is before you include processors—or much else. Asus did not provide us with the price for the configured test server, we had to ask a reseller: Colfax sells it with the 24GB of memory that Asus tossed in for $4,450 After factoring the design, management and that price, it’s clear the Asus TS500 is a good deal for businesses that require a super fast server, but it’s not cheap if you want it this fast. Less RAM and a lower price might make it even more attractive.

Design and Setup
The TS500’s tower case (5U) is about the same size as the HP Proliant ML330 G6. By contrast, Dell chose a standard PC case for its PowerEdge T110 server series. Like the HP ML330, the TS500 protects the drive bay with a door. The front bay can house four full-size hard drives. At the bottom right, in an unusual arrangement, Asus placed the audio ports above two USB ports. On the back, Asus kept the old style setup: PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, VGA, serial port, and two USB ports. Finding two Ethernet ports was a nice surprise, especially considering the base price of this server. With two network connections you can do a little more than just run line of business applications. For instance, you can squeeze more horsepower out by running multiple virtual machines, and even segment your network with virtual LANs to manage your VoIP communication or comfortably run Exchange Server by separating the external and internal access to the mail server.

The TS500 I tested arrived with two Intel X5560 quadcore processors, 24 GB of memory and a 1 TB drive. There’s ample room for PCIe cards, a couple of optical drives and an extra drive bay. The motherboard supports eight more drives. A large fan in the back keeps the server cool. The case is large enough to dampen most of the noise from the air flow inside it. For safety, the server includes a power switch for the side panel. Opening the panel triggers the switch and an alert message is generated in the Asus System Web-based Management software (ASWM).

The TS500 is sold barebones, so pricing varies depending on the components you add. The unit I received was configured by Asus, and came without an operating system. After slapping Windows Server 2008 on it, I installed ASWM for management. ASWM integrated well with Windows Server 2008 and was able to discover all components and peripherals.

Management
The ASWM matches some of the functionality of the Dell OpenManage software on the PowerEdge T110, but it has some shortcomings. You can’t manage client connections unless they use the internal VNC server in ASWM. ASWM cannot shutdown the server as easily as OpenManage. There is an agent that you can set up to shut down the server but the options are more restricted. Yet, the interface is friendly and simple to use.

With the ASWM interface you can identify alerts quickly, and set high and low thresholds with graphical sliding bar. The layout of the inventory is intuitive, even for novice administrators. ASWM performs a thorough software inventory of the TS500. You can even stop and start services and track the resources consumed by processes.

Performance
After running Geekbench 2.1 64-Bit on the TS500, I got a whopping score of 14,711. Of course, the two X5560 processors and the 24 GB of memory bumped its performance by a large margin. By contrast, the HP ML 330 with only 8MB of memory and one quad-core CPU scored 5,430 on the same test. We took out DIMMs from the Asus and retested it and still got a great 14,364. With Cinebench R10 64-Bit CPU test, the TS500 managed to top at 26,456 with 24 GB, and did even higher at 28,771 with 8GB; the HP ML330 scored 10,975. Obviously, the dual quad-core processors are doing all the heavy lifting in these tests, less memory didn’t change much.

I also ran the IOzone 3.321 network file system benchmark to test disk I/O and RAID performance. Unfortunately, IOzone could not execute on the command line. It got exceptions every time I ran it. But I saw no other problems with the RAID performance of the server.

Bottom Line
The Asus TS500-E6/PS4 server can certainly run the most demanding line of business applications on the market, as performance tests showed. Moreover, the two Ethernet ports put it on the same level as the HP ML330 for usefulness. The barebones system is an incredible deal, and even over-configured as it came to us, the price of $4,450 isn’t totally outrageous. It’s worth serious consideration for any office that can afford it, but for most might be overkill.

