IBM System x3550 7978 - Quad-Core Xeon E5320 1.86 GHz

Advantages: Cheap upgrade with great cache memory
Disadvantages: not the fastest or best, most Core 2's are much better

...This is an okay machine that fails to ignite or excite you with its performance. I am still amazed that a quad-core can be only 1.86 GHz in memory. I mean so many good Core 2 Duos pack over 2 Gigs its a wonder you get this minnow. The E5320 has good bus speed of 1066 MHz and large cache memory of 8mb, performing well when doing work-related activities. However if you are after an entertainment machine to watch movies, play games or download stuff this is not the machine for you. But then this is an upgrade and is meant to replace older, slower machines with a new infrastructure. It doesn't work for me, since its a low-end 64-bit operator, but if you need a cheap upgrade to new technology then this will be a good choice for you.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: power,redundancy,expandibility
Disadvantages: Price

...The configuration I use is : 2x Xeon 3.6GHz/800MHz (1MB L2 Cache), 4x 512MB ECC 133MHz SDRAM,48x-20x IDE CD-ROM drive, Dual Broadcom 5721 Gigabit Ethernet, ATI Radeon 7000M, IBM 5U x 24in Tower To Rack Conversion Kit ,5x146.4 GB 10 000 rpm Ultra320 80-pin hard drive,Serveraid 7k SCSI raid card, Remote supervisor Adapter II card. Operating System provided by IBM as well ( part number 90P0221) Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Standard Edition. Packaging and manuals: Server is very well packaged,rack conversion comes with explanation for conversion, but the whole conversion is not intuitive at all.Picture provided in installation instructions not very helpful. Bit and pieces included in the packages ,as keyboard and mouse for Server.IBM Director and Serveraid manager CD, plus OS CDin the box, OS pre-installed. Set-Up. Set up... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: reliable, customer service,expandable
Disadvantages: price,accessory

...The particular model my company own is an 8648-4AY It comes with: 1x Xeon 3.0GHz/800MHz (2MB L2 Cache), 1x 512MB PC2-3200 ECC DDR2 SDRAM RDIMM, No disks,1x Broadcom NetXtreme 5721 Gigabit Ethernet, 48x-20x IDE CD-ROM , 1x 530W Power Supply, SVGA (16MB) . What we have as accessories are: IBM ServeRAID-6M Ultra320 SCSI Controller( around £500) 3x146.8 GB 10 000 rpm Ultra320 SCSI hard drives( around £300 each) and a Remote Supervisor Adapter II card ( around £300 ). Packaging and User manual: The server comes with a very good package.User manual ( CD)and IBM Director software included. keyboard and mouse included.The user manual is very good and include details about connections,set up and enviromental set-up ( noise generated,heat and cooling requirement) Set-up: For our particular configuration , we had to create the disk... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful