[thelist] [OT?] Apple Questions

Ken Schaefer ken at adOpenStatic.com
Wed Apr 28 04:10:38 CDT 2004


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "Tim Beadle" <tsb at wigner.ioppublishing.com>
Subject: Re: [thelist] [OT?] Apple Questions


: On Wed, Apr 28, 2004 at 06:36:36PM +1000, Ken Schaefer wrote:
: > The XServe does cost a little more...
: > 2 Ghz + 1 GB of RAM + 2 x 80 GB drives (SATA only) + RAID + 3 year (next
: > day?) onsite support = $4799
: >
: > Dell 1750
: > Dual 2.8 GHz Xeon + 1 GB of RAM + 2 x 73 GB U320 SCSI +
: > RAID + 3 year, 4 hr response (24x7) onsite support + Red Hat
: > ES v3.1 (or Windows 2003 Web Edition) = $3688 (and you get
: > a $200 mail-in rebate on top of that).
:
: Hang on! Normally the Microsofties bleat about Total Cost
: of Ownership! There's something fishy going on here ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Who said anything about Microsoft. I picked Red Hat ES, since the OP was
interested in Mac OS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: I could point to a comparative review of an XServe vs an Intel server
: where the XServe came out cheaper, if I could find it :D
:
: Here we go:
:
: "In storage, Apple also has managed to ramp up its Xserve RAID boxes to 3U
: rack-optimized units offering as much as 3.5 Terabytes of online storage,
SFP
: connectors for dual 2Gb Fiber Channel, set slicing for up to 16 per Xserve
RAID
: and on-the-fly RAID expansion. The three newest models are competitively
priced
: (between $5,999 and $10,999) with the highest configuration $8,000 cheaper
than
: a Dell/EMC CX200."
:
: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3295941
:
: Tim
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That doesn't even include a RAID controller cache battery. The real
"minimum" cost would be $12,850

The CX300 (replacement for CX200) is a much higher-end product than the
Apple product (hence the higher cost). The CX300 fits up to 13.5 TB of data
(60 drives), so the base chassis cost is much higher. The CX300 starts from
$14,000.

Dell has a lower end product that fits 2 TB of storage, so you'd have to buy
two of those. That's not to say that other vendors (HP, IBM etc) don't have
products that compete more directly (in the 4GB space).

In any case, by that stage, I think Dell etc would be recommending NAS for
file/print or SAN for large-scale server storage, rather than direct
attached storage. DAS is useful if you have one server that needs a lot of
space. It becomes very expensive if you have to buy a DAS device for every
server you have. Better to buy 1 SAN and attach all your servers to it.

Cheers
Ken



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