Pogoplug only supports USB 2.0

pogoplug

Pogoplug was a PCMag Editors’ Choice in its first version. Now CloudEngine’s latest iteration of its multimedia sharing device has been updated with several new features including a lurid purple-pink cable stand. It does what it did before: give you fast access, locally or remotely, to your USB storage devices—up to four of them, instead of just one. There are multimedia enhancements: you can stream almost any video file, do automatic media synching, and perform improved contact management. All of which helps make up for the $30 price increase from the original.

Although it does have more USB ports as well as a 1 GB Ethernet port, this little, Linux-based device isn’t significantly larger than the first-generation. Its presence certainly wouldn’t overwhelm a small, home office. Maybe the sheer number of external devices you can connect to it will. Also nice: the price includes the fee for cloud-based sharing service for the life of the device.

Already own the first generation Pogoplug? No worries, as you can get the new software features as a free upgrade. You’re just stuck with the 1 USB port.Pogoplug doesn’t do anything much differently than other NAS devices except it doesn’t come with on-board storage.However, it does allow you to easily setup content and device sharing. A reader asked how Pogoplug differs from a service like LogMeIn Hamachi which provides hosted VPN and requires no specialized hardware. Both PogoPlug and LogMeIn can achieve remote access to your computer. However, for non-IT folks and home users, the idea of a VPN can be daunting. PogoPlug is effortless sharing, and is ideal for a home or small business where there is no IT presence.

Pogoplug only supports USB 2.0 and older devices and the following disk drive file systems: NTFS, FAT32, Mac OS Extended Journaled and Non-Journaled (HFS+) and EXT-2/EXT-3. The Web-based management console can be accessed via any modern browser.

Setup
The folks at Pogoplug tout how fast it is to get the device setup and they are not joking. The time to connect the device to a router, then to a 150 GB USB Verbatim external drive, powering it all up, to seeing my drive’s files on mypoloplug.com (the device’s Web-based console) took a scant 2 minutes and 19 seconds. The longest part of the setup was getting up off my chair and walking to the router.

What’s New
There really aren’t any noticeable changes in the Web-based interface since the last version. There is improved contact management. Anytime you type in an email address to send an invite to share a file, that name is automatically remembered. Such addresses make up your address book within the system. There’s no way currently to import contacts, like from Hotmail or Gmail, but perhaps that will be on Pogoplug’s roadmap.

Pogoplug next gen supports a wider range of video file types that can be streamed to other users as well as to iPhones and Android phones. Blackberry isn’t supported but Pogoplug says it’s in the works.

Pogoplug now supports automatic medic synch. You can setup one-way synch from any media source to folders on the storage devices attached to Pogoplug. It offers location independent, global search; search across any drives connected to any of your Pogoplugs—that’s right, you can run multiples Pogoplugs on your network, so you could have more than four USB storage devices to access.

A new fun, feature is the ability to create slideshows. You don’t get the bells and whistles of Microsoft PowerPoint, but creating business presentations isn’t the purpose. I quickly put together a slideshow of pictures and a video by dragging and dropping them into the slideshow creation screen and added accompanying music. Note—Pogoplug doesn’t support all media files. I had no problem with .MP3s, but could not drag and drop a Windows Media Audio (.WMA) file into my slideshow. There’s also no way to control slideshow speed.

You can opt to use the free, downloadable client to access Pogoplug rather than a Web browser. The client treats the Pogoplug as another local hard drive on your machine, accessed via Windows Explorer, even when remote. Clients are available for Windows 32- and 64-bit desktops, Mac OS X and there’s a beta version available for Linux. Of course, as mentioned in the last review, there’s a terrific client for accessing files (not just video) from your iPhone.

Security
One thing I was concerned about was security. It was a bit disconcerting to fire a device up and see my personal files pop up via the Internet, even though I had to login to the Web-based client first. There is under-the-hood security, though. Both the Web-based and desktop clients use 256-AES encryption—security that is very difficult to crack. To ensure the highest security, it’s a good idea to access the web client using https://my.pogoplug.com rather than through HTTP.

