IBM Blade Server\'s and Intel based server overview cheat sheet

1. IBM System x® and BladeCenter® Positioning Map
Towers Racks BladeCenter iDataPlex
High Performance
Computing (HPC) /
Maximum
Virtualization
LS42
dx360 M3
PS702
HX5
HX5
HS22V
HS22V
PS701
PS701
Web 2.0 /
Web 3D
LS22
x3650 M3
x3650 M3
x 3 7 5 5 M3
x3850 X5/ x3950 X5
x3550 M3
x3550 M3
x3630 M3
x3500 M3
HS22
x3620 M3
x3690 X5
x3690 X5
Business
PS700
Applications
x3400 M3
x3250 M3
x3100 M3
x3100 M3
x3200 M3
x3200 M3
HS12
Infrastructure
JS12
JS12
Intel® Processor(s)
Applications
AMD Processor(s)
IBM POWER6®
IBM POWER7®
Towers Rack-Optimized Servers Blade Servers iDataPlex
x3850 X5 &
Attribute x3100 M3 x3200 M3 x3400 M3 x3500 M3 x3250 M3 x3550 M3 x3620 M3 x3630 M3 x3650 M3 x3690 X5 x3755 M3 x3950 X5 HS12 HS22 HS22V HX5 LS22 LS42 JS12 PS700 PS701 PS702 dx360 M3
Scalable 4-Socket Scalable High- 1-Socket High-
High Mainstream Premiere Scalable 1-Socket 2-Socket Midmarket
Selected Growth Business-Critical Flagship System with General-Purpose Performance High- 1-Socket Performance
Entry Performance, Entry 4-Socket Virtualization Virtualization Enterprise Midmarket / Large / LE Commercial Low-Cost
Markets) Entry Reliable Entry Value Enterprise Business-Critical Compact Cost-effective 2U 2U storage-rich Business- Critical Maximizum 1-Socket Blade Server for Performance Infrastructure Infrastructure or
Positioning Small-Business Server Server All-in-one Server
Infrastructure
Application storage server server Expandable
High Density General Purpose
Memory, for Enterprise Blade
Blade Server with Blade Server with
DB, Virtualization AMD Blade
Performance
POWER® Blade Application
Enterprise Scalable Workloads Cluster/Grid.HPC
Server Scalable 2- AMD Server Expanded Huge Memory AMD Blade POWER Blade POWER Blade Environment
Server Server Server Enterprise Server and Enterprise Server Server POWER Blade
Socket Server Memory Capacity Capacity Server Server Server
Applications Applications Server
Tower Tower
Tower 1-2 Bays (30- 1U Tray in a 2U
Form Factor Tower
(rackable 5U)
(rackable 5U (rackable 5U 1U Rack 1U Rack 2U Rack 2U Rack 2U Rack 2U-6U Rack 2U Rack 4U-10U Rack 1 Bay (30mm) 1 Bay (30mm) 1 Bay (30mm)
60mm)
1 Bay (30mm) 2 Bays (60mm) 1 Bay (30mm) 1 Bay (30mm) 1 Bay (30mm) 2 Bays (60mm)
Chassis
via CTO) via CTO)
Processor Type Intel Xeon® Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon AMD Opteron Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon Intel Xeon AMD Opteron AMD Opteron IBM POWER6 IBM POWER7 IBM POWER7 IBM POWER7 Intel Xeon
(maximum cores) (2-core) (4-core) (6-core) (6-core) (4-core) (6-core) (6-core) (6-core) (6-core) (8-core) (12-core) (8-core) (4-core) (6-core) (6-core) (8-core) (6-core) (6-core) (2-core) (4-core) (8-core) (8-core) (6-core)
Processor Sockets / 4 / 32; or 2 / 16; or
1/2 1/4 2 / 12 2 / 12 1/4 2 / 12 2 / 12 2 / 12 2 / 12 2 / 32 4 / 48 1/4 2 / 12 2 / 12 2 / 12 4 / 24 1/2 1/4 1/8 2 / 16 2 / 12
Maximum Cores 8 / 64 4 / 32
SAS, SATA, SAS, SATA SAS, SATA, SAS, SATA, SAS, SATA,
SATA SAS & SATA SAS & SATA SAS & SATA SAS & SATA SAS or SATA SAS or SATA SAS, SATA, SSD HS SAS, Fixed SSD SSD SAS, SSD SAS, SSD SAS SAS SAS SAS SAS, SATA, SSD
