Invisible wrote:
> 
> Mental, eh?

Yes, we have bunch of those at work.

> - 1U rack-mount form factor. (It's bloody heavy BTW.)

No, it's not. DL380G5 on 2U in size.

> - It comes with sliding rails and a bendy cable arm to automatically
> fold or extend the cables as you slide the server into or out of the
> rack. Completely tool-less installation. Everything snaps into place. (I
> have *no idea* how the hell you take it apart again, should you want to.)

It's actually pretty easy, if you'll think it a bit. Those rails really
*are* designed.

> - When mine arrived, I had to open it up and install the optional extras
> myself. In particular, it is highly non-obvious how to remove the air
> baffle. (And I don't want to break a £4,000 server in five minutes!) I
> had to install the second CPU and the second pair of RAM boards.

You grab a hold on the baffle and take it out upwards. Yes, you'll need
to sort out the SAS cables and possibly RAID-controllers battery, but
it's no big deal.

> - The CPU chip comes inside a "processor installation tool". This
> consists of a handle to hold it by, and when you press down it's
> supposed to release the chip [but doesn't]; The chip itself doesn't
> appear to have any pins, which is kinda weird.

Yes, the installation tool sucks. I've always removed the processor from
it and installed the proc by hand.

> - There's a button on the front that turns on a light at the back. So if
> you have a rack with 10 of them, you can figure out which one to plug
> your cables into.

1) If you already have 9 of them, they're probably already plugged in,
so just plug in the one that hasn't.

2) The "blue makes you happy" -button need power, so you'll first need
to attach the power cables anyway ;). At work we hit dymo stickers to
both ends of a server, so it's even easier to know which machine is which.

> - Front-mounted hot-swap drive bays. (I've got 6 drives - and you know
> what? Each one is tiny, yet arrived in a really huge box!)

The earlier huge ones (3,5") arrived at even huger boxes :).

> WHAT THE HELL MORE DO YOU WANT?!?!! >_<

Free tea? :)

> Seriously. This is the puppy.

Yes, quite nice, I like them too.

> ...although, having just said all that, the cable arm isn't as nice as
> the Dell one. It's a bit flimsy, and bends in planes it shouldn't. 

Is it attached properly? It is flimsy if it's attached poorly, but
pretty good when properly in place.

> Also,
> the automated installer doesn't support Windows 2000 Server, which is
> what the company IT department wanted me to use. Wasted a few hours on
> that one. But that's about all I can actually find to complain about.

Try 7-series Smartstart:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=fi&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=1121516&prodNameId=3288134&swEnvOID=181&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-38d443ae75914124807c7cf066
(or http://tinyurl.com/smartstart790)

> PS. What *the hell* is a "PPM"? And why is it 80% heatsink??

Processor Power Module. It regulates the power for the processor (that's
why it's 80% heatsink).

-Aero

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