“At the August 2006 Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, Apple’s Steve Jobs announced that Xserve Xeon (my name–Apple refers to it as Xserve), its latest rack-mount server, would ship in October. It turned out that Apple didn’t get Xserve Xeon into full production in October, but I was honored by the surprise delivery of one of the first Xserve Xeon units produced,” Tom Yager writes for InfoWorld in Part One of his Apple Xserve review.
Yager writes, “Apple’s new server is a story, not because I’m Mac-aligned, but because if Xserve Xeon were stripped of the logo, the aluminum and the trappings of Apple culture, it’d be hailed as a server design breakthrough. Xserve Xeon is an entry-priced Intel rack server engineered to satisfy mid-level server buyers’ expectations. Compared with competing Intel rack servers based solely on performance, total hardware design, features, build quality, expandability, adherence to standards, manageability and serviceability, Xserve has no better among two-socket Core microarchitecture servers in the sub-$5,000 category.”
“Unlike other Intel OEMs’ boxes, Xserve Xeon ships from Apple as a server platform, not as a server. The difference? A server platform is a whole–hardware, OS, standardized services, GUI management, dev tools, server application frameworks, documentation and so on–that emerges from its shipping carton with functionality that fully satisfies the needs of the majority of buyers,” Yager writes.
Yager writes, “Xserve Xeon is not Xserve as you’ve known it, and if you’re well familiar with x86 1U (one rack unit = 1.75 inches tall by 19 inches wide) servers, you’ll find that Xserve Xeon is unlike any x86 server you’ve seen or used. That’s what I discovered, and the more I explored Xserve Xeon, the more pleased and impressed I was to find that Xserve Xeon shares no genetic link with Xserve G5 or with other vendors’ Intel rack servers.”
Part One of Yager’s review here.
Part Two of Yager’s review here.
Related articles:
Apple’s Xserve Quad 64-bit Intel Xeon to ship in mid-November – October 25, 2006
InfoWorld: Apple’s Xserve Xeon ‘perfectly designed’ – October 17, 2006
Apple not planning specific cluster node Xserve – August 17, 2006
Apple shows off new Xserve with Quad 64-bit Intel Xeon processors at LinuxWorld – August 17, 2006
Bear Stearns: Apple’s new Mac Pro, Xserve pricing well below comparable Dell systems – August 09, 2006
Apple introduces Xserve with Quad 64-bit Intel Xeon Processors – August 07, 2006
But the real question is how fast can you rip iTunes on it? Or render a movie in Final Cut? Or frame rate in Quake
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I can’t wait to see the XXXserve.
TowerTone don’t steal my porno thunder, you’ll make the eunuchs jealous.
I want to see how this baby can be clustered into the next supercomputer.
I think reviews by Yager should be labeled as such in the headline. He always writes good things about Apple’s hardware. When the quotes are from CNET or Jim Alchin, they are interesting, but when it’s Yager it’s like the choir preaching to the choir.
Apple should package a “mini Xserve” for the home and small business. It would be the foundation for central storage of all your multimedia, Time Machine back-end, and a distributed version of .Mac services.
I’d buy at least two.