Apple announced Tuesday upgraded Xserve G5 systems. One week in advance of Macworld Expo, a venue Apple usually reserves for new product announcements, the company announced an upgraded 2.0 GHz single processor Xserve and a dual 2.3 GHz Xserve. The dual-processor system also sports a faster front side bus, which now runs at 1.15 GHz, and the ability to hold up to three 400 gigabyte 7200 RPM drives for 1.2 terabytes of internal storage.
The previous Xserve G5 models supported three 250GB hard drives. Coupled with an internal RAID card, the upgraded capacity can support up to 800GB of RAID 5 storage.
Apple said the dual processor Xserves can pump up to 9.2 GBps of bandwidth per processor.
Other aspects of the Xserve systems are unchanged, including 3 PCI-X slots for networking and storage cards, on-board FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, and the ability to support up to 8GB of PC3200 ECC RAM.
"We improved the best 1U server in the industry with more power and more storage for the same breakthrough price," said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in a statement. "With 64-bit processing power coupled with Apple’s legendary ease of use, Xserve G5 delivers unbeatable price performance and manageability. Xserve G5 ships with an unlimited client access license of Mac OS X Server that allows users to connect an unlimited number of Mac, Windows or Linux clients to the server without additional software licensing fees."
Pricing for the units is as follows at the Apple Store. The new units are available immediately.
- A single 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5 processor with 1GB of PC3200 ECC RAM, a single 80GB Apple Drive Module with expandability for up to 1.2TB, dual Gigabit Ethernet on-board, a Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) drive, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, and an unlimited client license of Mac OS X Server for a suggested retail price of $2,999 (US);
- Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 processors with 1GB of PC3200 ECC RAM, a single 80GB Apple Drive Module with expandability for up to 1.2TB, dual Gigabit Ethernet on-board, a Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) drive, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, and an unlimited client license of Mac OS X Server for a suggested retail price of $3,999 (US); and
- Cluster-optimized dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 processors with 512MB of PC3200 ECC RAM, a single 80GB Apple Drive Module, dual Gigabit Ethernet on-board, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, and a 10-client license of Mac OS X Server for a suggested retail price that starts at $2,999 (US) per cluster node.