Hardware
Countless pizza boxes, blade systems, and rack-mount monsters built for speed
Follow @infoworldSystem hardware offered more opportunities for consolidating servers in 2003, providing faster processors, higher density, and improved manageability at lower prices. Juggernauts Dell, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard played catch-up to upstart RLX Technologies in the race to produce the densest and most easily managed server blade system — the battle culminating in our July roundup. In Intel-based rack-mounted servers, IBM and HP led the way with polished, highly manageable systems of every size and description, while Gateway and MPC challenged Dell in offering the most capable hardware at the lowest price points. This was also the year that Sun found religion, offering an Intel-based Linux (or Solaris) server that we tested in November.
The past year also witnessed the birth of AMD’s Opteron and Intel’s Itanium 2 processors, which fueled the rise of commodity 64-bit systems. We tested Opteron servers from Appro, Newisys, and Pogo Linux, and Itanium 2 servers from Dell, IBM, and HP. Look for our review of IBM’s new Opteron box early next year. Other highlights in 2003: Apple’s introduction of the Slot Load Xserve and Xserve RAID (see Storage) and Dell’s foray into high-performance computing with a well-integrated cluster based on its PowerEdge 3250 Itanium 2 server.
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32-Bit Servers
Apple Xserve
Apple
Very Good (8.3)
Cost: $3,799, dual 1.33GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, dual GbE (Gigabit Ethernet)
Bottom Line: The second generation of Xserve runs cooler and quieter than the first. It sports faster CPUs and smarter temperature management. Given the absence of a road map for an Xserve with the new PowerPC G5 CPU, this iteration of Xserve is a smart choice for shops that want a highly manageable server with an industry-standard, Unix-like OS in Mac OS X.
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Gateway 975
Gateway Computers
Very Good (7.5)
Cost: Base price, $2,199; as tested, $8,821
Bottom Line: Although not as polished as the HP ProLiant DL380, this 2U server packs an awful lot of punch. Its bundled management software is a step behind HP’s, but for system admins who simply want power without proprietary software hooks, this machine is worth considering. It does come with Gateway Server Manager 1.2, which helps with asset management and post-OS setup monitoring, but it can’t set alerts based on thresholds.
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