IBM X3400 - Manual

An affordable dual-socket, dual- and quad-core SMP server
with high performance and data protection for small and
medium businesses
Product Guide
October 2008
IBM System x3400
Product Overview
CONTENTS
Product Overview 1
Selling Features 1
Key Features 3
Key Options 8
x3400 Images 10
x3400 Specifications 11
The Bottom Line 13
Server Comparison Table 14
For More Information 15
L egal Information 15
Outstanding performance, capacity and availability
[Suggested uses: Small/medium businesses, large multilocation enterprises and bank branch offices
seeking scalability, top performance and new availability features at an entry-level price.]
The dual-socket IBM ® System x3400, incorporating IBM X-Architecture ™ features, provides outstanding
value to workgroups by combining scalable performance and availability features at an outstanding price.
The x3400 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 6MB (dual-core) or 12MB
(quad-core) of L2 cache and Hyper-Threading Technology, to help provide you with the computing
power you need to match your business needs and growth. In addition, the x3400 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 x3400 also offers a choice of optional
online hot-spare memory or memory mirroring. An integrated high-speed Gigabit Ethernet controller is
standard, as are high-performance adapter slots (PCIe x8 and x4 and PCIx/133).
All models offer impressive scalability, including dual-processor support, up to 32GB of memory and up to
four simple-swap Serial ATA II (SATA II) hard disk drives with a total capacity of up to 3.0TB
1 , or up to
four high-performance hot-swap Serial-Attach SCSI (SAS) drives with an internal storage capacity of
1.2TB. Specific models support an upgrade kit that increases hot-swap support to eight SATA or SAS
drives (6.0TB or 2.4TB, respectively). For additional performance and high availability, the x3400 includes
the hardware-based ServeRAID-8k-l controller standard, providing RAID-0/1/10 support. Additional RAID
support is available via the optional IBM ServeRAID
™ family of SAS/SATA and Ultra320 SCSI controllers.
The x3400 ships as a tower unit; an optional rack conversion kit turns the x3400 into a 5U rack-mounted
server to save precious data center floor space.
Standard in the x3400 is a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) that enables users to manage
and control the server easily. This high level of manageability is designed to keep costs down and the
system up—even when network usage increases. Other advanced features that help maximize network
availability by increasing uptime, include simple-swap or hot-swap/redundant HDDs, hot-
swap/redundant 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 IBM Director, IBM ServerGuide ™
and support for the optional IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine, the x3400 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
SAS storage at a budget price, the x3400 is the ideal system.
Selling Features Price/Performance
The x3400 offers numerous features to 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 6MB (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. On a per-core basis, the 80W quad-core processors
consume only 20W per core, vs. 32.5W per core for the 65W dual-core processors.
• Ultra-fast fully buffered 667MHz PC2-5300 DDR II ECC memory with Chipkill protection provides
speed and high availability.
1 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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