IBM System x3550 M3

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Highlights

Get higher performance per watt for greater cost efficiency
Simplify management and serviceability with flexible design
Maintain availability and lower risk through a resilient architecture.

Innovative technology in slim package

The IBM System x3550 M3 builds on the latest Intel® Xeon® processor technology with extreme processing power and superb energy-management and cooling features. With twice the performance of previous generations and a flexible, energy-smart design that integrates low-wattage components, the x3550 M3 can help you meet demanding workloads at a lower cost per watt.

Simplifying management and serviceability

The x3550 M3 offers a flexible, scalable design and simple upgrade path from four to eight hard disk drives (HDDs). Comprehensive systems management tools such as advanced diagnostics and the ability to control resources from a single point make it easy to deploy, integrate, service and manage.

Product features

Power-optimised performance that leverages the speed of new Intel processors with more capacity and memory
Innovative, energy-smart 1U design to help lower operational costs
Energy-efficient design with unregistered dual inline memory modules (UDIMMs), 40 W processing and unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) BIOS
Better serviceability with a highly scalable, flexible design that is easy to deploy, integrate, service and manage
Easier risk management with resilient architectures and virtualised environments

Hardware summary

1U chassis
Up to two 3.46 GHz six-core (3.60 GHz four-core) Intel Xeon 5600 series processors with QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) technology, up to 1333 MHz memory access speed
Up to 288 GB registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) or 48 GB UDIMMs high-performance, new generation double data rate 3 (DDR-3) memory
Internal storage flexibility with up to eight 2.5 in. hot-swap serial attached SCSI (SAS)/serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) HDDs or solid state drives (SSDs)
Up to two PCIe slots
Low 675 W design and up to 95 percent efficient power supplies, six cooling fan modules, new UEFI BIOS, altimeter monitored by Integrated Management Module (IMM) and IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager
Network equipment building system (NEBS) 1/European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) equivalent compliance for both AC and DC power supply (model dependent)
Compliant with 80-PLUS and ENERGY STAR energy-efficiency standards (model dependent)
VMware ESXi embedded hypervisor support with optional 2 GB universal serial bus (USB) key for virtualisation

