(Credit: IBM)
IBM x3650 M2
The IBM x3650 M2 was supplied to the
TestLab featuring twin, hyperthreaded quad-core Intel Xeon E5520
processors running at 2.27GHz and a handy 12GB RAM.
Just two months ago, Enex TestLab reviewed its predecessor, an x3650 from IBM. Its specifications were a little different from the M2 iteration and its price (about $4000 more expensive than the M2), but is it essentially the same machine? Our testing discovered that this newer machine, the M2, is cheaper, faster and more energy efficient (although it should be noted that the M2 machine runs Windows Server 2003 whereas Server 2008 was installed on the predecessor).
The x3650 M2 was supplied with twin, hyperthreaded quad-core Intel Xeon E5520 processors running at 2.27GHz with 12GB RAM, in a 2RU rack mount form factor. It featured two 73GB 15K RPM drives. The unit allows up to 12 2.5-inch drives to be fitted. The drives are controlled by a ServerRAID-MR10i SAS/SATA controller.
Both front and rear panels feature one VGA and two USB ports. At the rear, you will find dual-gigabit Ethernet ports, a management port, a serial port and four free PCIe x8 slots.
One of the M2's enhancements over its predecessor is that each CPU is provided with its own bank of RAM. The 5500 series processors feature internal memory controllers with three channels to its RAM slots. A second processor therefore doubles the number of memory channels available. At a pinch both processors can use the same bank of RAM, but this is obviously less efficient. Up to 64GB RAM can be inserted per processor.
MS Windows Server, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, Novell NetWare and VMware ESX Server operating systems are all supported. At this stage Solaris 10 is not supported, but is planned.
In terms of performance, idle and peak power consumption results are 147.4W and 192.2W respectively. The machine's overall expected power usage is 165.3W. This score is remarkably low, even when compared to its previously tested brother. Smarter power management is employed on this newer unit, which ensures its fans operate at the optimum speed required — even during boot. Power is also saved by using 2.5-inch drives (rather than 3.5-inch drives).
| Benchmark | Test | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Cinebench | 1 CPU render | 45 seconds |
| X CPU render | 8 seconds | |
| Sungard | 167 seconds |
Contents
Verdict
The x3650 M2 is a clear refinement of the older model.
The newer machine is cheaper, a little bit faster, and far more
energy efficient. It features more advanced memory management,
which probably accounts for the greatly improved score.
The build quality of this IBM machine is very good. Its components are held firmly in place with latches rather than screws, which helps to expedite maintenance procedures. This also goes for fans, hard drives and power supplies, all of which are all hot swappable.
The fans do seem a little loose in their mounts, but the electrical connection appears sound and there was no additional or excess fan noise. Redundancy was provided in the form of two fans built into the one physical unit. IBM mentions that during live swap-out the other fans will increase in speed to compensate and are positioned appropriately to provide adequate airflow during the short down-time required, however we'd feel more comfortable if there was a physically separate secondary bank. The few apparent cable bundles are bound together well and kept carefully out of the way of other components.
Assessing maintenance required is simplified by a comprehensive panel of diagnostic LEDs on a slide-out panel at the front of the machine. Basic status LEDs remain visible even when this panel is pushed in.
As supplied the machine's RRP is $11,000, which is an improvement over its previous offering. Overall, this machine has a good balance between price and quality — as you would hope for from IBM. The unit is supplied with a three-year warranty. Some parts are rated as user replaceable, but for more complex problems IBM provides on-site service.
| The bottom line | A great mid-range server with great expansion potential |
|---|---|
| Vendor | IBM |
| Price | $11,000 as supplied |
| Warranty/support | Three years with some on-site support |
| The good | Greatly expandable memory and drive capacity |
| Excellent engineering for reduced maintenance | |
| Very low power consumption figures | |
| Good warranty/service | |
| Great diagnostic notifications | |
| The bad | A secondary fan bank would be nice |
| A touch over the price limit for this review | |
| SAS drives are very expensive |
Great article, a few little things i think that would be worth mentioning tho.
Remote access, I work for a large IT Solutions Provider and one of our big cosiderations even for smaller clients is the ability for remote access Dell has DRAC HP has iLO etc. and the differences here are amazing. From experience IBM being worst then dell with HP at the top with their new iLO2.
The other thing that is a selling point of some of these servers is noise (remember we are talking mid market so alot run these in offices) and driver support, ie how hard it is to find drivers for the components and more importantly a fresh install of Windows will the generic drives work enough to get to the website to download them? The DL360 for instance won't install nic drivers with a raw install of win2k3, but if you install with the smart start cd all is well. I'm sure the others have similar features.
Interesting about the SATA Vs SAS tho, most of these servers have the ability to combo, ie 2xsas 3xsata which seems to be a good compromise as from experience the SATA drives especially in a exchange 07 (sbs08) environment seem to fail in extremity fast succession.
But overall good article.