Servers of a higher order: 4 high-end platforms tested

Specifications

Model AMD Four-Processor Opteron Apple Power Mac G5 Dual Processor Ipex Centra 9200RM Quad Processor Itanium2 Sun SunFire V240
Vendor AMD Apple Ipex ITG Sun Microsystems
Web www.amd.com www.apple.com.au www.ipex.com.au www.sun.com/servers
Phone 02 8877 7222 133 622 03 9242 5000 03 9869 6200
Price range (min. to max. config) $13,000-$45,000 $3599-$5599 $23,000-$98,000 $6280-$19,574
Price as tested less than $45,000 $5599 $56,000 $15,454
Included standard warranty period Varies depending on vendor 90 days 3 years (return to base) One year (next business day on site warranty)
Extended warranty availability, duration and cost Varies depending on vendor AppleCare protection plan $449 Range of options; up to 24 x 7, with four-hour or two-hour response available 3 years; Silver $4500, Gold $7848, Platinum $16,992
Chassis Rackmount Tower Rackmount Rackmount
Rackmount chassis height 4 RU N/A 4RU 2RU
CPU type (brand/model) AMD Opteron 846 Apple/IBM PowerPC G5 Intel Itanium 2 UltraSPARC IIIi
CPU speed (min/max) 2.0GHz 1.6GHz to 2.0GHz 900MHz to 1.5GHz 1GHz
CPU internal cache (min/max) 128KB L1; 1MB L2 64KB L1 instruction cache, 32KB L1 data cache, 512KB L2 1.5MB-6MB 1MB
Number of CPUs supported (min/max) 1/4 1/2 1/4 1/2
CPUs installed in test config 4x Opteron 2.0GHz 2x PowerPC G5 2.0GHz 4x Itanium 2 1.2GHz 2x UltraSPARC IIIi 1GHz
Memory (min/max/installed) 256MB/16GB/4GB 256MB/8GB/2.5GB 1GB/32GB/4GB 512MB/8GB/4GB
Memory type Registered DDR DDR PC2700 or PC3200 DDR233/266 DDR (PC2100)
HDD capacity (min/max) Any Ultra 160 or 320 SCSI HDD 80GB/500GB 36GB/441GB 36GB/293GB
HDD interface Ultra 160/320 Serial ATA Ultra320 SCSI Ultra160 SCSI
HDD controller RAID capable Optional extra No Optional extra Optional extra
HDD bays 4 No 3 4
Optical drive (type) DVD-ROM SuperDrive & DVD-R/CD-RW DVD-ROM DVD-ROM
Graphics processor ATI Radeon/8MB NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro ATI Rage XL/8MB VIS
Network chipset (brand/model) Broadcom Apple Intel 82540EM Sun Tomatillo 2.3
Network ports 2x 10/100/1000 1x 10/100/1000 1x 10/100/1000 4x 10/100/1000
Connectors USB, Serial 1x FireWire 800, 2x FireWire 400 ports, 3x USB 2.0, 2x USB 1.1 4x USB, 1x Serial 2 x Serial, 2 x USB, 1 x LVD SCSI
Mainboard Chipset AMD 8000 Apple Intel 8870 Sun Tomatillo 2.3
Mainboard expansion 5x PCI-X 64-bit slots (2x hot plug) 3x 64-bit PCI slots (1.6GHz model); 3x 64-bit PCI-X slots (other models) 8x PCI-X slots (hot plug) PCI
Power Supply (watts)/hot swappable 2 x 500W/Y 1x 450W or 600W/N 2 x 1200W/Y 2 x 400W/Y
Operating Systems supported All x86/32 and x86/64 operating systems Mac OS X Panther v10.3, Mac OS X Panther Server v10.3 Windows 2003 64 bit edition, Linux, HP-UX Solaris 8, Solaris 9

 High-end servers

 Server reviews:

 AMD Opteron (test system)
 Apple Power Mac G5
 Ipex Centra 9200RM Quad Processor Itanium2
 Sun SunFire V240

 Specifications
 Test results
 How we tested
 Sample scenarios
 Editor's choice
 Final words
 About RMIT
Advertisement

Talkback 2 comments

    I saw a better Quad Opteron se ...Anonymous -- 12/05/04

    I saw a better Quad Opteron server platform from a manufacturer in Taiwan, looks like a great server, you can visit http://www.genesysrack.com.tw for a look, I hope somebody can supply this chaassis in Sydney.

    Proprietary Sucks Anonymous -- 26/07/07

    Just received this server for a work project. Looks impressive and all, but when you realise that you can't just bolt it into a standard 4 poster rack, it makes things difficult.
    C'mon, Sun - it's a bloody rack! Who wants to but a special (and probably overpriced) "Sun" rack just to house this supposedly "affordable" server?

Add your opinion

Back to top

Featured