On Feb 26, 2009, at 1:26 PM, Kelly Lipp wrote:

IBM x3850, dual quad core processors, 16GB, 7 PCI-E slots with four
2.5" 15K SAS 73GB drives (have to use external storage on this guy),
around $14K.  Can have up to four quad core procs, 256GB memory.

This is one screaming dude when used with TSM. And it's IBM...

Well...it has an IBM label on it, but I don't know who actually makes
the xSeries boxes.  We've had a number of them dead on arrival, and
some others which had failures not long after arrival.  And with
several of them we endured multi-month debugging marathons with IBM
service, where they would mysteriously crash or fail to boot, having
to incrementally replace just about everything inside the case to
resolve it.  By contrast, RS/6000s have long been solid, reliable
performers.  I guess it proves the old adage that you get what you pay
for.

  Richard Sims