Testing
This device is really peppy. Of course, much of the performance relies on Internet connection speed, but if this were sloppily-engineered, it could slow even the fastest broadband. When I disconnected the Verbatim drive and added a USB stick, I saw the contents of the memory stick online in under 3 minutes. I got this while connected to a DSL line that’s not the fastest broadband available, either.

I reconnected the Verbatim drive and three USB memory sticks to the Pogoplug simultaneously. The device does a nice job of scanning each newly connected device and I nimbly switched back and forth between each device’s libraries in the Web client.

Big warning—make sure you eject any drive you want to physically disconnect from Pogoplug using the eject command in the interface (it’s the same eject symbol you see on DVD and Blu-Ray Players.) I pulled the Verbatim drive while “hot,” that is, without clicking the eject button and the drive got hosed. It was inaccessible through Pogoplug and through Windows Explorer. No big loss for my test equipment, and this isn’t the norm for USB devices, of course, so your mileage may vary. But consider yourself warned.

Bottom Line
This really is a neat little device. It innovates by harnessing the power and flexibility of the cloud, without having your data actually reside in the cloud. With Pogoplug, you can access and share files over the Internet but the actual data remains in your control on your storage devices. The second-generation Pogoplug performs even better than the first, and the multimedia enhancements make it of even greater value, especially if you want to share. This version is as heartily recommended as the previous, despite the ghastly colored cable stand.

the Insignia NS-L42X-10A HDTVs

Insignia NS-L42X-10A

Not everyone has the need—or the budget—for the latest and greatest in television technology. Features such as LED backlighting, 240Hz refresh rates, and Web connectivity are all the rage right now, but as is usually the case with new tech, you’ll pay a premium for it. Enter the Insignia NS-L42X-10A, one in a series of four low-cost 1080p 120Hz HDTVs offered exclusively by Best Buy. Priced at $749.99, this 42-inch LCD model may not offer much in the way of features or aesthetics, and its picture quality is less than perfect, but if you’re looking for a cheap, no-frills flat-screen TV for, say, the basement, or a playroom, it’ll fit the bill.

Design and Appearance
The 42-inch panel is housed in a plain-looking black cabinet. The display is bordered by a relatively wide glossy black bezel on three sides, and an extra-wide lower bezel which curves upwards at the bottom. I’m not a fan of the design: it looks a bit flimsy and lacks the clean lines found on much-pricier models such as the LG 42SL80 and the Toshiba Regza 46SV670U. The matching stand is fairly stable and does a good job of supporting the 37-pound screen, and it swivels so you can position the display for optimal viewing. The two 12-watt speakers provide plenty of volume, and the SRS TruSurround feature does a fairly good job of simulating a multi-channel audio experience, but you’ll need a subwoofer if you want pumping bass, since you won’t find any here.

Recessed into the right side of the cabinet are buttons for powering up the set, changing channels, selecting an input source, raising and lowering the volume, and accessing the on-screen menu system. On the left are two of the five HDMI ports, VGA (PC) and S-Video inputs, a PC audio input, composite audio and video ports, and a headphone jack. Around back are three additional HDMI ports, two sets of component audio and video inputs, a digital (SPDIF) output, one set of analog stereo audio outputs, a secondary S-Video input, and a secondary set of composite A/V inputs. While it’s nice to have five HDMI ports, you won’t find a card reader, Ethernet, or USB ports—features which can be found on many of today’s midrange models such as the Sharp Aquos LC-40LE700UN and the Toshiba 46SV670U.

