Product Features; Ibm System X3850 X5 Product Features - IBM System x3850 X5 Implementation Manual

3.1 Product features

The IBM System x3850 X5 and x3950 X5 servers address the following requirements that
many IBM enterprise clients need:
The ability to have increased performance on a smaller IT budget
The ability to increase database and virtualization performance without having to add
more CPUs, especially when software is licensed on a per-socket basis
The ability to add memory capacity on top of existing processing power, so that the overall
performance goes up while software licensing costs remain static
The flexibility to achieve the desired memory capacity with larger capacity single DIMMs
The ability to pay for the system they need today, with the capability to grow both memory
capacity and processing power when necessary in the future
The base building blocks of the solution are the x3850 X5 server and the MAX5 memory
expansion drawer. The x3850 X5 is a 4U system with four processor sockets and up to 64
DIMM sockets. The MAX5 memory expansion drawer is a 1U device that adds 32 DIMM
sockets to the server.
The x3950 X5 is the name for the preconfigured IBM models, for specific workloads. The
announced x3950 X5 models are optimized for database applications. Future x3950 X5
models will include models that are optimized for virtualization.
Referring to the models: Throughout this chapter, where a feature is not unique to either
the x3850 X5 or the x3950 X5 but is common to both models, the term

3.1.1 IBM System x3850 X5 product features

IBM System x3850 X5, machine type 7145, is the follow-on product to the IBM System x3850
M2 and x3950 M2. It is a 4U 4-socket Intel 7500-based (Nehalem-EX) platform with 64 DIMM
sockets. It can be scaled up to eight processor sockets depending on model and 128 DIMM
sockets by connecting a second server to form a single system image and maximize
performance, reliability, and scalability.
The x3850 X5 is targeted at enterprise clients looking for increased consolidation
opportunities with expanded memory capacity.
See Table 3-1 on page 62 for a comparison of eX4 x3850 M2 and eX5 x3850 X5.
The x3850 X5 offers the following key features:
Four Xeon 7500 series CPUs (4 core, 6 core, and 8 core)
Scalable to eight sockets by connecting two x3850 X5 servers
64 DDR3 DIMM sockets
Up to eight memory cards can be installed, each with eight DIMM slots
Seven PCIe 2.0 slots (one slot contains the Emulex 10Gb Ethernet dual-port adapter)
Up to eight 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) or sixteen 1.8-inch solid-state drives (SSDs)
RAID-0 and RAID-1 standard; optional RAID-5 and 50, RAID-6 and 60, and encryption
Two 1 Gb Ethernet ports
One Emulex 10Gb Ethernet dual-port adapter (standard on all models, except ARx)
Internal USB for embedded hypervisor (VMware and Linux hypervisors)
Integrated management module
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x3850 X5
is used.