IBM X3200 M3 - Manual

An affordable single-socket, quad-core server with high performance
and data protection for small, medium, and large businesses

Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.

1

Product Guide

January 2010

IBM

System x3200 M3

Product Overview

CONTENTS

Product Overview

1

Selling Features

2

Key Features

3

Key Options

8

x3200 M3 Images

10

x3200 M3 Specifications

11

The Bottom Line

14

Server Comparison Chart

15

For More Information

16

Legal Information

16

Value-priced performance, capacity and availability

Suggested uses:

Small and medium businesses, distributed large enterprises, retail, banking, and

insurance companies seeking scalability, top performance, and enterprise-class availability features at
an entry-level price.

The

single-socket

IBM

®

System

x3200 M3

, incorporating IBM

X-Architecture

™

features, is an

affordable, single-socket tower server that offers mo

yre performance, configuration flexibility and availability features than many other servers in its class.
From network infrastructure to distributed applications to front-end workloads, the x3200 M3 is designed
to meet a wide range of business needs and help you adapt to changing business requirements.

It supports, at the high end, the latest

quad-core

Intel

®

Xeon

®

3400 Series processors, designed with

speedy

1333MHz

memory access (FSB) and

8MB

of L3 cache, to help provide the computing power

you need to match your business needs and growth. If cost is your primary concern, the x3200 M3 offers
a model using the affordable

dual-core

Celeron

processor with

2MB

of L3 cache. In between, there are

models that use the

dual-core Pentium

processor with

3MB

of L3 cache, as well as a

dual-core

Core

i3

processor with

4MB

of L3 cache. All models are designed with an integrated memory controller for

greatly improved memory performance (up to

1333MHz

access, depending on the processor),

64-bit

extensions

(

EM64T

), and multithreading, to provide the computing power you need to match your

business needs and growth. In addition, the x3200 M3 uses industry-standard

1066/1333MHz

DDR3

ECC

(Error Checking and Correcting) memory—for high performance and reliability.

All models offer impressive scalability, including up to

32GB

1

of memory and up to

four

3.5-inch hot-

swap

enterprise-class

Serial ATA II (

SATA II

) hard disk drives with a total capacity of up to

4TB

2

,

or up

to

four

3.5-inch simple-swap

enterprise-class

SATA II

hard disk drives with a total capacity of up to

4TB

, or

eight

2.5-inch hot-swap SAS

drives with an internal storage capacity of up to

4TB

.

For additional performance and high availability, the x3200 M3 offers integrated hardware

RAID-0/1

support standard in the

hot-swap

SAS/SATA models (optional for

simple-swap

SATA models), and

optional

RAID-10/5/6

. To meet your backup requirements, the x3200 M3 supports a choice of

half-high

tape drives

, an optical drive, or an IBM

RDX Removable Hard Disk Storage System

. The server ships

as a tower unit;

an optional

rack conversion kit

turns the x3200 M3 hot-swap models into a

5U

rack-

mounted server to save precious data center floor space.

Standard in the x3200 M3 is the

Integrated Management Module (IMM)

that enables the user to

manage and control the server easily—both locally and remotely. The IMM offers a high level of
manageability that is designed to keep costs down and the system up—even when network usage
increases. These advanced features help maximize network availability by increasing uptime, as do

hot-

swap

and

simple-swap SATA HDDs

;

hot-swap/redundant SAS

HDDs

, redundant ultra-efficient

power supplies

; integrated

RAID

;

redundant power

3

;

IPMI 2.0

support, including

highly secure

remote power control

and

Serial over LAN

; as well as

text-console redirect over LAN

.

Another improvement with the new generation of X-Architecture is the replacement of legacy BIOS with
a new generation

United Extensible Firmware Interface

(UEFI). UEFI provides a more intuitive user

interface and understandable event logs and better management.

With the inclusion of unique IBM service and support features such as the IMM,

IBM Systems Director

,

IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager

™

,

IBM ServerGuide

™

and

support for the optional

Virtual Media Key for remote presence capability, the x3200 M3 is designed for superior uptime.

For a balance of high-performance processing, high availability and vast internal storage at a budget
price, the x3200 M3 is the ideal system.

1

Using RDIMMS.

2

GB equals 1,000,000,000 bytes and TB equals 1,000,000,000,000 bytes when referring to hard disk drive capacity. Accessible

capacity may be less.

3

A second high-efficiency redundant 430W power supply is available for the x3200 M3. (Model dependant or via CTO.)