IBM System x3500 7977KCG Dépliant

A stable, long-life, dual-socket, dual- and quad-core SMP 
server, offering high-performance, massive capacity and 
outstanding availability 

 

 

October 2008 

  

 

 
 
 

 

IBM System x3500

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Server Comparison Table 15

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Outstanding performance, capacity and availability 

[Suggested uses: Workgroups of medium-to-large corporations; remote offices; fast growing small 
businesses]  

In a distributed computing environment, servers are spread across many locations; therefore, as limited 
resources challenge IT management, high availability is crucial. The dual-socket IBM

®

 System x3500, 

incorporating IBM X-Architecture

™

 features, delivers the superior power and availability needed by small 

businesses and those with branch or remote locations. The x3500 supports the latest quad- and dual-
core Intel

®

 Xeon

™

 processors, designed with up to a leading-edge 1333MHz front-side bus (FSB), 64-bit 

extensions (EM64T), and either 4MB (dual-core) or 12MB (quad-core) of L2 cache, to help provide you 
with the computing power you need to match your business needs and growth. In addition, the x3500 uses 
industry-standard fully buffered 667MHz memory with Chipkill

™

 ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) 

protection—for high performance and reliability. For even higher levels of availability, the x3500 also offers 
a choice of optional online hot-spare memory or memory mirroring. Dual integrated high-speed Gigabit 
Ethernet controllers are standard, as are high-performance adapter slots (PCIe x8 and x4 and PCIx/133). 

All models offer impressive scalability, including dual-processor support and up to 48GB of memory. Some 
models support eight high-performance 3.5-inch hot-swap Serial-Attach SCSI (SAS) with an internal 
storage capacity of up to 2.4TB

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, or eight hot-swap 3.5-inch Serial ATA II (SATA II) hard disk drives with 

a total capacity of up to 6.0TB. Other models support twelve 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS drives (up to 
1.76TB). For additional performance and high availability, the x3500 includes the ServeRAID-8k controller 
standard, with 256MB of battery-backed cache, providing RAID-0/1/10/1E/5/6 support. The x3500 ships 
as a tower unit; an optional rack conversion kit turns the x3500 into a 5U rack-mounted server to help save 
precious data center floor space. 

Standard in the x3500 is a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) that enables users to manage 
and control the server easily—both locally and remotely. This high level of manageability is designed to 
keep costs down and the system up—even when network usage increases. The built-in, externally 
viewable light path diagnostics panel enables quick servicing of the system if a problem develops. 
These advanced features help maximize network availability by increasing uptime, as do hot-
swap/redundant HDDs, power and fans; Active Memory

™

; integrated RAID; temperature-controlled 

fans with Calibrated Vectored Cooling

; industry-standard IPMI 2.0 support, including highly secure 

remote power control and Serial over LAN; as well as text-console redirect over LAN.  

With the inclusion of unique IBM service and support features such as light path diagnostics, IBM 
Director, IBM ServerGuide

™ 

and

 

support for the optional IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine, 

the x3500 is equally well designed for a locally managed data center environment as for a remotely 
managed or stand-alone environment, while offering maximum availability. 

For a balance of high-performance dual-core, dual-socket processing, high availability and vast internal 
storage, the x3500 is the ideal system.

 

 

The x3500 offers numerous features to help boost performance and reduce product and operating costs: 
• Up 

to 

two multi-core Xeon processors with high-end 1066MHz or 1333MHz front side bus and either 

12MB or 4MB (processor-specific) of integrated Level 2 cache per processor offer superior 
performance capable of tackling the toughest jobs. 64-bit extensions provide the flexibility to run 32-
bit and 64-bit applications concurrently.  

•  Low-voltage processors draw less power and produce less waste heat than high-voltage processors, 

thus helping to reduce data center energy costs. Some dual-core Xeon processors use only 65W. This 
is half the wattage consumed by older 130W processors. On a per-core basis, the 80W quad-core 
processors are even more economical, consuming only 20W per core, vs. 32.5W per core for the 65W 
dual-core processors. 

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 GB equals 1,000,000,000 bytes and TB equals 1,000,000,000,000 bytes when referring to hard disk drive capacity. Accessible 

capacity may be less. 

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

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