Micron NetFrame 5200

Micron's NetFrame 5200 is the vanilla ice cream of general-purpose midrange workgroup servers. Its case, motherboard, processors and management software are from Intel, and no hardware subsystem components were designed by Micron. It scored an unspectacular 7.7, but this moderate score is tempered by its relatively inexpensive price of $13,145.

This server is a fair performer, scoring 8.3 out of 10 in overall performance. The NetFrame 5200 scored a 10 for the CPU and network tests, most likely due to its 550-MHz Pentium III processors. However, a 5 in the file test, likely due to a poorly performing disk controller, brought down its overall performance score. To derive the performance score, we weighted the file, SQL and network tests at 35%, 35% and 30%, respectively.

The server case's lockable front bezel houses the diskette, CD-ROM and hard drive cage, and the power switch. You have to remove three screws to open the side of the case to access the roomy interior. Serviceability in this server leaves much to be desired; you need a screwdriver to remove almost everything, and components are only moderately accessible. The drive cage has the capacity for six hot-pluggable 1-inch hard drives. The server can be used in a stand-alone or rack configuration.

The server supports as many as three power supplies. One power supply is enough to run the server. A configuration with two power supplies provides load balancing and redundancy, but in that configuration, the power supplies are not hot-swappable. Three power supplies gives the server hot-pluggable capability, power load balancing and 2+1 redundancy.

This NetFrame 5200 came with two 550-MHz Pentium III processors, 512M bytes of RAM, five 9.1G-byte hard drives and two Fast Ethernet network interface cards (NIC). The processors are housed in a screwed-in retention system. The drive cage is connected to an onboard Adaptec 7896 Ultra2 SCSI controller. An UltraNarrow SCSI controller is provided on the motherboard for slower peripherals. The motherboard supports six PCI slots - three are 66MHz and three are 33MHz - and six Single Connection Attach hard drive slots.

NT and NetWare were installed on a RAID 0 stripe set configured by each operating system. The drive backplane was connected directly to the Ultra2 SCSI controller port on the motherboard. The onboard Fast Ethernet NIC and the PCI NIC were configured for full-duplex 100M bit/sec operation.

Micron bundles Intel LANDesk Server Manager 6 with NetFrame 5200 for management.

Even though the server seems average in design, Micron offers an aggressive service package, providing installation and orientation, data migration services, data recovery services and enterprise service plans for Micron and third-party equipment.

RELATED LINKS

Scorecard and NetResults
Key findings, product specs, vendor contact info.

How we did it A look at our test methodology.

Top of the midrange
Review: Dell's PowerEdge 4300 department server is a good performer and a good value. Network World, 7/19/99.