Top Competitive Selling Points for System x3550 M4
(As of April 5, 2013)

A highly energy-efficient, two-socket rack server that offers high performance and exceptional reliability

The x3550 M4 offers:

• 32-nm Intel E5-2600 “Sandy Bridge-EP” processors featuring fast processing combined with advanced power management. These processors also feature Turbo Boost 2.0, which allows cores to operate at higher-than-stated frequencies when operating below power and thermal design points, and Data Direct I/O caching, which delivers higher bandwidth between processors and between processors and PCI connected devices.
• IBM’s Express configurations, which have been pre-configured and tested by IBM, so they are ready to go right out of the box.
• Enhanced virtualization with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), providing hardware-based mechanisms that help protect against software-based attacks by sectioning off application environments.
• Up to 768 GB (24 DIMMs) of LRDIMMs with ECC, up to 384 GB (24 DIMMs) of DDR3 RDIMMs with ECC, or up to 64 GB of DDR3 UDIMMs (16 DIMMs) with ECC, including new 1.35V low-voltage DIMMs.
• A high level of energy efficiency with energy-efficient Sandy Bridge-EP processors, optional low-voltage DIMMs, an energy smart design, and IBM Active Energy Manager power monitoring and control.
• 6 Gb/s controllers with hardware-based RAID 0, 1, and 10 standard. Upgrades to RAID 5, 6, 50, and 60 are also available.
• Support for four or eight hot-swap 2.5-inch SAS/SATA/SSD drives with an optional DVD for the four-drive model, or support for three 3.5-inch hot-swap or simple-swap drives. Intermixing of SAS/SATA/SSD drives is allowed.
• Extreme energy efficiency with optional low-voltage processors, low-voltage DIMMs, 94%-efficient power supplies, an energy smart design, counter-rotating fans, an altimeter to regulate fan rotation, and IBM Active Energy Manager power monitoring and control.
• An advanced Integrated Management Module (IMM2) that enables remote control to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot servers from any location. It has an integrated video controller, a remote presence/cKVM function, and Super I/O. The IMM2 has a responsive user interface, fast power on, and high remote presence performance.
• A TPM chip, which is a coprocessor that can hold cryptographic keys that protect information.
• Two high-speed PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, providing performance scalability for business growth.
• UEFI as a common management interface across all of IBM’s new System x platforms, replacing BIOS.
• An optional IBM Virtual Media Key for additional systems-management capabilities, including:
• Web-based out-of-band control
• Virtual floppy and optical drive support
• Windows “blue screen” error capture
• LDAP and SSL support
• Remote redirection of PCI video, keyboard, and mouse (cKVM)
• One internal, two front, and four rear USB ports. The internal port can be used for virtualization or security/authentication needs.
• A choice of two hot-swap and redundant 80-plus platinum (94% efficient) power supplies and a smart, redundant cooling design that delivers exceptional energy efficiency.
• Enhanced Predictive Failure Analysis, which helps decrease planned and unplanned server downtime for improved reliability and maximum utilization.
• Light-Path Diagnostics, which helps speed up diagnosis of failures by providing a lighted path to problem components, minimizing maintenance expense and downtime.
• IBM ToolsCenter, which provides a single website for creating bootable media (CD, DVD, or USB), with updates customized for customers’ systems.
• Integrated quad-port Gigabit Ethernet with the option of two 10 Gb Ethernet ports via a mezzanine card.
• IBM Systems Director at no additional cost, which delivers a single interface for managing both physical and virtual resources.

ServerProven Compatibility for the x3550 M4 (7914):

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/xseries/7914.html