Apple's Intel Xserves slip to mid-Nov
updated 09:05 am EDT, Wed October 25, 2006
Intel Xserves delayed
Apple's new Intel-based Xserve workstations, announced in August, are now available for pre-order at Apple's store, but are not expected until mid-November. Originally expected to ship in October, Apple's Xserves are used in small business and to build many of the world's top supercomputers. The company is offering many BTO options for its quad-core (using two 64-bit Dual-Core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors) server offering, with processor speeds ranging up to dual-core 3GHz for additional $1799). The $2,999 base configuration includes a two dual-core 2.0GHz Xeons, an 80GB SATA drive, and 1GB of RAM (2x512MB), Combo drive, and an ATI Radeon X1300 with 64MB of VRAM. A version without graphics is $50 less. The new Xserve also offers two open eight-lane PCI Express slot for dual Gigabit Ethernet ($199), U320 SCSI card ($199), or 2Gb Fibre Channel ($499) expansion options. Apple also offers a second hot-swappable 650 watt power supply option for $199,.
For added storage or improved performance, Apple offers a high-speed 15,000rpm, 73GB SAS (serial attached SCSI; $299 for first, $499 for additional), 7,200rpm 750GB SATA ($699), and 15,000rpm 300GB SAS ($799 first, and $999 for additional). The Xserve has three drive bays.
As noted previously, Apple has no plans to offer a cluster node version of the Intel-Xserve (although a variety of BTO options are available).
No RAID Controller?!?
10/25, 01:54pm reply
I am constantly amazed by some of the decisions in regards to the xServe. For the first few generations there was no redundant power supply or RAID controller. They remedied the RAID controller issue by having a RAID 5 PCI-X card for the G5 xServe. Now we finally are allowed redundant power supplies but they remove the option of having a hardware RAID controller that allows for RAID 5. So we are given the choice of wasting drive space and not getting a performance increase with with RAID 1, or not protecting our data on either our boot drive or our data drive. To top it off Apple is finally offering up SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives for more mission critical data, but they have not provided us with a RAID controller to protect the data.
This just seems insane. Someone seriously dropped the ball on this one.
macentric
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2005
No RAID Controller?!?
10/25, 09:29pm reply
This sucks i haven't been able to sell any apple based servers in almost three month and now this
servers with redundant storage shoud be in stock 24-7-365
spudfan
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2006
Re: no raid controller
10/26, 12:02am reply
Apple probably just assumes everyone who wants decent RAID would get an xRAID or use their xSan options.
LouZer
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2000
Why the delay...
10/26, 11:37am reply
Hi all,
I guess we know now why the delay happened.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/26/intel_quad-core_roadmap/
jpruden
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
sure about the raid???
10/26, 09:49pm reply
From Apple's webpage:
Two open PCI Express slots, each x8 wide, provide independent throughput of up to 2GB/s each. One slot can even be configured as PCI-X for compatibility with existing expansion cards.
That sounds like a way to use the existing PCI-X RAID card in the new systems.
resuna
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Sure about the RAID!!!!
10/31, 10:53am reply
They are not selling their own card for this purpose. If that card was suited for this purpose they would be selling it themselves. If Apple doesn't some enterprising company like ATTO should stand up and make a card that can take advantage of the internal SAS/SATA controllers in the xServe.
macentric
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2005