As had been wide wait since the March debut of the new Mac Pros , Apple ’s Xserve take the Nehalem plunge Tuesday . Specifically , the 1U waiter now runs on a Xeon 5500 series central processor , which feature the Nehalem microarchitecture that promises to better speed by obviate bottlenecks .
The latest Xserve sports a individual 2.26GHz Quad Core Xeon processor with 8 MB of fully shared L3 memory cache ; the processor has an integrated remembering controller with three channels of 1,066MHz DDR3 RAM , while the waiter offer the choice of a 128 GB solid - state charge drive .
Apple is n’t the only company with 1U servers powered by 5500 mainframe , though ; HP and Dell feature like offerings . So I thought I ’d compare the latest Xserve with these other two servers to see if Apple ’s intersection remains price - militant to the other servers in its grade .
Apple’s new Xserve
You said you was high-class…
The “ within its class ” distinction is authoritative here , because while Apple has a childlike ancestry of consecrate server hardware — just the one product — both Dell and HP have far more options fall both above and below the Xserve ’s cost range . So it is entirely potential to get a solid 1U server from Dell or HP for far less than what you ’d spend on an Xserve . But is it potential to get an Xserve - tantamount server for far cheaper ?
( Oh , and I know , IBM , Sun , and white box Intel are options , but I wanted to keep this comparison round-eyed , and HP / Dell are the most rough-cut competitor for Apple in the small - to - midsize - business server infinite . )
Apple ’s new Xserve
Inside the new Nehalem-based Xserve
I spec’d out a fairly generic Xserve , going big on CPU and knockout thrust space . Such a waiter would be ideal for a company that either does n’t have a caboodle of external storage , ( NAS , SAN , or Direct - attach RAID ) or wants the Xserve to have a lot of blank space for various reasons . Setting up the Xserve this way also lets me apply a coherent philosophical system to the HP and Dell options , even where it was unacceptable to match eyeglasses .
When configuring this Xserve , I did n’t add up the 128 GB SSD boot driving force , a $ 500 choice . I also left out reenforcement options , as in the real world , ship’s company are going to have a nigh - space amount of options with any of the three companies,—what would bede rigeurfor one party would be ridiculous for another .
Finally , all three of my servers come from the Apple , HP , and Dell online stores . I ’m well aware of corporate discounts from each of the three company , but again , in the interests of sanity and the fact that my deduction may not be yours , I left them off completely .
Here are our three contenders :
Apple’s Xserve
full cost : $ 8,738
HP’s DL360 G6
Total price : $ 8,857
Dell’s PowerEdge R610
entire monetary value : $ 9,289
The winner is…
Inside the raw Nehalem - free-base Xserve
Well , no one — this is n’t a marketing run or a race . All three vendor have solid offer in that year of server , with some interesting differences . For example , Apple and Dell both charge extra for a RAID notice , while HP does n’t . Dell only offers SAS drives , ( a big reason for its price hit ) ; Apple only offered SATA . Apple ’s drives are full - sized 3.5 - in drive , Dell and HP only offer SFF/2.5 - inch drives , ( a big reason for why the HP , even with eight drive bays , still had less total warehousing than the Xserve . ) Dell buck extra for the second CPU , and only offered 8 and 16 GB read/write memory options , whereas HP send with 12 GB standard . HP did n’t have a 2.93GHz CPU offer . I picked SUSE Linux Enterprise for Dell and HP because it include an unlimited drug user license , standardized to how Apple packages Mac OS X Server on the Xserve .
The Xserve definitely wins on simplicity , but there are some penalty . The Xserve is only 1U gamey , but it ’s just over 30 inches long . If you have honest-to-god racks , or you did n’t buy your wrack with the Xserve in mind , that might bite you in the behind . If you need a lower priced server from Apple — or perhaps one that ’s more essentially - provisioned — you’re out of luck . You get the Xserve , and you get some basic Xserve choice . You do n’t need a Nehalem ? Too bad . You require SAS or SFF SATA ? Too forged . That ’s not necessarily a negative , but just a reminder that there ’s always a tradeoff for everything .
Dell and HP give you a far bigger range of servers , from bittie 1U “ just a front end for something else ” role model to outstanding hulking monstrosity that will go a largeish city via VMWare . However , that can sum up to the challenge of calculate out what you want to buy — HP could definitely con a portion from Apple about how to set up a World Wide Web site constellation page for a waiter . Dell ’s site is somewhat better , but again , that ’s the price for a wider range of pick : more complexity . Again , no innocent lunch .
What we learned
So yes , within the high - end 1U waiter class , Apple ’s late Xserve is price quite competitively , over - emotional insistence to the contrary from Congress of Industrial Organizations and learned person notwithstanding . If what you call for is in that class , then Apple ’s Xserve is indeed a good option . If your need wander wildly from the Xserve ’s course of instruction , then it can become over - price or under - power . permit your calculation and mesh need and overall environs , rather than any ideological purity be your guide , and you ’ll do well .
[ John C. Welch is a older systems decision maker for The Zimmerman Agency , and a long - clip Mac IT pundit . ]
