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Apple Updates Xserve, Announces Xserve RAID

Posted by pudge on from the bring-it-on dept.

jht writes "This morning Apple introduced an updated Xserve and the long-awaited Xserve RAID. The relevant specs for new Xserve: single or dual G4/1.33, upgraded DDR 333 RAM, and FireWire 800 all added, with pricing between $2799 and $8248 for stock configs. The Xserve RAID specs: shipping in configs of 720GB for $5999, 1.26TB for $7499, or 2.52TB for $10999. It uses up to 14 180GB drive modules (each on a separate ATA/100 channel), and a pair of Fibre Channel interfaces to connect them to the Xserve."

3 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Help!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First off, you're using an outdated OS on the machine. No multitasking, that's why your machine is crawling. Secondly, you offer no specifics on hard drive speeds or bus speeds so I can't help you there. Next, pitting NT against anything that Apple did before OS X is a losing battle for Apple. If you want to see a really impressive dual, put a new Apple G4 tower against a newer PC. i do it at work, on my desk a dual 1Ghz g4 tower versus a Dell 2.2 Ghz. Both with 1.5 gigs of ram. The Mac outperforms it consistently. What you really need to do is update your hardware or stop using Macs if they bother you so much.

  2. Re:ATA RAID by binaryDigit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well if you're refering to the general switch from scsi to ide, then not really. Apple adopted scsi wwwwaaay back before ide even existed. Back then there was scsi or mfm/rll. And mfm/rll only offered internal hard drive storage, no scanners, no external drives. So the original adoption of scsi made complete sense back then. Apples continued use of scsi made sense for almost exactly the same reasons. Many people had things like scanners and external hd's (dtp, video, etc), so a move to ide wouldn't have made sense even if it would have resulted in a somewhat cheaper disk subsystem, since they'd most likely would have to have shipped scsi anyway.

    Now fast forward, things like usb and firewire take care of things like scanners and other higher speed peripherals, the the internal disk bus can be just that. So all of a sudden ide makes sense. And then in terms of performance, ide has definitely caught up and it would be hard to make an argument for scsi from a strictly price/performance standpoint.

    So, while a curiousity, it not all that ironic, just a sign of the times.

  3. Re:Funny how the Xserve even looks good by dirkx · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Ma dai - who cares.. except for the fact as a proofpoint about it being well engineered - and that I care about. Feast for the eyes, feast for the hands: tool-less disassembly; the inner box slides out of its enclosure (forget those crappy folding'arm' things which always snip at your cables) - tool-less idiot proof swapping of most components. And virtually impossible to mount things upside down or otherwise wrong. That is where the good looks come in.

    Good Design - a joy to work with ;-)

    And somehow that translates in a better bottom line for the buyer.