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HARDWARE
New Xserve with G5 CPUs, 3.5TB RAID gives you more for less
PERHAPS MY FAVORITE manipulated image of the past year was the alleged image of a G5-powered Apple Xserve with a case designed by Sub-Zero Freezer. It pretty much summed up the biggest challenge of cramming the latest generation of the PowerPC family into a 1U server box: cooling.
Fortunately, Apple's engineers made sure the hoax remained nothing more than a good snicker. The newest iteration of Xserve looks a lot like its predecessors; more importantly, it feels like them. But for both the Xserve RAID and Xserve G5, it's the improvements under the hood that stand out.
Hardware Makeover
The Xserve RAID's 14 drive bays can now accommodate 3.5TB - 1TB more than the original model. The array has Ultra ATA drives that can be used to upgrade the capacity of previous Xserve RAID and Xserve G4 models. The Xserve G5 has SATA (Serial ATA) drives. As with Ultra ATA, SATA drive modules are available in 80GB or 250GB varieties.
Shoehorning a pair of G5 CPUs into the Xserve's 1U case required sacrificing a drive bay; the available front-panel space became a pair of cooling system intakes. Apple also added a second built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet interface to the rear of the box.
Apple's server hardware has changes,...