The ML110 is truly the baby in HP’s server family and comes in at the appropriate price. This is a very entry-level server, lacking many of the physical features of a higher end machine. The ML110 chassis provides no hot plug or drive bays, no hot plug power supply and is more akin to the feature sets seen on desktop PCs.

In the box, however, it’s a different matter. The ML110 uses a tried and true workstation/server chipset, Intel’s 3200 MCH. This chipset is compatible with CPUs running up to 1333MHz frontside bus, ECC DDR-2 memory and a single 8x PCI-E slot for expansion.

As submitted to APC, the HP ML110 was running an Intel Pentium E2160 Dual-Core, a 1.8GHz chip using an 800MHz front side bus in a Socket 775. The E2160 uses the ‘Allendale’ architecture similar to the Xeon 3040, but with less cache. Also fitted with two 160GB Seagate Barracuda ES hard disk drives and a DVD-ROM, the ML110 uses an embedded NC105i PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet adapter, with a single port and is powered by a 365W PSU. That’s a little underpowered in my book; however, with a maximum of four hard disk drives fitting in the chassis, it should get away with it. The ML110 is also available in a UP Xeon configuration using the 3065 model a 2.33GHz, which would provide a bit of a boost to processing power over all.  
As with all HP servers, the ML110 G5 includes HP Lights-Out technology reporting on board, but includes a slot for HP’s LO100i expansion card for 100 series servers. This allows access to HP’s Lights-Out out-of-band management in the entry-level servers where necessary. It’s a good option to have for remote management of remote offices, but the cost is only applicable if you stump for the upgrade.

On the bench the ProLiant ML110 G5 runs cool as a cucumber with minimal noise, ideal for small offices without dedicated server space. The system runs Small Business Server 2003 R2 and does so at a reasonable clip. Running SBS with a full complement of roles seemed slightly sluggish compared to some of the more well-appointed systems in the Labs. As a file server, or backup server, we’d be happy with it (and saving a few dollars), but if you’re requiring a bit more under the hood, then stump for the version of this system using the Xeon 3065; the cache makes a difference.