HP ProLiant ML110 G6 Tower Intel X3440 2.53GHz 2GB Memory w/ DVD ROM & 250GB HDD installed (578929-005) Intel Xeon X3440 (4 core, 2.53 GHz) 2GB DDR3 250GB Non-hot-plug LFF 578929-005

Pros: I bought this to use with Vmware ESXi 4.0 and it has been working great. Also this computer can handle 4GB sticks of memory and works with over 8GB. I used Kingston KVR1333D3E9S/4G.

Cons: It doesn’t have on board raid. Would have liked to been able to do a raid 5 without getting an add-on card. But didn’t really expect it out of a server for this price.

Pros: This is a nice little box. The price is great, I don’t think I would have been able to build something similar from parts for $600. I needed to add 2 PCIE cards and a drive to the box, which was very easy. The box is easy to open, and comes with the needed screws attached to the case, which is very convenient. The system has everything you expect from a server: LOM, accessible over the network, and a serial port. Great for a simple server or a server OS developer like me.

Cons: The standard amount of memory in the box is 2G, which is of course too little. These days even most new laptops come with 4G. So the price is slightly deceptive, as you’ll likely need to add more memory. I added Kingston KVR1333D3E9SK3/6GI (3x2G DDR3 ECC UDIMMs), for a total of 8G. Still, this is not a major issue, even with the extra cost it’s still good value for money.

Pros: ESXi 4.1 installed perfectly right out of the box. For this price, it’s not worth my time to build a server from off-the-shelf components.

Cons: Only has 4 memory slots, so more expensive 4GB DIMMs are needed to reach the maximum 16GB.

Overall Review: Used Kingston KVR1333D3E9S/4G memory with no problems.

Pros: I couldn’t be happier with this hardware. I bought it to run ESXi and so far it’s handled everything I’ve thrown at it (Win2008, CentOS, RHEL, Ubuntu) with ease. If you’re looking to do some web hosting from your home or small business, start with this machine. Combined with ESX you’ll be able to scale up its performance as your hits increase.

Cons: No where near enough memory or disk is included so plan on upgrading immediately. That’s not really a con as much as a caveat.

Overall Review: HP is now selling a version of this server that’s somewhat cheaper with an X3430 chip. That chip is significantly slower so if you need an entry-level virtualization server, get one of these before they’re gone. You can’t build one for less. Also contrary to what one reviewer wrote, this machine does include an embedded RAID 0/1/10 controller. And if you install ESXi, do not use the version customized for HP Proliant as the ML110 is missing some key component that the higher-end systems include.

Pros: A Proliant Server & Xeon chip for < $600. Let’s see anyone build one for less than that. How can you go wrong? Everything works as it should. I don’t have the money to spend thousands on a “real” server but this one serves multiple websites with moderate traffic & multi-gig databases with ease. I upgraded to 8GB and running Win2K8 R2 flawlessly.

Cons: Looks like a toy. Feels & sounds like it’s < $600. But I don’t care since it’s sitting all by itself delivering thousands of pages and running thousands of queries daily.

Overall Review: If you need a decent entry level server and don’t have the budget to spend, this one will do the trick. Just upgrade what you need and it should take care of itself for a few years (hopefully).

Pros: Bought this server to aid in getting familiar with VMWare ESX. Using it at home as a test bucket. Installed ESXi 4.1 with no problems at all. I upgraded it to 10GB. I will eventually take it to 16GB. I do not need the RAID option, so I do not consider that a con. If I was going to put it in a real work enviroment it would be an issue. Still the RAID is doable using a card. Very please with it. I looked at the Dell TPowerEdge 110 (whic was actually a little cheaper) but decided to with this unit as I needed ASAP. Another plus for me was that the ProLiant is smaller than the Dell T110.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: This is a good basic server. Excellent to use at home playing with ESXi. I understand this model with the Xeon 3440 CPU is no longer shipping. I am glad I was able to pick one up before they were all gone.

Pros: When you add 16 GB RAM and SSD internal storage to the ML110 G6 X3440, this server is more than adequate as a single-machine Home Lab for your VCP studies.

With HyperThreading, you have 8 logical cores to work with. So, there are many VM configuration options available. (NOTE: if you are running virtualized ESXESXi, you will not be able to install 64-bit guests within them)

I have seen DDR3 RAM as low as $80 for 4 GB. So, it’s a little more reasonable nowadays to max out the system.

Cons: None that I can think of except HP seems to have halted production of this variant (they probably want you to buy the more expensive X3450 model to get the same benefits).

Make sure to buy an X3440 before they’re all gone.

Overall Review: NewEgg’s official specs needs to list max RAM of 16 GB. HP already updated their site to reflect this.

Pros: Esxi 4.0 installed smoothly
Great value with this cpu: 4 cores with HT
Compact solidly built
Relatively quiet
Nice little manual

Cons: none at this level although memory upgrades will price this closer to more full featured servers.

Overall Review: Had this for a while, finally got around to installing esxi and then ms server 2008. Seems nice and stable so far. Going to test out other vms and apps, should be fun.