The 52-button remote is tapered in the middle and fits comfortably in your hand, but it’s a bit on the small side and the buttons feel slightly crowded. The four-way rocker is very responsive, however, making it easy to zip through the on-screen menus. The uncomplicated menu structure is broken into four basic submenus; Picture, Audio, Channels, and Settings. The Picture section is where you can tweak brightness, contrast, sharpness, color, and tint levels. In the Advanced video menu you can adjust backlighting and color temperature settings and enable/disable noise reduction and dynamic contrast ratio functionality. Here you can also choose one of three Digital Clear Motion levels (DCM), which uses 120Hz technology to help reduce motion blur, or you can disable the feature altogether. There’s also a switch that enables a light sensor, which adjusts the screen’s brightness according to the ambient lighting environment. I suggest leaving this feature off; in my tests, the luminance level, which changed often, was very distracting.

The Audio menu provides settings for bass, treble, balance, and SRS TruSurround as well as a dynamic volume setting that compensates for sudden changes in sound level during broadcasts. The Channels menu lets you hide channels and create a favorites list, and the Settings menu is where you can set up parental controls and assign a parental-control password.

Image Quality and Performance
After a darkroom calibration using the DisplayMate for Windows Multimedia Edition diagnostic software, the NS-L42X-10A turned in a contrast ratio of 3207:1, which is quite good for an HDTV that uses CCFL backlighting. It takes more than a high contrast ratio to deliver a high quality picture, though. Greens and blues were saturated, resulting in uneven skin tones and tinting in certain shades of gray. The high contrast ratio helped deliver deep blacks, but I noticed significant motion artifacts in the form of background noise while watching scenes from The Matrix in standard definition. There was a fair amount of image smearing as well. Not surprisingly, the panel was unable to pass the HD HQV Jaggies benchmark, which tests de-interlacing performance.

The set fared better with 1080p HD content. Mission: Impossible 2 on Blu-ray was sharp, but once again I observed subtle smearing and some judder, particularly during the opening rock climbing scene where the camera is continually panning. Enabling the DCM feature helped reduce the judder effect, but the resulting picture looked too sharp and overly noisy. In my tests, viewing angles were fine up to around 165 degrees off center; after that, colors began to fade.

The NS-L42X-10A draws an average of 220 watts, which means it’ll cost around $3.60 a month to run (based on five hours of daily use using the 2008 national average cost of $0.1135 per kWh). While not as energy efficient as some of the newer LED-backlit HDTVs like the 40-inch Sharp LC-40LE700UN, which draws only 120 watts, it’s far from a power hog. Whereas most HDTVs come with a one-year warranty, Insignia provides a two-year plan at no extra cost.

Overall, the big draw of the Insignia NS-L42X-10A is its rock-bottom $750 price. Even in these days of freefalling HDTV prices, it’s tough to find a 1080p 42-inch set for less, let alone one with a two-year warranty. It’s certainly not the sexiest-looking model you’ll find, and its performance is pretty much what you’d expect from a low-cost HDTV, but despite these shortcomings, its low price, two-year warranty, and plethora of HDMI ports help to redeem the NS-L42X-10A . That said, if you have a few extra bucks to spend, the 40-inch Sharp Aquos LC-40LE700UN offers better performance and a more robust feature set, and can be had for around $950 online.

Fujitsu LifeBook P3010 at 2010

Fujitsu P3010

As of this moment, I don’t have enough fingers to count the amount of oversized netbooks that are being sold in retail. Oversized netbooks typically have 11 to 12-inch widescreens and have parts with names like Nvidia’s ION, AMD’s Neo, VIA’s Nano, and the most popular of which, Intel’s Atom. Fairly late to the game is Fujitsu’s LifeBook P3010, an 11-inch, oversized netbook that runs on AMD parts, which have an edge in speed over the Intel Atom but trails it in battery life. Even if Fujitsu were to knock down the price from $549, it would still be just an okay netbook.Design  I’m usually a sucker for vibrant colors. The P3010’s shiny red plastics, though plain in design, still grabs a hold of your attention immediately and beats the drab, neutral hues found on the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Samsung NC20 (21GBK), and MSI U210 (008US). Over on the corner of the lid is Fujitsu’s signature infinity logo, which is always a nice finishing touch. It’s a heavy netbook, though, as its 3.5-pound frame outweighs many of its netbook peers, including the Asus EeePC 1101HA (3 lbs), HP Mini 311 (3.3 lbs), and MSI U210 (3 lbs). Only the HP Pavilion dv2-1030us is heavier, tipping the scales at 3.8 pounds.

