IBM System x3550 M2 7946K3G Fascicule

Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and 
expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server 

Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information. 

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without tools. This means less time (and therefore less money) spent servicing the x3550 M2. 
Similarly, hot-swap/redundant HDDs, fans and power supplies, as well as online mirrored 
memory, mean greater system uptime while these components are being serviced. 

• New 

toolless slides ship with the server, together with a Cable Management Arm (CMA), 

that allows the rack server to easily slide into place 

• IBM 

Thermal Diagnostics allows the administrator to evaluate thermal data on the server 

without taking the hardware offline. This can provide greater server uptime. 

• The 

drop-down light path diagnostics panel and individual light path LEDs quickly lead the 

technician to failed (or failing) components. This simplifies servicing, speeds up problem 
resolution and helps improve network availability. 

•  Integrated RAID-1 disk mirroring and RAID-10 striped mirrored arrays standard enable 

the server to keep operating in the event of a failure to any one drive. 

•  IPMI 2.0 supports highly secure remote system power control using data encryption. This 

allows an administrator to restart a server without having to visit it in person, saving travel time 
and getting the server back up and running quickly and securely. It also adds new features to 
those provided by IPMI 1.5, including VLAN support, Serial over LAN, enhanced 
authentication and encryption algorithms (RMCP+, SHA-1, AES) and a firmware firewall. 

•  Altitude- and temperature-controlled fans adjust to compensate for changing thermal 

characteristics. At the lower speeds they draw less power and suffer less wear. Equally 
important in a crowded data center, temperature-controlled fans produce less ambient noise in 
the data center than if they were constantly running at full speed. 

• The three-year (parts and labor) limited onsite warranty

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 helps afford you peace of mind 

and greater investment protection than a one-year warranty does. 

The x3550 M2 supports up to two high-performance Intel Xeon processors, allowing you to 
upgrade to a second processor as your business needs require. The x3550 M2 offers a choice of 
processor clock rates, memory access speeds and energy efficiency, including: 
•  95W quad-core Xeon 5500 Series Processor advanced performance models X5570, X5560, 

or X5550 at 2.93, 2.8, 2.66GHz respectively running 6.4GT (gigatransfers/second) with 8MB 
of L3 processor cache,  1333MHz memory access, and Turbo Boost technology. 

•  80W quad-core Xeon 5500 Series Processor standard performance models E5540, E5530, 

or E5520 at 2.53, 2.4, 2.26GHz respectively running 5.8GT with 8MB of L3 processor cache, 
1066MHz memory access, and Turbo Boost technology. 

•  80W quad-core Xeon 5500 Series Processor basic models E5506 and E5504 at 2.13 and 

2.0GHz running 4.8GT with 4MB of L3 processor cache and 800MHz memory access. 

•  60W quad-core Xeon 5500 Series Processor low-voltage models 5520, L5506 at 2.26, 

2.13GHz respectively running 5.8GTand 4.8GT  with 8MB and 4MB of L3 processor cache, 
1066MHz memory access, and Turbo Boost technology. 

•  80W dual-core Xeon 5500 Series Processor model E5502 at 1.86GHz running 4.8GT with 

4MB of L3 processor cache and 800MHz memory access. 

With the Xeon 5500 Series processors, Intel has diverged from its traditional Symmetric 
Multiprocessing (SMP) architecture to a Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture. The 
Xeon 5500 processors are connected through a serial coherency link called QuickPath 
Interconnect (QPI). QPI is capable of 6.4, 5.6 or 4.8 GT/s (gigatransfers per second), depending 
on the processor model. 

Dual-core Xeon processors contain two complete processor cores; quad-core processors, 
similarly, contain four cores. Some processors contain one unified cache shared by all cores, 
while other processors have multiple independent caches (one per pair of cores). The shared 
cache is dynamically allocated between the cores as needed. The multiple cores appear to 
software as multiple physical processors. The dual-core processors offer considerably higher 
performance than a same-speed Xeon processor with a single core. Likewise, quad-core 
processors offer considerably higher performance than a same-speed Xeon processor with dual 
cores. 

Turbo Boost Technology dynamically turns off unused processor cores and increases the clock 
speed of the cores in use, by up to two model frequencies. For example, with three cores active, 
a 2.26GHz processor can run the cores at 2.4GHz. With only one or two cores active, the same 
processor can run those cores at 2.53GHz. Similarly, a 2.93GHz processor can run at 3.06GHz 

                                                                                                                                                                                           

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 For terms and conditions or copies of the IBM Statement of Limited Warranty, call 800-772-2227 in the U.S. In Canada call 800-

426-2255. Telephone support may be subject to additional charges. For warranties including onsite labor, a technician is sent after 
IBM attempts to resolve the problem remotely. International warranty service is available in any country in which this product is 
sold.