- Virtual CIO
How to Create a Technology Refresh Schedule
7 Aug, 2025







£2177.18 inc. VAT
AI-generated summary
The ASUS RS500A-E12-RS4U looks like a sensible “small footprint, serious uptime” rack server for a UK office that needs something quieter and more manageable than a full-blown monster. At ~£1.8k ex-VAT, you’re paying for a fairly complete, mainstream enterprise-style platform (not a barebones white-box vibe), which usually means better out-of-the-box support paths and fewer headaches with firmware, remote management, and chassis fit in real server rooms. If you’re looking to run business-critical apps, file/app services, light virtualisation, or an edge/service role where you still want proper reliability rather than “it’ll probably be fine,” this is the sort of unit that fits.
That said, I wouldn’t buy it if your priority is maximum performance-per-pound or you’re planning to heavily expand and reconfigure straight away. With rack servers, the sweet spot is usually having a clear workload and sticking to it—if you’re unsure, you can end up paying for a platform you later feel boxed into. Also double-check your power/noise expectations and what management options you actually need, because in the 1U world those details matter in day-to-day deployment. Overall: good bet for predictable, steady workloads in small-to-mid environments—less convincing for buyers chasing value through upgrades or big performance leaps.

Lenovo
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 7Y51 - Server - rack-mountable 1U - 1-way - 1 x Xeon E-2276G / up to 4.9 GHz - RAM 16 GB - SAS - hot-swap 2.5" bay(s) - no HDD - Matrox G200 - Gigabit Ethernet - no OS - monitor: none

Asus
ASUS RS720-E11-RS12U - Server - rack-mountable 2U - 2-way - no CPU - RAM 0 GB - SATA/PCI Express - hot-swap 2.5", 3.5" bay(s) - no HDD - AST2600 - Gigabit Ethernet, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, 5 Gigabit Ethernet, 100 Gigabit Ethernet - no OS - monitor: none

Asus
ASUS - Server - rack-mountable 2U - 2-way - no CPU - RAM 0 GB - SATA/PCI Express - hot-swap 2.5" bay(s) - no HDD - Gigabit Ethernet - no OS - monitor: none - black

Lenovo
Intel Xeon Bronze 3106 - 1.7 GHz - 8-core - 8 threads - 11 MB cache - for ThinkSystem SR530
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