HDD Type (Fixed) (SS & HS) (SS & HS) (HS) (SS & HS)
SSD (HS); or (HS); or SATA
(HS)
SSD (HS); or SSD
(HS) (HS) SATA, SSD
SSD
(Fixed) (Fixed) (Fixed) (Fixed) (Fixed) (Fixed) (Fixed) (Fixed) (HS, SS)
SSD (SS) (SS) SSD (SS) (HS) (HS)
(8) 2.5" or (4)
(8 or 16) 2.5"; (8) 2.5" (5) 3.5" or (8) 2.5"
(4) 3.5"; 3.5"; (16) 2.5" (2) 3.5"; (4) 3.5"; (14) 3.5"; (16) 2.5" SAS;
Maximum # HDDs (4) 3.5"
(8) 2.5" or (8) 3.5" by
(24) 2.5" or (8)
(4) 2.5"
(8) 2.5"
(8) 3.5" (28) 2.5"
(16) 2.5"
(32) 1.8" SSD
(8) 3.5" SAS/SATA; (2) 2.5" (2) 2.5" (2) 1.8" (2) 1.8" (2) 2.5" (2) 2.5" (2) 2.5" (2) 2.5" (1) 2.5" (2) 2.5" (2U);
3.5" by CTO (16) 1.8" SSD (12) 3.5" (3U)
CTO
32-64 DIMMs, 64-128 DIMMs, 16-32 DIMMs,
16 RDIMMs / 16 RDIMMs /
4 UDIMMs / 6 4 UDIMMs / 6 512GB-1TB; 32- 1.5TB-3TB; 128GB-256GB;
4 DIMMs 128 GB; 192 GB; 18 RDIMMs 12 RDIMMs 12 RDIMMs 18 RDIMMs 64 DIMMs 6 DIMMs 12 DIMMs 18 DIMMs 8 DIMMs 16 DIMMs 8 DIMMs 8 DIMMs 16 DIMMs 32 DIMMs 16 DIMMs
Maximum Memory 16 GB
RDIMMs
12 UDIMMs / 12 UDIMMs /
RDIMMs
192 GB 96 GB 96 GB 192 GB
64 DIMMs,
256 GB
128-256 DIMMs,
24 GB 192 GB 288 GB
40-80 DIMMs,
64 GB 128 GB 64 GB 64 GB 128 GB 256 GB 128 GB
32 GB 32 GB 1TB-2TB with 2TB-4TB with 160GB-320GB
48GB 48GB
MAX5 MAX5 with MAX5
(6) PCIe &
(5) PCIe & (2) PCIe; or (4) x8 PCIe (2) x16 and (1) x8
(1) PCI; (4) PCIe; or (1) PCIe and (1)
(3) PCIe & (4) PCIe & (1) PCI; (1) PCIe & (1) or (1) PCIe (1) PCIe (1) PCIe CIOv (1) PCIe CIOv (2) PCIe CIOv PCIe Gen 2
Maximum I/O Slots (1) PCI (2) PCI opt. (1) PCIe or
or (5) PCIe, (2) PCIe
PCI-X; or
(3) PCIe (2) PCIe (2) PCIe & (1)
(2) x8 PCIe
(4) PCIe (7) PCIe PCI-X; or (2) (2) PCIe (2) PCIe (2) PCIe
(1) PCI-X (2) PCI-X
(1) PCIe
(1) PCIe CFFh (1) PCIe CFFh (2) PCIe CFFh (depending on
(2) PCI-X & or (2) PCI-X PCI-X
(2) PCI-X (2) PCI-X (1) x16 PCIe configuration)
(1) PCI
- Online gaming - Virtualization - Virtualization - Database - Clusters/HPC - AIX / Linux / IBM i
- File / print - Database - Bus. Intel. - AIX / Linux / - AIX / Linux / - AIX / Linux / IBM i
- SMB - File & Print - File & Print - Virtualization - Security - Database - File / print - Database - ERP / CRM - ERP - File & Print - Collab. / Email - Collab. / Email - ERP / CRM - Digital Media - Business - Clusters / HPC
Sample - Video / photo - Collaboration - ERP IBM i IBM i - Consolidation
- File & Print - Email - Email - ERP / CRM - Collaboration - Collaboration - Video / photo - Virtual Desktop - Small DB - Database - Email - Hosted Client - Hosted Client - Virtualization - Simulations / Processing - Large corp. data
Applications sharing - Web Serving - Virtualization - Small DB svr - Small-to-Mid - Database server -
- Email - Point-of-sale - Branch Office - Branch Office - Web Serving - Web Serving sharing - Virtualization - Virtualization - Virtualization - SMB - Clusters - Web Serving - Simulations / Modeling - S/M Database - processing
- Email - ERP / CRM - Database - Small app. svr Database Multiapp server
- Email - SAP - SAP/Database Modeling - Research Decision Supp.
For IBM and Business Partner Use Only

