IBM has announced a new Power5 server aimed at midsize businesses with around 1,000 employees. The eServer i5 550 was created to fill the gap between IBM's other servers, such as the Power5 eServer i5 520 and the Power5 eServer i5 570. At $74,000 this midsize business server isn't going to be cheap, despite what IBM says.
The i5 550 server ships with two of its four processors "turned on". It may seem odd that not all of the i5 550 server's processors are turned on, but in fact it's a pretty clever idea. By only turning on two of its four processors businesses can pay for what they need up-front, and in the future they have the option to have the other two processors "turned on" (at a fee of course). IBM will charge a $3,700 fee to turn on each processor, but considering the power these processors pack you probably won't be turning them for a while (depending on your business). In order to make sure you get the most bang for your buck IBM also includes software that allows its server to rum multiple IBM operating systems, such as IBM's UNIX OS AIX.
I don't think anyone can complain about the overall performance of IBM's Power5 eServer's. Yet alone the processor that's powering these bad boys, but with a price tag of $74,000 some companies may want to look else where, depending on their type of business.
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