Apple Error Confirms Xserve Refresh Coming Soon

[polaris20]

Dell PowerEdge R900

Agreed, Apple should definitely roll out a 4U Xserve with support for 256 gigabytes of RAM and eight HDDs like the Dell above. Of course, were they ever to do so, it would be ridiculed for being too expensive...I mean, come on, 256GB of memory is a $30,200 (thirty-thousand dollars!!!) add-on with the 4U PowerEdge from Dell!

Anyways, I think it's hilarious when people complain about the price of a freaking server (and we all know they will) especially when you work for a corporation that buys $250,000-servers in bulk. When you're talking about that much money in your budget, I'd say the alleged "Apple Tax" is the least of your worries.

Known facts about the (upcoming) 4U Xserve "Extreme"

1. It will be better than the Dell.
2. It will be more expensive than the Dell.
3. It will be less of a hassle to maintain and experience much less downtime than the Dell.
4. It will probably not have Red Hat Linux as a CTO option.



5. It will look better than the Dell.

Dell servers would be great if they would stop using Fujitsu drives. I've replaced more hard drives in Dell servers than anyone. Well maybe not anyone, but a lot!

 

[queshy]

Haha, reminds me of when they leaked the PM G4 on their website before it was released. Someone is going to get fired...

 

[talkingfuture]

I was just thinking that, if not fired then a big telling off.

 

[DoFoT9]

mmmnnnnnn more money to waste

 

[hugociss]

Stalkers...

haha, you guys are like stalking Apple. Funny how a company like Apple can make such a mistake! Steve Jobs virtually triple checks everything the company does..

 

[Neodym]

Funny, though, I've never seen "looks" pop up on the requirements for an RFP for servers.

Studies have shown that "looks" (and other soft facts) can play a pretty important factor for "deciders" - no matter how professional they are. As this usually happens on a subconscious level, it's hard to recognize and avoid it...

 

[Schizoid]

Just a damn shame that all 3rd party RAIDs look so dreadful when next to XServes

I disagree, these look nice in an Xserve RAID stylee:link

 

[InkMaster]

haha, you guys are like stalking Apple. Funny how a company like Apple can make such a mistake! Steve Jobs virtually triple checks everything the company does..

You mean the same Steve Jobs thats MIA at the moment and can't triple check everything the company does?

 

[xparaparafreakx]

They should keep it 1U. I only use my server as a OD Master. My dell servers keep the data and do my AD crap.

Now that I think about it, my Xserve is 3 years old. Man G5 Xserve, thats old.

 

[dernhelm]

Apple Tax?

I'm beginning to think the "apple tax" is more of a myth than anything else. I went and configured a Dell PowerEdge R610 with two 2.8Ghz Xeon Processors, a 3 yr "subscription" to SUSE Linux, 4GB RAM, a 73GB HDD (73?), a Gig-E NIC port and a DVD+RW drive. Price? $6,883.

Configure the same XServe (except 80GB HDD), the OS/X "server maintenance program" and AppleCare, and you're in for about $6,148.

The Dell does have 6 ports for HDD instead of just 3, but the largest HDD they allow you to configure internally is 300GB - which means max 1.8TB of storage, and they only support SaS. XServe supports both SaS and SATA, meaning you can cram 3TB inside it if you want. We just use the internal disk drives for the host OS, anyway.

It is possible to configure cheaper systems for both companies, but for our needs, that is a pretty typical configuration, and Apple would be no more expensive than Dell. We buy this kind of equipment to run multiple VMs on them and use them for continuous integration servers - I wish we'd be a little more open to purchases from places other than Dell.

 

[Voidness]

Haha, reminds me of when they leaked the PM G4 on their website before it was released. Someone is going to get fired...

I remember that too. But it was for the Powermac G5. I also remember Steve Jobs mentioning the error on stage during the WWDC 2003 keynote.

What an amazing keynote that was

 

[uaecasher]

Apple has released the new one check the xserver page

 

[twoodcc]

alright! so this means 10.5.7 is coming soon also.

 

[DELLsFan]

Am I the only one underwhelmed here? I mean no offense folks, so don't take this the wrong way ...

... Where exactly is the market for a rack mounted, Macintosh server today? Did the market share for server hardware suddenly shift to Apple (of all places)? We are talking about the same company who hasn't filled the hardware gap between iMac and Mac Pro or the gap between iMac and Mac Mini and yet lately, I keep reading about Xserve! Xserve! Xserve! ... blah blah blah Xserve! Xserve! Xserve! blah blah blah BBQ11!!1 ...

No really, can someone please school me in the practical utility for Apple servers? In other words, what is it that makes XServe a viable alternative over hardware running Windows or Linux? Is there that great a corporate IT demand for these products? Who else besides the Apple IT dept is using Apple server hardware?

Meanwhile, on the home consumer side, if all I wanted was a file server, it seems to me a Mini + Drobo would be all I need, right?

