Apple server might be a good value for money
TODAY SEEMS like a good day for the four horsemen of the Apocalypse to arrive. Apple seems to have done something good for its users for once and released a good bit of kit at a reasonable price.
Of course we are not talking about the great unwashed fanbois. They will still have to pay through the nose for over-priced gear. However it seems that the Apple Xserve rackmount server is looking attractive price-wise.
The beast has been significantly upgraded and it now runs the quad-core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processors.
With a spec with two 2.26GHz quad-core Intel Xeon processors, 12GB of RAM, two 1TB SATA 7,200-rpm drives and dual 750W power supplies it is being flogged for $5,278.
A similar Dell PowerEdge R410 priced at $6,109 has more drive space but does not have an SSD drive.
The downsides? Well, there are several. The Xserve is probably best described as an old style server.
No blade options and a "virtualisation, what the hell is that" approach, which is a little retarded. Apple has not installed a type-one hypervisor, which means it can't take advantage of the hardware optimisations provided by the Xeon.
Perhaps what cripples the beast most is Apple's insistence that it run OS X, which means it is practically limited to networks of Apple client systems.
True it can work with different clients, but according to an Eweek review, by far the easiest relationship exists between the Xserve and MacBook and Mac Pro clients.
Unfortunately for Apple, the business world is not populated exclusively by Steve Jobs' fanbois and, while it might make a reasonably priced server, no outfit can justify spending more money than it has to on expensive client machines. µ
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The secret of enterprise IT is that no one ever pays the listed price. Consumers and those not privy to these deals don't see the true price of what is paid. Example for the same server based on the real pricing system:
2 x 2.26Ghz Intel Xeon E5520
12GB 6 x 2GB RDIMM
256MB PERC6i RAID Controller
2 x 146GB 15K RPM 2.5" SAS Drives
DVD-ROM
4 x GigE ports
Remote Management Card
Redundant Power Supplies
Rack Rails
3Yr Mission Critical 24/7 with 4 hour replacement
$4,713 + $29 shipping
Plus that price is before any haggling. Call up the Dell enterprise rep and you can easily see steeper discounts.
Kinda like airplane sales. Plane manufacturers always brag about jets sold but never reveal the final price. The analysts and talking heads always come up with a magic number based on MSRP but you can bet that airlines paid significantly less.
This has been out in the current config for months and like the Mac Pro offers the best bag for buck in there respective class.
You also forget to mention what other server OS you would prefer installed as the only one different would be Windows Server since Solaris, Linux, and Free BSD would be pointless due to Mac OS also being a Unix OS with the same abilities.
And that's one heck of an advantage.
Of course you could just format either the Dell or the Apple system and install either Free BSD or Cent OS, and then you'd really have something.
"Perhaps what cripples the beast most is Apple's insistence that it run OS X, which means it is practically limited to networks of Apple client systems."
wrong. apple's problem is they are NOT a hardware company but a SOFTWARE company and is just a patch/frontend to bsd which CAN support great VT stuffs
Wayne it is already running Free BSD that is what Mac OS essentially is just with a nice GUI and some useful extras.
Mac OS X 10.5 server and client are Unix certified operating systems running on a modified Free BSD core as such there is no value to essentially cross grade to a less easy to use GUI and tool set.
Also Mac OS is not the only Unix with no virus, Solaris, and Free BSD have never had a virus ether nor has the cousin Linux.