Xserve (2009)

Let's face it: Apple makes only one rackmount server, and upgrades to it come and go with Intel's processor life cycles. This reality occasionally makes it hard to get excited about a new Xserve, but the 2009 edition warrants notice: this server is undeniably faster than the previous generation, uses less power, and exudes less heat. I've reviewed all three iterations of the Intel-based Xserve; that combination doesn't happen very often.

Product:

Xserve (2009)

Rating: 3.5/5

Pros

1U server sees substantial performance improvement over prior generations; reduced power consumption and heat output.

Cons

Leopard Server cannot utilize server's full RAM capacity; SAS drives are sourced from a third-party vendor; no warranty uplift available for SAS drives; incomplete Lights-Out Management; no choices of video card.

Company

Apple

Price as rated

$2,999 (base), $6,249 (tested)

OS compatibility

10.5 Leopard Server

Processor compatibility

Intel

Configurations and upgrades

The new Xserve's base configuration, which sells for $2,999, includes a single quad-core 2.26GHz Xeon processor, 3GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory, and a single 160GB, 7,200 rpm SATA hard drive. The expansion slots are now 16x PCI Express 2.0, up from 8x in the last Xserve; one slot accommodates 6.6-inch cards, the other 9.25-inch. A SuperDrive is standard, as are two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two FireWire 800 ports, a DB-9 serial port, and three high-speed USB 2.0 ports; one of the USB ports is on the server's front panel.

Available upgrades include two Xeon processors at 2.26GHz, 2.66GHz, or 2.93GHz; up to 12GB of 1066MHz DDR3 RAM on single-processor models (24GB on dual-processor configurations); a second power supply; and a variety of Ethernet and Fiber Channel controllers. The Xserve holds up to three 3.5-inch disks, in either SAS or SATA varieties. A new 128GB solid-state disk (SSD) is available as a $500 option. All Xserves include an unlimited-user copy of Mac OS X Server.

The optional RAID card has been upgraded with a faster processor and 512MB of RAM (up from last year's 256MB). The upgraded RAID card is specific to the 2009 Xserve, and cannot be retrofitted to an earlier model.

For this review, Apple provided a unit with two quad-core 2.26GHz Xeon processors, 12GB of RAM, a 128GB solid-state disk, three 1TB SATA disks, the optional RAID card, and two power supplies. This configuration retails for $6,249. (By comparison, the 2008 review unit had 3GHz processors, 8GB of RAM, three 1TB SATA disks, the RAID card, and two power supplies, for a retail price of $8,999.)

Architectural improvements

Today's Xserve uses Intel's newest 5500 series Xeon processors, code-named Nehalem. This generation integrates the memory controller onto the processor die itself, and each processor contains 8MB of L3 cache; the cache is shared among the processor's four cores. The memory controller uses three-channel interleaving to achieve faster I/O when DIMM slots are filled in sets of three. Nehalem allows DIMM installations in sets of one, two, or three, with varying optimizations for memory density or speed; vendors such as Dell or HP expose this matrix to the customer, but Apple simplifies things by only shipping combinations using matched sets of three DIMMs, for maximum performance.

Six DIMM slots are available to each processor, for a total of 12 slots in an eight-core Xserve. (If you add or change memory later, the Memory Configuration Utility automatically launches after boot and indicates whether your RAM is optimally installed. The utility is stored in the /System/Library/Core Services directory and can be launched manually.)

It's worth noting that Mac OS X Leopard cannot fully utilize the new Xserve's memory capacity. Where Leopard can only use 32GB of RAM, an eight-core Xserve can hold a theoretical maximum 48GB (if populated with 4GB DIMMs in all 12 slots). Further, as Apple only sells RAM configurations using matched sets of three DIMMs, 12GB per processor is the largest configuration available from the factory: 4GB DIMMs in three slots, or 24GB on a dual-processor Xserve. If you need an Xserve with more than 24GB of RAM, I recommend waiting until after Snow Leopard Server is