Xeon 2.8GHz DP & 2.0GHz MP - Part I: Taking over the Enterprise

Xeon MP Servers from Appro & Intel

We received 4U Xeon MP servers from Intel and a 5U from Appro for this review.

The biggest advantages of the Intel server are ease of use and accessability:

There are only 5 removable drive bays on the Intel machine as you can see above.

The six cooling fans are easily removed:

If a fan fails or is removed the remaining fans will spin up to compensate for the fan loss until it is repaired or replaced.

Memory is installed in a riser card:

You must install DIMMs in pairs of four to match up with the 4 x 64-bit memory buses. There are a total of 12 DIMM slots on this riser card.

A big blue duct directs airflow over the 4 Xeon MP CPUs:

Removing the duct reveals the CPU module:

Removing the module is as simple as lifting two levers:

With the CPU module out this is what you see:

Note that the motherboard is covered with a piece of plastic to prevent loose screws or anything else from coming in contact with the board itself.

Here we have the CPU module removed with two new CPUs ready for installation: