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Xserve Outside the Reality Distortion Field
Gentoo69 writes "OSNews has a comparison of the Xserve with other 1U servers. How does the Apple offering stands up against the competition?" (Hint: pretty well.)
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Read the article for some great detailed information, but don't bother trying to skip to the bottom to see the conclusions. There really aren't any. The Xserve is more expensive than some servers, and less than others. If you want to compare Xserve with Mac OS X Server to an Intel-based box with Windows 2000 Server, Xserve is a lot cheaper. If you compare it to a box with Linux, Xserve is about the same or a little bit more. Strangely, if you compare it to a Sun, Xserve is a lot more expensive. Which seems wrong, somehow....
That's right, 2 18-gig scsi 10k rpm hard drives and 1 gig ram. I can add a second P3 1.13 for $190 at any time. Here's a quote from IBM:
Config from Apple's store:
While the G4 is an impressive chip, its forte is really in the area of stuff like video encoding. Maybe SSL performance would be better as well. But I don't really see any reason to buy a $3600 Mac to use as a webserver when for the same price I could practically get two Gateways of similar performance. I'm having a hard time determining what Apple's intended market is for these things. Surely it's not meant to be used as a webserver, because it's WAY overpriced for that market. Its out-of-box features are similar to those of the Cobalt Qube, which, out of box, supports A million things which I listed and the lameness filter wouldn't let me include and whose entry-level price is $1149. Once again, I have to wonder what apple is thinking, and I truly hope this is intended solely for rendering farms.
Now I'm going to add a ton of stupid shit because of the fuckin lameness filter. Nice, right? # Please try to keep posts on topic. # Try to reply to other people comments instead of starting new threads. # Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your
threshold on the User Preferences Page) Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is aboNow I'm going to add a ton of stupid shit because of the fuckin lameness filter. Nice, right? # Please try to keep posts on topic. # Try to reply to other people comments instead of starting new threads. # Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your
threshold on the User Preferences Page) Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensiveyour own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive.threshold on the User Preferences Page) Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensiveyour own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive.
threshold on the User Preferences Page) Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that deslaaaaaame laaaaaaaame laaaaaaaame cribes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensiveyour own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive.
threshold on the User Preferences Page) Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensiveyour own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive.
The lameness filter causes more lameness than it prevents!
The lameness filter causes more lameness than it prevents!
avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, The lameness filter causes more lameness than it prevents!
avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. # Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate,
rooooar
I, for one, am pleasantly surprised to see that the XServe seems to provide pretty good bang for the $.
However, I would be interested to see how the ATA disk(s) hold up under heavy user load.
The problem with comparing OS X with an intel server running windows is that companies buying windows servers are most likely tied to MS for some reason (.NET). I don't see the Xserve competing with a wintel box at all.
The Apple servers do compete directly with wintel servers. As time passes, there are more and more people looking to sever their dependencies on Microsoft software, and one outlet is the new Apple servers (or Linux/Intel, or Solaris/SPARC, etc.). Basically, anything that is "the way out" of the Microsoft-only business infrastructure is legitimate competition.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Hate to say it, but this site reeks of blind Mac devotion. I'm not trolling. I'm a Mac user too, but even so, I really hate Mac advocacy sites and would hope that the moderators here on the Slashdot Apple site are savvy enough to weed these out. I could be wrong about this site, but that's my gut instinct after browsing it a little.
--Rick
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
Two words: Avie Tevanian. He's the man behind Mach - the microkernel at the heart of OS/X. Mach has had good clustering and distributed computing support from day zero.
Think about it. With relatively little effort, Apple could build a 64-cpu rack-mounted Mac. Any app that uses Mach threads - that is, any multi-threaded, native (Cocoa or Carbon) OS/X app - would be able to take advantage of them.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!