The bench notes
Server guides & buying advice
Model comparisons, platform explainers and configuration advice — written from the hardware we refurbish, test and ship every day.
Buying guide
Rails, Caddies and Bezels: The Parts Everyone Forgets
The server was a bargain; the missing rail kit, drive caddies and cable arm quietly add up. A field guide to the unglamorous parts - what...
refurbished servers
Burn-In and Acceptance Testing a Server
The week between delivery and production is when failures are cheap. A practical burn-in sequence - memory, storage, thermal load, power-pull tests - with the tools...
data security
Server Firmware Updates: Why and How
Firmware is the software nobody patches - and the fix for half the weird behaviors refurbished owners meet. What each layer does, the order that avoids...
Performance optimization
DAC, Optics or Copper: Cabling 10GbE
Three ways to move ten gigabits: direct-attach copper for the rack, optics for distance, 10GBASE-T for existing cable plants. Cost, heat, latency and compatibility - and...
Buying guide
Planning a 42U Rack: Depth, Power and Weight
Racks fail their owners in unglamorous ways: servers too deep for the posts, PDUs short of outlets, floors asked to hold half a ton. The measurements...
Scalable server
Xeon Scalable 1st vs 2nd Gen Explained
Skylake-SP and Cascade Lake share the same socket, the same servers and most of a name scheme - so what does second generation actually add? Memory...
Performance optimization
Xeon E5 v3 vs v4: What a Stepping Buys You
Same sockets, same servers, one letter apart: Haswell and Broadwell E5s coexist in the R630/R730 and Gen9 era, and the differences - core counts, DDR4 speed,...
data security
Why Servers Insist on ECC Memory
Bit flips are real, measurable and mostly invisible - until one lands in a filesystem structure or a database page. What ECC actually corrects, what registered...
Server hardware
Hardware RAID or HBA: Why ZFS Wants IT Mode
Hardware RAID and ZFS solve the same problem in incompatible ways. Why checksumming filesystems need raw disks, what IT mode actually is, which Dell and HPE...
HPE ProLiant
iLO Advanced: Which Features Are Worth It
iLO Standard shows you the server; Advanced lets you run it from anywhere - graphical console past POST, virtual media, directory integration. What sits at each...
dell poweredge
What iDRAC Enterprise Actually Unlocks
Express boots the server; Enterprise runs it from another city. The concrete differences - virtual console, virtual media, dedicated NIC mode - and how to check...
HPE ProLiant
iDRAC vs iLO: Out-of-Band Management Compared
Dell's iDRAC and HPE's iLO do the same essential job - console, power, health and firmware without an OS - but they differ in licensing, tooling...
Performance optimization
Database Server Hardware: Cores, Clocks and Memory
Databases reward different hardware than virtualization farms: fewer, faster cores; as much RAM as the hot data needs; and storage judged by latency, not throughput. How...