Feature	Benefits
1U rack	Provides expandability and high performance in a dense form factor
High-performance, energy-efficient six-core Intel Xeon 5600 series processors (up to 12 MB Level 3 (L3) cache) leveraging QPI technology	Improves productivity through higher processing performance Reduces cost with outstanding performance per watt Up to 1333 MHz memory access speed Delivers ultimate processor performance with up to 12 cores using optimised L3 cache Maximises multi-threaded applications for faster concurrent execution Lowers overall system power requirements Large cache size yields more transaction processing
Fast 1333 MHz, DDR-3 RDIMM memory with 18 DIMM slots, up to 288 GB max memory or up to 48 GB max memory with 12 UDIMMs	Supports 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB or 16 GB DDR-3 RDIMMs with 18 slots or supports 2 GB or 4 GB DDR-3 UDIMMs with 12 slots Memory scalability ideal for compute-intensive, general business applications and virtualised environments Ability to match the high-performance speed of the Intel Xeon 5600 series processors with high-speed DDR-3 RDIMM or UDIMM memory DDR-3 memory operates at lower power than previous generations, supports 1.5 V or 1.35 V memory DIMMs Ability to transfer input/output (I/O) data at eight times the speed of the memory cell it contains, enabling faster bus speeds and higher peak throughput than previous generation memory Memory mirroring capability to increase system and application reliability by allowing the system to continue operating even if a DIMM fails Interleaved memory to improve application performance Two DIMMs per channel at 1333 MHz supported on single-rank and dual-rank RDIMMs and UDIMMs
Support for the VMware ESXi embedded hypervisor (optional)	Innovative, thin hypervisor architecture is operating system-independent and designed to optimise virtualisation performance Integrated into server hardware to help provide compatible, pretested and optimised hardware configurations Optimised for remote management tools and industry-standard protocols such as CIM
Support for up to eight 2.5 in. hot-swap SAS, SATA HDDs or SSDs	Provides a range of affordable storage solutions to meet today's storage needs and tomorrow's expansion requirements High-capacity, high-performance 2.5 in. hot-swap SAS/SATA HDDs are a robust drive choice to power your enterprise servers and storage solutions Support for optional 50 GB SSDs, featuring no moving parts for improved reliability and performance
Support for PCIe	Standard PCIe allows faster interconnect speeds than PCI-X 133 MHz Choice of a PCI-X riser card to support PCI-X adapters that can be ordered instead of the standard PCIe riser card
Two PCIe (2×16) Gen 2 slots: 1×16 full-height, half-length convertible to PCI-X/133 MHz with riser option 1×16 – low-profile	Provides expandability choices and the opportunity to increase I/O bandwidth for performance and productivity
Integrated with 3 Gigabits per second (Gbps) or 6 Gbps redundant array of independent disk (RAID) controller (model dependent)	Enhances system availability and data protection without using a PCI slot Choice of one of the following RAID adapters (model dependent): 3 Gbps RAID-0, -1, -1E or 6 Gbps RAID-0, -1, -10 (additional option RAID-5, -50 with self encrypting disk (SED) function or 6 Gbps RAID-0, -1, -10, -5, -50 with 256 MB or 512 MB cache (additional option -6, -60 with SED function and additional optional battery backup)
IBM Systems Director and IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager	IBM Systems Director is a comprehensive systems management platform that helps increase uptime, reduce costs and improve productivity via advanced server management capabilities IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager helps provide advanced power notification and control, monitor power consumption, achieve lower heat output and decrease cooling costs
IBM Calibrated Vectored Cooling	Helps maintain a healthy system by keeping internal components cool
TCP-IP Offload Engine (TOE)	TOE improves system performance by offloading protocol processing from the central processing unit (CPU) to a separate hardware engine Standard feature at no additional charge
Snoop filters on Intel core chipset	Improves application efficiency to boost processor performance
Hot-swap redundant power supplies and fan modules	Increases system and application uptime by eliminating another potential point of failure with a second hot-swap power supply Allows the server to continue operating even with a fan failure Choice of one of the following power supplies (model dependent): 460 W ac, 675 W ac, 675 W ac high efficiency or 675 W dc
Drop-down light path diagnostics panel	Gives information about a failing component without interrupting system operation Expedites hardware repairs to dramatically reduce service time Provides a lighted path to failing component inside the system
IBM IMM	Increases server availability by continuously monitoring your system and notifying you of potential system failures or changes Virtual Media Key provides for around the clock remote management capabilities (optional)
Integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standard; two additional Gigabit ports (via option)	Provides increased network throughput and redundancy with efficient adapter slot-saving integration Optional network interface card (NIC) does not use a PCIe slot
Security/trusted computing technologies	Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 enables advanced cryptographic functionality such as digital signatures and remote attestation CRTM for secure boot Microsoft® bit locker for full disk encryption
UEFI	Common across all IBM next-generation servers, this new BIOS is easy to configure and deploy Provides more functionality than previous generation BIOS and facilitates greater manageability through a common infrastructure for managing all machines Server efficiency is improved by providing a faster boot and restart of operating system
NEBS 1/ETSI compliance	Equivalent compliance for both AC and DC power supply (model dependent)
Energy-efficiency compliance	Compliant with 80-PLUS and ENERGY STAR energy-efficiency standards (model dependent)
Three year customer replaceable unit (CRU) and on-site limited warranty	Provides peace of mind for an extended period of time
IBM ServerGuide software	Assists with the installation of operating systems and drivers Gets your server up and running faster Simplifies installation and configuration of your IBM System x servers

IBM System x3550 M3 at a glance
Form factor/height	Rack/1U
Processor (max)	Up to two 3.46 GHz six-core (3.60 GHz four-core) Intel Xeon 5600 series processors with QPI technology
Number of processors (std/max)	One/two
Cache (max)	Up to 12 MB Level 3 (L3)
Memory (max)	288 GB double data rate 3 (DDR-3) registered dual inline memory modules (RDIMMs) via 18 DIMM slots or 48 GB DDR-3 unregistered DIMMs (UDIMMs) via 12 DIMM slots
Expansion slots	Two
Disk bays (total/hot swap)	Up to eight 2.5 in. hot-swap serial attached SCSI (SAS)/serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) HDDs or solid state drives (SSDs)
Maximum internal storage	Up to 8.0 TB (hot-swap SAS/SATA)
Network interface	Integrated two ports, plus two ports optional Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)
Power supply (std/max)	One/two; 460 W, 675 W, 675 W high efficiency or 675 W DC (model dependent)
Hot-swap components	Power supplies, fan modules, disks
RAID support	6 Gbps RAID -0, -1, -10 or 6 Gbps RAID -0, -1, -10, -5, -50 with 256 MB or 512 MB cache and additional option battery backup (model dependent)
Network Equipment Building System (NEBS) 1/European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) compliance	Equivalent compliance for both AC and DC power supply (model dependent)
Energy-efficiency compliance	Compliant with 80-PLUS and ENERGY STAR energy-efficiency standards (model dependent)
Systems management	IBM Integrated Management Module (IMM) with Virtual Media Key for optional remote presence enablement, Predictive Failure Analysis, Diagnostic light emitting diodes (LEDs), light path diagnostics panel, Automatic Server Restart, IBM Systems Director and IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager
Operating systems supported	Microsoft® Windows® Server 2008 R2 and 2008, Red Hat Enterprise Linux® (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and VMware ESXi, Oracle Solaris 10 (model dependent)
Limited warranty	Three year customer replaceable unit (CRU) and on-site limited warranty