Xserve shipping next month with quad Xeon 64-bit action

Remember that new Apple Xserve we heard about in August? Yeah, the new one with the two dual-cores under the hood? Well, those up to 2TB of storage and up to 32GB of RAM rackmount servers have just gone on sale and will begin shipping next month. Of course, the very barebones configuration is $3,000, while that 32GB of RAM will add an extra $23,700 to your order. Just something to consider.

[Thanks, Clint M. and Evan D.]

[Chris @ Oct 25th 2006 6:14PM]

I don't understand why Apple charges $23,700 for 32GB of RAM when 32GB laptop SSDs are at about a $1,500 premium. I suppose they're not the same, but there shouldn't be that much of a discrespancy (spelling?) between them.

[kiloglobin @ Oct 25th 2006 6:16PM]

umm i don't think apple is shipping the servers yet, just preordering now. apple store says ships in November.

[Tom @ Oct 25th 2006 6:18PM]

32GB of RAM.

I wanna fly, oh fly...

[Frederik @ Oct 25th 2006 6:19PM]

Apple charge a rediculous amount of money for RAM. I always buy from OWC (www.macsales.com). Sometimes they're even selling exactly the same brand and model as Apple, but at half the price!

[Evan @ Oct 25th 2006 6:20PM]

@Kiloglobin yes the post also says shipping in november but preorder is avalible now.

i configured my own Xserver to the most expensive thing you could and it came out to liek 97,000$ US

[Evan @ Oct 25th 2006 6:25PM]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chowdaaa/279389158/

you can veiw my config on my flickr

[bret @ Oct 25th 2006 6:36PM]

I saw an nda presentation by apple earlier this month and our presenter said, "If anyone buys a new Xserve with the full 32GB of RAM and we'll throw in the box for free!"

[Evan @ Oct 25th 2006 6:41PM]

@Bret LMAO i wouldn't be suprised if they did charge for the box lol

at least its free shipping :)

[Chris @ Oct 25th 2006 6:43PM]

Chris, who suggested that this much RAM can be purchased for $1500, is way off base. 32GB of third party RAM costs about $12,000. So Apple is about twice as expensive, which is typical of Apple when it comes to RAM.

[Brad @ Oct 25th 2006 7:08PM]

Are you guys giving the memory quotes looking for equivalent memory? 4 GB 667 MHz ECC FB-DIMMs?

I'm looking at TigerDirect, and 4GB sticks from Crucial are $2686/ea, or about $21,500 total.

Apple is still a bit more, but not by the factor you're claiming.

[Nabil @ Oct 25th 2006 7:00PM]

I have two G4 Xservs and I'm in the process of getting rid of them. I've had nothing but trouble since the day I got them. OSX server is not there yet.

I'm replacing them with HP servers with Linux being the OS.

[Karl @ Oct 25th 2006 7:29PM]

This is a bit of an odd move, with Clovertown coming in November. Why didn't they just up it to 8 cores rather than produce quad core XServes, then upgrade later?

With Clovertown's limited FSB though, perhaps Woodcrest is actually faster?

At least, I was expecting a Clovertown upgrade to the Mac Pro around November. That said, given the amount of time it took Apple to embrace the Core2Duo on the Macbook Pros, February/March might be a realistic forecast.

[CharlieX @ Oct 25th 2006 8:47PM]

The XServes have always been a processor behind... Like when we had Dual G5's, they were still singles.... maybe they want proven track records before building a server platform off a chip?

Whatever the case, our single Xserve has had exactly 0 hours down. It's a workhorse.

[Greg @ Oct 25th 2006 8:23PM]

As to the RAM issue, doesn't it make more sense to buy multiple servers with the standard config or just a bit more? I mean, RAM helps, but so does processor speed

[keith waddington @ Oct 25th 2006 10:20PM]

the ram comment in the article is just the usual red herring from this site. They usually try to find something negative to say about stuff to the point of tedium. Of course Apple is at the top of their list.

You can buy an empty bottle cheap. Fill it with champagne it costs more. Oh, what a surprise. These bottle manufacturers are just ripping us of.

etc

waddo
http://www.waddo.net/

[o rly @ Oct 25th 2006 11:11PM]

"You can buy an empty bottle cheap. Fill it with champagne it costs more. Oh, what a surprise. These bottle manufacturers are just ripping us of." [sic]

Actually dumbass, a better attempt to describe it would be "Champagne X costs $$$$$, however Champagne Y, albeit the same, costs $$$$$ + $$$$ because it comes in a white/silver bottle."

NB, your website still sucks.



Back on topic, the Xserve line always seems to be lacking compared to other offerings specification wise, mainly HP's servers. Nonetheless, the Xserve runs fine, and so does the HP, for a fair amount less.