Selling Features - IBM System x3500 M3 Product Manual

A rock-solid, performance server for your most demanding
applications

Selling Features

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All models require Chipkill-enabled DIMMs (provided standard) for Chipkill protection.
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Data transfer rates may be less than the maximum possible.
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
Price/Performance
The x3500 M3 offers numerous features to help boost performance and reduce product and
operating costs:
• Up to two 6-core Xeon 5600 or 5500 series processors and 12MB of shared cache per
processor, offer superior performance capable of tackling the toughest jobs. 64-bit extensions
provide the flexibility to run 32-bit and 64-bit applications concurrently. Xeon 5600 series
processors offer up to 40% better performance than the previous-generation 5500 series
processors and up to 900% better performance than the single-core processors of a few years
ago that you may still be using.
• Sixteen DIMMs of ultra-fast registered 1333MHz (or 1066MHz) DDR3 ECC memory with
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optional Chipkill protection provides speed, high availability, and a memory capacity of up
192GB
• Five high-speed PCIe Gen 2 adapter slots (plus a 6
protection by supporting high-performance adapters, such as 10Gb Ethernet, Fibre Channel and
™
InfiniBand cards, none of which will run in older conventional PCI slots. A legacy PCI/33
adapter slot offers support for older adapters.
• The integrated 6Gbps ServeRAID-M1015 controller (model-specific) provides RAID-0/1/10
(upgradeable to RAID-5 with Self-Encrypting Disk, or SED, for greater data protection)
standard for SAS/SATA drives. Other server models include the 6Gbps ServeRAID-M5014
controller, which provides RAID-0/1/10/5/50 standard (upgradeable to 256MB of battery-backed
cache and RAID-6/60 with SED), or the integrated 6Gbps ServeRAID-M5015 controller, which
provides RAID-0/1/10/5/50 and 512MB of battery-backed cache standard (upgradeable to RAID-
6/60 and SED) without consuming a valuable adapter slot.. All models can be upgraded to the
ServeRAID-5025.
• Up to 24 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS hard disk drives offer high-performance with high availability.
The SAS controller provides full-duplex 6Gbps data transfers for SAS drives. Support for 8 high-
capacity 3.5-inch hot-swap SAS/SATA hard disk drives is available via CTO.
• The integrated dual-port Gigabit Ethernet controller with IPMI 2.0 support provides high-speed
network communications, as well as TOE, RDMA, and iSCSI support to offload work from the
system processor. (Note: iSCSI/RDMA support requires an optional license key.)
• A high degree of device integration, including SAS, RAID, IMM, dual Gigabit Ethernet,
systems management, embedded hypervisor, and video, helps to lower costs and frees up
valuable adapter slots.
• Energy-efficient components, including low-voltage transistors and voltage regulator modules,
and power supplies that are up to 90% efficient, help keep your energy bills down.
Flexibility
The x3500 M3 has the ability to grow with your application requirements, thanks to:
• A choice of six-core or four-core processors at 1.6GHz to 3.6GHz clock rates, up to 6.4
gigatransfers per second, and 40W to 130W maximum power draw.
• Up to 192GB of high-speed registered DDR3 system memory.
• Six available high-performance PCIe adapter slots and one legacy PCI slot in all models.
Optionally, a riser card supporting two PCI-X/133 adapters can be exchanged for the PCIe Gen
1 slot.
• The x3500 M3 supports both the new 6Gbps RAID technology and the previous generation
3Gbps RAID controllers. With the new ServeRAID-M1015, the x3500 M3 offers RAID-0/1/10,
standard (RAID-5 with upgrade). The ServeRAID-M5014 offers RAID-0/1/10/1E/5/50 with
256MB of cache, upgradeable to battery backup. The ServeRAID-M5015 offers the same RAID
levels, but with 512MB of battery-backed cache standard. They can both be upgraded to RAID
6/60 with Self Encrypting Disk.
• The eight USB 2.0 ports (six external, two internal) are up to 40X faster
ports. This provides speedy access to external HDDs (non-arrayed), floppy drives, flash drives,
optical drives, tape drives, and other USB devices. Two ports are on the front of the unit and four
are on the back.
• Support for up to 24 internal 2.5-inch HDDs, and 1 half- high tape or optical drive offer
tremendous internal storage capability and full data backup. (16 internal 2.5-inch HDDs
maximum with 1 half-high tape drive.) Standard models offer 8 2.5-inch HDDs with a maximum
of 4.8TB of hot-swap 2.5-inch SAS or 4TB of hot-swap 2.5-inch SATA. Up to 14.4TB of
internal 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS or 12TB of hot- or simple-swap SATA storage is supported via
optional storage options and CTO models. Alternatively, some models support up to 4 3.5-inch
hot-swap SAS drives or up to 4 3.5-inch hot- or simple-swap SATA drives, all with a maximum
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PCIe Gen 1 slot) offer investment
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than older USB 1.1
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