IBM System x3500 M3 Product Manual page 8

A rock-solid, performance server for your most demanding
applications
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5015 controller. Models equipped with the ServeRAID-M5015 controller can upgrade to the 5015
controller. Any of them can be replaced with the MR10M controller for external storage needs, or it
can be installed additionally in one of the standard PCIe slots.
Drive Bays
The x3500 M3 contains 11 drive bays in standard models and up to 25 bays in CTO models.
Standard models offer 8 HDD bays that support small form-factor (SFF) 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS
drives. HDD upgrade options are available to offer 16 or 24 total 2.5-inch bays. Base models
include 3 5.25-inch bays, one reserved for the optical drive and two for a tape drive or 8 additional
2.5-inch HDD bays.
An internal full-high tape drive can be installed using 2 of the 5.25-inch drive bays; alternatively, an
internal half-high tape drive can be installed using 1 of the 5.25-inch drive bays. The tape drive
must have a USB 2.0 interface. Note: Upgrading to 24 2.5-Inch drives will leave only one 5.25-inch
bay for either a half-high tape or optical drive.
A half-high DVD-ROM drive with a SATA interface ships standard in the other 5.25-inch bay. No
diskette drive is supplied with any model; an external USB floppy drive may be used, if needed.
Hot-swap drives may be inserted or removed through the front of the server without powering off the
system.
For still more storage, a direct-attach, NAS or SAN external expansion option can be added, using
an optional controller.
High-Performance Adapter Slots
The x3500 M3 provides seven adapter slots standard: five PCIe Gen 2 slots, one PCIe Gen 1 slot,
and one legacy PCI slot. PCI Express Gen 2 is the next-generation of high-performance, low-
latency, serial I/O bus. Slot 2 is a x16 ("by 16") physical/x8 electrical PCIe (PCI Express) Gen 2
adapter slot. This means that although the slot runs at x8 Gen 2 speeds (8GBps), it can accept a
x16 Gen 2 adapter in the slot. It is also capable of supporting x1/x4/x8 adapters at full speed. In
addition to this slot, the x3500 M3 also includes two x8 physical/x8 electrical Gen 2 slots
(8GBps), two x8 physical/x4 Gen 2 electrical slots (4GBps), one x8 physical/x4 Gen 1 electrical
slot (2GBps) on a riser card, and one 33MHz legacy PCI slot. As part of a configure-to-order (CTO)
build, the PCIe riser card can be replaced with a riser card containing two 133MHz PCI-X slots, for
a total of 8 slots.
Slot 1 is a half-length/full-height PCIe slot; slots 2, 3, 4 and 5 are full-length/full-height PCIe
slots, and Slot 6 is a half-length/full-height 33MHz legacy PCI slot. Slot 7, on the PCIe riser card,
is a full-length/full-height slot. The PCI-X riser contains two full-length/full-height slots (7 and 8).
Internal Backup
The x3500 M3 supports several internal data backup options. Supported technologies include:
• DDS-5 (half-high)
• DDS-6 (half-high)
• RDX – Internal/External (half-high)
• LTO-3 Ultrium (half-high)
• LTO-4 Ultrium (half-high)
• LTO-5 Ultrium (half-high)
Ultra-Efficient Cooling
Strategically located fans, combined with efficient airflow paths, provide highly effective system
cooling for the x3500 M3, known as Calibrated Vectored Cooling. The base server with one
power supply includes three hot-swap fans. Adding the optional power supply for redundant power
adds three more hot-swap fans, for redundant cooling. In addition, each power supply also contains
a fan.
The system contains three cooling zones. Zone 1 cools the memory slots and the three 5.25-
inch drive bays. Zone 2 cools the processors and drives 9-16 (in a CTO configuration), while
Zone 3 cools the adapter slots and the standard 8 HDD bays.
The fans automatically adjust speeds in response to changing thermal requirements, depending on
the zone, redundancy, and internal temperatures. When the temperature inside the server
increases, the fans speed up to maintain the proper ambient temperature. When the temperature
returns to a normal operating level, the fans return to their default speed. Why not simply run the
fans at 100% capacity all the time? For several good reasons: to reduce the ambient noise, reduce
the wear-and-tear on the fans and reduce the server power draw. The reduction in ambient noise
and power draw may be relatively minor for a single server, but put dozens or hundreds in a data
center and it can make a big difference!
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