 

[edesignuk]

I can hear all 10 people that actually want one stampeding toward an Apple Store as we speak

 

[jnc]

I can hear all 10 people that actually want one stampeding toward an Apple Store as we speak

Silly rabbit... Apple Stores won't sell them I'm lucky if I even see a Mac Pro in most stores...

 

[Tallest Skil]

Apple has released the new one check the xserver page

No, they haven't. Do some actual research before posting.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

Nice find. It looks like we will be seeing this soon.

 

[MrCrowbar]

Silly rabbit... Apple Stores won't sell them I'm lucky if I even see a Mac Pro in most stores...

There's usually one to demo the 30" Cinema Display. But I believe very few people buy the standard configuration anyway. They can show you the case and the insides at the store, then you can just order it.

I guess the Mac Pros are a real pain to carry around just because of their size and weight. It's just nicer to have it delivered to you. Macbooks or Mac Minis are Fun to buy. You can carry three of those per hand easily.

 

[overcast]

I love how everyone still considers these updates by Apple to be in "error". Exactly how many times do you have to "accidentally" update a site before it's considered intentional.

 

[overcast]

I'm beginning to think the "apple tax" is more of a myth than anything else. I went and configured a Dell PowerEdge R610 with two 2.8Ghz Xeon Processors, a 3 yr "subscription" to SUSE Linux, 4GB RAM, a 73GB HDD (73?), a Gig-E NIC port and a DVD+RW drive. Price? $6,883.

Configure the same XServe (except 80GB HDD), the OS/X "server maintenance program" and AppleCare, and you're in for about $6,148.

The Dell does have 6 ports for HDD instead of just 3, but the largest HDD they allow you to configure internally is 300GB - which means max 1.8TB of storage, and they only support SaS. XServe supports both SaS and SATA, meaning you can cram 3TB inside it if you want. We just use the internal disk drives for the host OS, anyway.

It is possible to configure cheaper systems for both companies, but for our needs, that is a pretty typical configuration, and Apple would be no more expensive than Dell. We buy this kind of equipment to run multiple VMs on them and use them for continuous integration servers - I wish we'd be a little more open to purchases from places other than Dell.

This is typically the case. The argument always arises when people complain that they can buy a computer at Walmart for $300. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Dells catering to the commodity crowd ruined the entire market.

 

[guzhogi]

This is typically the case. The argument always arises when people complain that they can buy a computer at Walmart for $300. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Dells catering to the commodity crowd ruined the entire market.

I find one place there's a significant "Apple Tax" is on RAM. If you order through the Apple store, it can be 1000s of dollars (depending on how much you get) while the same kind & amount of RAM on say dealram.com will be only a few hundred $.

 

[thogs_cave]

The Xserve is the "Mac Mini" of servers. Interesting, but too constrained to be seriously considered. Every other server manufacturer has a family of systems that are similar in concept, but vary in expandability. The Xserver has no place to grow.

It's a very narrow-focus server, but useful in its niche. Render farms, HPC, Virtualization, Web. Any of these it's good for. I agree with the need for something with more expandability, something like a Mac Pro in a case that can be rack-mounted. With easy to access disks, natch.

But, even the 1U can take a decent amount of RAM (32G), and 3x1T disks. The HW RAID card doesn't take a slot, and it is well-designed. We use a number of them for HD video ingest/processing. I also use 'em for edge servers and the like.

I'd like to see Apple release something like Sun's StorageTek J4400 or the like. That would also be handy.

 

[polaris20]

Am I the only one underwhelmed here? I mean no offense folks, so don't take this the wrong way ...

... Where exactly is the market for a rack mounted, Macintosh server today? Did the market share for server hardware suddenly shift to Apple (of all places)? We are talking about the same company who hasn't filled the hardware gap between iMac and Mac Pro or the gap between iMac and Mac Mini and yet lately, I keep reading about Xserve! Xserve! Xserve! ... blah blah blah Xserve! Xserve! Xserve! blah blah blah BBQ11!!1 ...

No really, can someone please school me in the practical utility for Apple servers? In other words, what is it that makes XServe a viable alternative over hardware running Windows or Linux? Is there that great a corporate IT demand for these products? Who else besides the Apple IT dept is using Apple server hardware?

Meanwhile, on the home consumer side, if all I wanted was a file server, it seems to me a Mini + Drobo would be all I need, right?

It can do everything I do on a linux server, for roughly the same price as we pay for an HP DL360 running SuSe or Ubuntu, while being a little easier to manage. So that's one practical function of it.

It's a great system for an SMB that doesn't want to deal with MS's licensing. I tinkered with OS X Server for centralized authentication, and it's very straight forward (not that Active Directory is complicated either).

For home use, I would say a Mini + Drobo is fine, provided your main datastore is the Drobo.

 

[kasei]

See what happens when the boss is out of the office.