Broadberry CyberServe X55-SR1625 review

Intel’s launch of its Westmere Xeon 5600 family of processors stole some thunder from AMD, as they popped up a week or so before the new Opteron 6000 Series was announced. Many server manufacturers have been slow in getting product to market, but Broadberry has pipped them all to the post with the CyberServe X55-SR1625.

The server came equipped with a pair of 2.53GHz E5630 modules that sit at the lower end of a big family, offering a choice of 12 models. These are four-core variants with a QPI speed of 5.86GT/sec and support for memory speeds of 800MHz and 1,066MHz. Their lower cost compared to the top-end Xeon 5600 CPUs is reflected in the server’s price, but note these modules are slower than the higher-end X5600 models.

The CyberServe shows off Intel’s own server platforms, as this package is its latest Server System SR1625UR. It’s one of four new rack server models to employ Intel’s S5520UR motherboard – introduced more than a year ago – but it doesn’t require any modifications to support 5600 processors.

Storage options are good. The standard chassis has room for up to six 2.5in SATA drives in hot-swap bays and the review system came with a pair of 500GB Seagate Enterprise drives. There’s room for up to eight drives if you purchase an extra dual-drive bay for £55 exc VAT.

The motherboard has an embedded SATA controller, but to facilitate hot-swap all six ports are cabled through to a separate mid-plane board, connected to the drive backplane. This provides storage and RAID services, and uses a bridge board to connect to a proprietary socket on the motherboard. Standard support is provided for mirrors and stripes, and Broadberry offers a RAID5 enabler key for an extra £59 exc VAT.

The lid is easily removed and underneath lies a tidy interior with a bank of ten dual-rotor fans arranged in five pairs across the front. These are all powered via the storage mid-plane board, but they’re not hot-swappable. The motherboard is covered with a large transparent plastic shroud, and noise levels were low enough to suit deployment in an office rack cabinet.