The Dell PowerEdge 1855 blade server took away the Silver Award because the judges gave it a top rating in terms of overall value. Available with a choice of single- or dual-core Xeon processors, the Dell PowerEdge 1855 features 10 blade servers in a dense 7U enclosing, giving the unit up to 43% better density compared to traditional 1U rack servers.

The judges respected the performance of the server and gave it a decent rating in the area of innovation. But they clearly felt the savings that accrue to PowerEdge 1855 users, by virtue of Dell's design philosophy, make a compelling argument to give the unit high rankings in overall value.

In accordance with its well-honed strategy when it comes to hardware, Dell Inc. designed the PowerEdge 1855 to have a breakeven point as the chassis is filled. This breakeven point occurs when the cost of a chassis and blade servers are approximately equal to the cost of similarly configured 1U Dell PowerEdge 1850 servers. Overall, cost savings begin to accumulate with the purchase of each additional blade server.

Pricing: Pricing begins at $1,829.

SearchWinSystems.com editors