2. IBM System x and BladeCenter Server Recommendations
Important Nice to Have Can do without
1 2 3
Best Better  Good
Requirements Towers Rack-Optimized Servers BladeCenter Servers iDPx
High Availability
I/O and Storage
Floating Point
Management
Performance
Performance
Deployment
Throughput
Distributed
Scalability
Systems
Security
Memory
Density
Integer
HS22V
PS700
PS701
PS702
x3100
x3200
x3400
x3500
x3250
x3550
x3620
x3630
x3650
x3690
x3755
x3850
x3950
dx360
HS12
HS22
LS22
LS42
JS12
HX5
M3
M3
M3
M3
M3
M3
M3
M3
M3
M3
M3
X5
X5
X5
Theme Key Workloads
Cluster / HPC
3 1 1 2 2 1 3 3 3 3
        
HPC
Modeling & Simulation
2 1 1 1 3 1 3 2 3 3
    
High Performance DB 2 2 1 1 1 3 2 2 3 3
    
Business Intelligence 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 3
  
Search 3 1 1 1 2 1 3 3 1 2
          
Web 2.0 /
Content
2 2 2 2 2 1 3 3 2 2
       
Web 3D Communities
1 2 2 2 1 1 2 3 2 2
         
Commerce 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2
    
Collaboration 2 3 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 2
     
ERP/SCM 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2
      
Business
CRM 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 3
     
Applications
Hosted Client 1 3 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 2
              
Point of Sale
3 3 3 2 1 3 1 1 1 1

Branch Office 2 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 2 1
    
Virtualization 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 2 3
    
Business Continuity 2 3 3 3 1 2 2 1 2 2
        
Infrastructure
Database 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 3
   
Applications Email/Collaboration
2 3 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 2
     
Security
2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3
     
Web Serving 3 2 2 2 3 1 2 1 3 3
      
File & Print 2 3 2 3 1 2 2 1 3 3
     
© IBM Corporation 2010, IBM Corporation, 3039 Cornwallis Rd, RTP, NC 27709, U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America, August 2010. All rights reserved
IBM, BladeCenter, iDataPlex, POWER6, POWER7, and System x are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. For a complete list of IBM Trademarks, see ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
Cell Broadband Engine is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both and is used under license therefrom.
Intel and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
All other products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
NOTES:
Performance is in Internal Throughput Rate (ITR) ratio based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput that any user will experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in
the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve throughput improvements equivalent to the performance ratios stated here. IBM hardware products are manufactured
from new parts, or new and serviceable used parts. Regardless, our warranty terms apply. For a copy of applicable product warranties, write to: Warranty Information, P.O. Box 12195, RTP, NC 27709, Attn: Dept. JDJA/B203. IBM makes no representation or warranty regarding third-party
products or services including those designated as ServerProven or ClusterProven. IBM may not offer the products, services or features discussed in this document in other countries, and the information may be subject to change without notice. Consult your local IBM business contact for
information on the product or services available in your area. Information about non-IBM products is obtained from the manufacturers of those products or their published announcements. IBM has not tested those products and cannot confirm the performance, compatibility, or any other claims
related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capabilities of non-IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products. MB, GB, and TB = 1,000,000, 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, respectively, when referring to storage capacity. Accessible capacity is less; up to
3GB is used in service partition. Actual storage capacity will vary based upon many factors and may be less than stated. Some numbers given for storage capacities give capacity in native mode followed by capacity using data compression technology. Maximum internal hard disk and memory
capacities may require the replacement of any standard hard drives and/or memory and the population of all hard disk bays and memory slots with the largest currently supported drives available. The information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are
periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. IBM may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time without notice.