HP to Unveil Budget-Conscious Unix Servers

Hewlett-Packard plans to release three new Unix/RISC servers this week, in an effort to appeal to IT departments that are cash strapped and budget limited. The processors in these servers can be partitioned, freeing up the hardware for other application and operating system tasks. The new server models are the 2505, 5405 and 7405, which are basically a slightly stripped down version of HP's full service 2400, 5400 and 7400 server models. Even though the changes to the server models are not major, the cost savings is significant, and HP can sell its new budget-conscious server models at a retail savings of 10-40%. Prices for the new Unix/RISC servers range from $4,795 US for the Model 2405 (which includes two 18GB hard drives, one 650 MHz processor, and 512 MB of RAM), $29,026 US for the Model 5405 (which includes two 650 MHz processors, 4GB of RAM, 72GB hard drive capacity, and can be expanded to accommodate up to 4 CPUs), and $50,595 US for the Model 7405 (which comes with two 650MHz processors, 4GB RAM and 140GB disk space and can be expanded to accommodate up to 8 CPUs).