The Bottom Line: A small, compact server which does not quite meet the expectations set by the price tag.

Pros: Compact, 1U design, hot swappable RAID, brand name company, rack mountable
Cons:Extremely expensive, horrid tech support

Usually, when we require a new capital asset for the data center either for a client or for our own enterprise systems support, we will lease that server or item rather than purchase it outright due to the high costs of servers in relation to other equipment in our company. This HP netcenter server was a rare exception. We needed a low-profile rack mountable server to host some minor application needs and this particular HP server seemed to fit the bill.

We then ordered it, the HP Netserver lp 1000r with 933MHz processor and 256MB of ram for just over $2200. When it was shipped to us, we were impressed. Not overly impressed, but it was shipped, arrived undamaged and packed properly and it arrived when it was supposed to. On closer inspection of the hardware specifications, we immediately saw that some upgrading was required immediately.

The model that we had as shipped came with dual Pentium III processors with 256K of level 2 cache, 256MB of RAM, integrated Ultra3 SCSI, dual integrated 10/100 ethernet, and 1 36G Hot-swappable HD. We added another 768 MB of ram immediately into the system along with two more hot swappable 36GB drives. We then configured the SCSI with a RAID controller and set up RAID 5 (striping with parity) in order to maximize server efficiency. Following that, we reinstalled windows NT4 server to provide application services for some of our enterprise software.

Even with the upgraded configuration, I am still to this day disappointed with the server that we have bought form HP. To begin with, HP cut corners to make this server "affordable" for medium sized businesses, sacrificing some of the more durable efficiency and performance in the interests of price. And even at that particular quality, HP has not done much of a job. The server is well overpriced for the hardware that came with the server. For over two thousand dollars of the IT department budget, we got 2 933MHz processors, 256 MB of ram, and another 36GB of storage, not the best deal that I have seen.

On the good side, however, the HP netserver lp1000r is configured with dual integrated NIC support that can be configured to be load bearing, therefore allowing us to speed up access time for the front end users. HP has also made all three drive bays hotswappable rather than attempting to cage one or two. This allows for quick and easy maitenance when we encounter a problem though the front panel is cheap and a little too easy to get off. Since it is only held on by metal clips, all it would take is a cart going by the server to catch on the front and that would be it for the front of some of our lower-racked servers.

In addition, technical support could be described as wonky at best. Hp offers a grand total of 12 possible support/warrenty options that the customer can choose from. You can either have "immediate" on site 24/7 repair, 4 hour 24/7 repair, 4 hour business hours repair, and next business day repairs, all availible on either a 1, 3, or 5 year plan. We purchased a 3 year 24/7 4 hour repair plan. in order to best fit our support in case something goes wrong in the middle of the night here and one of our offices in asia or austrailia needs access to something on the server ASAP.

The on site server, the one time we had to use it, was quit well done. It took a little over 4 hours for the person to show up and he seemed reasonably compentant and was able to identify and resolve our problem within a couple of hours. The problems with HP support come when one does not have a problem that is big enough to be worth invoking the service contract over. HP has horrible telephone based support.

First of all, in order to minimize thier own costs, they have repealed most of the toll free numbers that they used to have support lines on and instead have provided a number of long distance numbers for us to call thier support center in san francisco or whereever it is. Then, now that you are wasting your company's money at 10-15 cents a minute, you get to play phone bingo following a path of telephone recordings through touch tone options until you reach your preferred destination at which point you are told that they are sorry but all of thier technical support representatives are busy at the moment please stay on the line. You get to listen to them tell you that they are experienceing "unusually heavy call volume" about 7 times, 45 seconds apart, interupting thier already cheesy tunes that they replay over and over.

When you finally get a human on the other end of the phone line, you still may not be in the clear. Unfortunately, HP has the reputation of an inept customer support department. Only 1 in the three times that I have had to deal with them between this server and my HP pavilion 7875 at home have I recieved a person who has been able to answer my question or provide help without having to call over a supervisor or transfer my call to a specialized department which takes time and continues the phone charges that are being applied to you each minute you stay on the line long distance.

Though HP has built a compact server that may be just the ticket for a low end application server, problems with bloated prices, horrid technical support, and cheap case construction cause me to be only lukewarm towards this product. I could not truly recommend it for any enterprise work place that would need such a server when dell servers are nearly equivalent in price and have proven support and performance.