As with any oversized netbook, the sweet spot is the extra screen real estate. The P3010 has an 11.6-inch widescreen, which not only gives you more to look at than the typical 10-inch ones, but the resolution is higher as well. Case in point: Ten-inch netbooks like the Toshiba mini NB205 and HP Mini 5101 default to 1,024-by-600 resolutions; the P3010, like all oversized netbooks, has a 1,366-by-768 one, or WXGA. Oversized netbooks like the Lenovo S12, Samsung NC20, and MSI U210 have bigger 12-inch widescreens, which you might consider if you want to push this boundary.
Features Another thing that the P3010 can afford to do with a bigger screen (hence, wider dimensions) is put in a full size keyboard. Its keyboard size is comparable to the ones found in the Lenovo S12, Samsung NC20, and MSI U210. In contrast, others in its size class, namely the HP Mini 311, ASUS 1101HA, and HP dv2, top out at 92% of full size. The touchpad seemed agonizingly small at first, but wrapping the chrome mouse buttons around the front bezel, thereby widening the pinch between the thumb and index fingers (used to navigate), made it tolerable. Nevertheless, Fujitsu needs to find a way to increase the size of the touchpad.

The P3010’s other features are average at best. Its most glaring omission is an HDMI port, given that the HP dv2 and MSI U210—netbooks that run on similar AMD parts—are including it. The three USB ports can be found in smaller 10-inch netbooks and 802.11g Wi-Fi seems average, too, when others are bundling 802.11n. Fujitsu is including a 320GB hard drive, though, which gives you more storage than MSI U210’s 250GB drive. Aside from that, it has Bluetooth, a 4-in-1 media card reader, Webcam, an Ethernet and a VGA port.

Performance
To date, I’ve looked at about four netbooks that run on the 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40—a single-core processor and one of AMD’s answers to the Intel Atom. A dual-core Neo is already shipping, but hasn’t shown up in many netbooks. The advantage of using an AMD Neo is that there isn’t a RAM restriction (Intel Atom-based netbooks can only ship with 1GB of RAM, but can be manually upgraded to two), so the P3010 ships with 2GB of DDR2 memory. In terms of raw speed, the Neo is a faster processor than the Atom; its score on our video encoding tests bears this out: The P3010’s 3-minute 56-second score convincingly beat out the Lenovo S12 (4:40), Samsung NC20 (5:30), and ASUS 1101HA (5:32). It has a minor graphics advantage, too, as the ATI Radeon 3200 chipset (with the Neo processor and 2GB of memory) handled high-definition clips (1080p and 720p) reasonably well; at least better than with Intel’s integrated graphics.

As a result of using AMD chips, the P3010 had to sacrifice battery life. As with the MSI U210 (4:13) and the HP dv2 (3:08), the P3010’s 3 hours 25 minutes score on MobileMark 2007 is sufficient enough for a half-day’s work, but falls well short of the 5- to 7-hour scores amassed by the Lenovo S12 (5:19), ASUS 1101HA (6:50), and HP Mini 311 (5:29). Against a smaller netbook like the Toshiba NB205 (8:27), the P3010 gets less than half its battery life.

It’s hard enough to compete as a latecomer, but when you’re priced more than similar netbooks (i.e, the MSI U210 runs for $430), it makes the Fujitsu LifeBook P3010 difficult to recommend. The P3010 does have very good qualities for a netbook, such as speed, ability to playback HD video, and a full size typing experience, but its battery score and price can’t compete with its peers. Consider the MSI U210 and the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 instead.