xSeries 226 8648-4ay

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...

starmanx 06.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of IBM eServer xSeries 226 8648

IBM X236 tower / rack server

Advantages: Very versatile mid range server
Disadvantages: support web site can be awkward to navigate

...because the rails are a little longer than the server to accomodate the cable management bars. The 5 1/4" bay that houses the CD ROM etc slides out and rotates through 90 degrees so you don't have to put CDs in on their side. The power leds transpose to a different location as does the power switch. Once this is complete you can click on the new facia, screw on the base and lid, put your rails into your cabinet and then drop the server onto the rails. Although it has two stabalizing wheels for the back and the front of the rail hooks into the rack clips on the server, I would definately reccomend two people to do the job as you need to screw four screws into each side of the server and need to support the weight whilst you do it. With regard to hard drives I would normally build this server with a mirrored pair of 73GB U320 15Ks for the OS...

goosey2 20.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of IBM eServer xSeries 236 8841

IBM POWER PROCSSOR BOARD.

Advantages: CONFIGURES IN TWO WAYS.
Disadvantages: MIGHT BE COSTLY TO SOME.

...Well this actually awakens your pc by increasing the processing speed of your PC. My previous processor, which is Intel, has actually gone old so I needed some up grade. In terms of recommendations, I will highly recommend this to the fullest because of its processing speed and efficiency. With the 2-way 1.65ghz processor with a 36mb l cache, the processor board is capable of processing perfectly and all right so this is a good alternative if you actually want to upgrade your PC. The cache memory has good memory capacity of 72mb L3 cache. The new processor on the p5-550 allows you to configure in both ways either a 2- way or 4 way system. With the new 1.65ghz processor, there are wide ranges of system storage offerings. As a pc gamer, the new IBM processor board has given me some special entertainment with my games by...

packerlist 30.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of IBM IBM POWER5+ 1.5 GHz processor board

The x445

Advantages: Reliable, fast, robust
Disadvantages: A bit heavy... but doesn't matter once it's in the rack

...I have recently installed a couple of the IBM x445 servers at work, and as I've been generally impressed with the way they've performed, thought I'd share my findings. I won't go through the finer and minute technical details of this server simply because that wouldn't be a review- that would be simply copying the specification, which anyone can read anyway. I decided it be a lot more helpful to describe in business terms the benefits of the server, and how reliable and effective it has been in our infrastructure. Nevertheless, some bare technical details should be discussed- so in essence, let me point out that it comes with 2Gb of RAM and 2 Intel Zeon processors running at 2.5 GHz. It has the capability of using up to 64Gb of RAM (if you should ever really need to). There are the usual slots available for adding SCSI hard disks, in...

bagoproverbial 17.01.2005 · Read review
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Review of IBM eserver xSeries 445 8870

If the job needs doing - this server will do it

Advantages: Powerful - impressive - cutting edge
Disadvantages: Like a big filing cabinet on wheels

...stuff such as archived mailboxes and the like. It has a capacity for 12 300GB SAS drives giving 3TB of storage if required. The high vis neon green drive lights were constantly flashing on and off on the one I built because the RAID card is constantly performing data scrubbing which monitors and repairs any errors it finds in the stripes on the array. Apparently all the RAID cards IBM supply do it but only the 8i card has the ability to flash the disk lights whilst it does it which I find kind of bizarre. Above the drive bays is the CPU tray which, once you have removed all the relevant clips and air channels, can be slid out of the front and up to four processors can be plugged in. Reseat this board and move into the area behind where the CPUs sit to the memory area. The memory is plugged into what are effectively daughterboards each...

goosey2 21.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of IBM eServer xSeries 260 8865

Logitech X-230

Advantages: clear sound, very low noise
Disadvantages: remote control would be nice

...An easy, plug'n'play sound system in cute-looking body with great performance. I was looking for new speakers for my laptop but then I decided I wanted more than just speakers and started searching through the lists of 2.1 and 5.1 sound systems. Originally I was about to buy a 5.1, but I realized such a set wouldn't be smart for a laptop which I wanna carry around and have it now on my desk, then on my bed, then on the floor etc, for which a 5.1 felt too much of cables and mass. I'm happy about my decision since the Logitech X-230 has proven to live up to the expectations based on what they promise, the sound is clear, full and I find it great for both music, games or movies. The subwoofer bass is strong and full, perfectly satisfying for almost cinema movie experience. You can hear hardly any noise and the volume range is wide enough...

jeaniecz 10.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Logitech X 230

8841-41X + rack conversion

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 is...

starmanx 07.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of IBM eServer xSeries 236 8841

Great entry level / terminal server

Advantages: good build quality - rarely break down - It's an IBM!
Disadvantages: support website can sometimes be awkward to navigate.

...means that once the initial information has been entered it's pretty much an automated process. Once your up and running you can install the included IBM Director software (it is included with all the servers I have ever bought but I don't see it on the kit list so might be wise to check, although even if it isn't you can download it from the IBM website. The easiest way to find it is search the IBM website or Google for e1cd1.iso. You should also download the serveraid windows agent as well ) which monitors the state of all your hardware and can be configured to send E-Mail or pager alerts in the event of warnings errors or security breaches. As a terminal server it should be good to go for up to 15 users (maybe 20 with plenty of RAM and if only using office docs) but I would probably go for an X236 if you want to do much more than...

goosey2 20.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of IBM eServer xSeries 226 8648

Good things in small packages

Advantages: Small and perfectly formed
Disadvantages: Limited upgrade path

..., and you'll probably have no difficulty in believing that 'unstable' was a bit of an understatement. I put it to them that anything I did to resurrect the system was going to be temporary, and that they needed something with a bit more clout to see them through the next couple of years at least. We ended up selecting a reconditioned Deskpro EN, with an 800MHz PIII processor 14Gb hard drive, and had been upgraded to 256Mb of memory. The cost from an ebay reseller was around £120 without operating system, in a 'buy it now' auction - when it arrived, it revealed it's 'enterprise culture' heritage by arriving with a 16Mb Token Ring card installed - this was immediately pulled & stuck in my spares box - somehow I just can't bring myself to throw these out, even though they are virtually useless in the 'real world' The system is based...

dobieg 06.05.2004 · Read review
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Review of Compaq Deskpro EN PIII 1 GHz

X206 Entry level/Home server

Advantages: Very low cost
Disadvantages: No potential

...If you are two users working from home, or you require a small good value box to act as a small scale scanned document server then this is the one for you, load it up with your favourite operating system, chuck it in the corner and away you go. i would however advise that you put in a second hard drive and at the very least run on a mirrored pair. At least that way if one drive fails you can carry on working whilst you wait for the replacement. When I think of server I think SCSI hard drives, fault tolerence and expandability of which this server has none by default and whilst IBM products are generally built to a high specification I have never been a big fan of using SATA drives where constant disk access is required. Likewise the celeron processor does not easily lend itself to blistering performance but, on the other side...

goosey2 21.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of IBM eServer xSeries 206 8482