A recent addition to Dell's ever-expanding family of Nehalem (Intel Xeon 5500) servers, the rack mount PowerEdge R510 appears similar at first glance to others in the range. On closer inspection, however, we found a lot to make this flexible mid-range solution stand out from the crowd.

The most obvious system with which to compare the new R510 has to be the PowerEdge R710. Both are 2U rack mount systems with dual processor sockets capable of accommodating the same dual-core or quad-core Xeon 5500 chips. Management options are pretty similar too, and there's much the same amount of room inside both for Raid protected internal storage and plug-in adapters, despite the restricted form factor.

There's a big difference, however, when it comes to memory, with just eight Dimm slots to play with on the R510, giving it a maximum capacity of 64GB. That may seem like a lot, but the R710 can hold a massive 144GB, reflecting its positioning as a high-end box for large enterprise customers. Likewise, the R510 only has two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces compared to four on the R710 and, as such, is clearly aimed at companies with more modest requirements who don't wish to pay for features they don't need.

Another difference became obvious as soon as we took the R510 out of its box. The usual quality engineering was there for sure, but the chassis was also good deal shorter than normal. Admittedly, only by a few inches, but that can make a huge difference in a crowded machine room. It also makes the server a fair bit lighter. Again, not by much, but Dell said that it fits the server for use in mobile applications, particularly by the military, where every gram counts.

Less obvious is the fact that, whereas the R710 comes with lots of bells and whistles already fitted, the R510 is much more of a blank canvas. Redundant power, for example, is only an option on the R510, as is the full iDRAC6 management controller, whereas both are included as standard on the R710. That said, you do get basic remote console support on the R510, plus Dell's innovative Lifecycle Controller, doing away with the need for separate setup CDs. It's not until you actually get to use this in anger that you appreciate how valuable it is. We've liked it from the start, and hope to see other vendors do something similar.

For large enterprise customers the R710 also comes with hot-swap disks but this is also is an option on the R510, although you do get much the same choice of serial ATA (Sata), serial attached Scsi (SAS) and solid state drives (SSDs) in both 3.5in and 2.5in formats. Similar Raid controllers and configurations can also be specified. However, make sure you order the correct chassis to begin with, as you can't change your mind later. There is a choice here of four-bay, eight-bay and a newly introduced 12-bay system.

We found the 12-bay chassis particularly intriguing. On the face of it, internal storage shouldn't be an issue as rack servers can always be hooked up to a storage area network (SAN) or other external storage source. But as the R510 is aimed at smaller businesses and branch offices, external storage may be considered too expensive or impractical. In this case, the ability to stuff the server full of disks is a welcome option. The 12 drive bays are all accessible at the front complete with hot-swap mechanisms and the ability to take either 3.5in or 2.5in devices.

Other things we liked about the R510 included its relatively low noise. There was the usual 'whoosh' from the fans on start up but, thereafter, they only cut in fully when needed. Ours also had additional power management options, including the useful ability to monitor and cap power usage, although this is available only on some models.

The fact that the server had to be powered down to swap fans was a little disappointing, but most customers will be prepared to live with the inconvenience at the price being asked for the R510.

Talking of which, we found the R510 listed with a starting price of just over £700 ex VAT on the Dell web site, which we believe is very good value. That said, most customers will want to add extras to take full advantage of the capabilities of Intel's Nehalem processors, and could end up paying a lot more.

Ours, for example, had two quad-core processors plus 8GB of RAM and four SAS drives - a fairly typical configuration and still affordable at £2,720 ex VAT at the time of writing. However, we'd recommend discussing your requirements with Dell, and perhaps downloading the various server sizing tools available on its web site to help you choose exactly what you need and avoid making costly mistakes.