We were somewhat astonished that the power switch actually lives up to its name. While the rack server starts up immediately after the network cable is plugged in, it shuts off instantly when the power switch is pressed. Particularly in connection with the two USB ports on the front panel, accidental "off switches" were pre-programmed.

But we can sound the all-clear on this, because as soon as the BIOS sequence has been run and the operating system has started up, the power switch works as usual from the desktop: Only pressing it for a second will make the computer really shut down.

What happens when you turn on the rack server is no different from the usual routine. The BIOS is exactly like the software of commercially available retail motherboards, except for a few details; installation is identical - including the laborious addition, with a disk drive, of drivers for a hard-disk controller not recognized by Windows.

In the case of the MSI server, however, the only thing left is to create a Windows CD with an integrated driver, because the floppy connector is no longer available on the motherboard.