Intel’s 24-Core, 14-Drive Modular Server Reviewed
Table of contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. MFSYS25 Modular Server Chassis
- 3. MFS5000SI Compute Modules
- 4. Ethernet Switch Module
- 5. Management Module
- 6. Storage Controller Module
- 7. Disk Drives
- 8. Power Supply Modules
- 9. Main And I/O Cooling Modules
- 10. Modular Server Control
- 11. First Impressions
- 12. Tests
- 13. CPU Tests: Sandra
- 14. Storage Tests: Sandra And IOMeter
- 15. Memory Tests: Sandra
- 16. Network Test: Sandra
- 17. Pros
- 18. Cons And Conclusion
Ed: Julio Urquidi designs and manages Windows and Linux servers at a major academic medical center in California.
Let's say you're part of a small company that has identified a satellite office with some extra space, and you are tasked to set up a couple of servers that would be low maintenance, reliable, and compact. Perhaps, you also need the flexibility to add a couple more servers, but are restricted by power requirements and hardware costs. You might also work for a small- or medium-sized business that needs to add a system that provides redundancy and easy-to-use administrative tools that won’t kill your budget.
The Intel MFSYS25 Modular Server System may be the server solution you are looking for.
The MFSYS25 is a flexible chassis-based system that has room for six server-like compute modules. It offers networking with an Ethernet switch module and includes a built-in SAN (storage area network) that holds 14 2.5” SAS drives and can be shared between server modules. The chassis and its components are all managed through a Web-enabled administration tool. Overall, the MFSYS25 is designed to provide a remotely managed environment that is robust and stable with redundant power, storage, and cooling for up to six servers.
Using Intel’s Multi-Flex architecture, the rack-based MFSYS25 puts a lot of power into a relatively small server footprint for small- to medium-sized businesses and remote offices. Using 4 GB DIMMs, the total memory capacity can reach up to 192 GB of RAM if you pack each of the six available Compute Modules with 32 GB of memory. The system is uniquely flexible, as it enables easy administration in setting up storage pools within the MFSYS25’s SAN. In turn, this allows the administrator to assign the disks in these pools to the compute modules in multiple options of RAID configurations. The system supports up to 12 dual-core and quad-core Xeon processors, and up to two processors per server module, giving the MFSYS25 plenty of horsepower to run today’s apps.
Note: The MFSYS25 is one of two Intel modular servers. The other modular server in the line, called the MFSYS35, is different in that is can hold six 3.5” SATA or SAS drives.
Our demo system consisted of the following;
- One MFSYS25 chassis
- Three MFS5000SI compute modules,
- One Ethernet switch module
- One management module
- One storage controller module
- 14 2.5" SAS hard drives
- Three power supply modules (fourth Power Supply not used)
- Two main cooling modules
- One I/O cooling module
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And the point of this is...?
How much did intel pay for this advert?
Im not too sure if the readers of TomsHardware UK would be much interested in a Intel 24-Core, 14-Drive Modular Server
I agree, its just a big dirty advert!!
Very interesting .. I take it you guys dont really work with servers that much .. ??
I bet it wont even play CRYSIS!!!
Why do people only care about articles based on games?
If the topic of an article doesn't interest you don't read it. Nobody is forcing you. Do you call your radio station or tv channel to tell them that the program they have on doesn't interest you?
God !!! I'm surrounded by morons !!!
Well i wud if they broadcast porn on a family show just cos its relevant to the dad..
God!! i am surrounded by geeks!!
Aye it won't play Crysis because its a SERVER! Hehe. To be honest I thought it would be funny to try and install Diablo 2 on a Server 2003 system. It kinda went TILT and gave me the finger.
Joking aside, I quite like this sort of geeky stuff as I work with networks everyday. Good to keep up with what's new and what to blow my budget on.
Its a nice bit of kit for sure, that setup with virtualisation would probably half the size of many companies server rooms. However it only makes sense if your going to fill the sysem with the maximum of servers and hard disks and need the capacity.Its perfect for a building
a powerfull server cluster.
obvious advert is obvious
however advert does go in depth and while it may not play crysis at full spec (what the hell will?) it does shine the noble light yet again out of intels a$$ to show that yet again they are trying to corner every market they can
as this is a ardware and occasional software site im not suprised this article is here a little less advert and a bit more under the hood and more in detail what we can do to it would be nice but meh
u pay for what u get and last time i checked im not paying for this site (just my interwebs bill)
Toms have always been intel biased, it sucks
It's nice to see some server reviews once in a while... don't listen to those gaming worshipers, to them virtualization doesn't compute because it cannot run Crysis.
Intel does some pretty good servers, it's sad that some of us have to search hard for proper reviews
You guys are like someone who watches the car reviews program and says 'I'm going to complain to the broadcaster, I don't like cars.'
I don't see that reviewing something from Intel shows 'intel bias' unless you can say how they've managed to tilt the playing field in Intel's favour.
Historically, Intel architecture has dictated that multi-core solutions connect via the FSB, limiting CPU-CPU bandwidth. AMD's solution was streets ahead (and competitively priced) and even now, it would take a lot of convincing for me to go back to Intel. I'm sure each person has their own reasons for choosing a particular setup, however.
Given that toms has never reviewed a server product such as this one ever before(and that there has been such products available through multiple products for many years); that this article makes no attempt to make a quality or critical review by using real world benchmarks, extensive and varied testing; there is no real attempt to compare this product to many other simillarily configured systems and finally that the reviwer seems content to offer nothing more than superfical and trite crtitism such as "this remote access server product has no power button"- I think its more than fair for the readers of toms to asume that intel had a hand in suggesting this review for marketing.
What a nice change to find a hardware site talking about new Industry HARDWARE, rather than just new gaming ware.
It's just a shame that some of the readers commenting on here think that they know all about hardware because they've built or overclocked a system at home, least of all those that then start throwing around insults directed at TOMS because it's not applicable to them.
But IBM BladeCenter QS22 Still much stronger .
see Roadrunner Supercomputer in wikipedia .
and NASA test it and found the 'Cell C' are 8 times faster then 'Xeon5150'.that's Cell C
and 'IBM PowerXCell 8i' use new article "40nm" in the
BladeCenter QS22 server .and it have two 'PowerXCell 8i' this mean at less 16 times faster the Intel crap Xeon .
X86 are really out the range now "they use it basically in late 70s to save the money on the DRAM because 1M cost that days about $5,000.!
Awesome review, am atm searching for some modular stable solution for our client, something like this should be enough fail-safe to provide 99% stability.
to trolls talking crap about shitty reviews:
go to your mommy ask for money for a gaming machine and go play crysis 2, scrubs.