A highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket SMP server, for application 
serving in Web environments 
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11
 
Key Options 
IBM options for System x servers help you take your servers to a 
higher level 
You can rely on System x options to supply a complete solution for your business needs. 
Options help you create an optimized server system to meet your data protection, storage and 
availability needs. Every IBM option is designed and tested for peak performance and flexibility, 
helping to maximize your return on investment. The combination of System x servers and 
options lets you keep your fingers on the pulse of your e-business. 
Processors — The Intel Xeon processor provides high clock rates, dual- or quad-cores, 64-bit 
extensions, a large cache and advanced features for availability and manageability. Large cache 
size, combined with a fast 1066MHz or 1333MHz front-side bus, reduces memory latency and 
facilitates the movement of data through the processor and I/O devices. (Note: System 
performance depends not only on the number of processors in the server but also on the power 
and functionality of each processor.) Adding a second processor may be a cost-effective way to 
achieve significant performance improvements. 
Memory — Memory is a significant factor in systems application performance. Adding more 
memory to a System x server is one of the most effective ways to increase application 
performance. For best performance in a server with a dual-core processor, there should be 
twice as much memory available as for a single-core processor. The x3650 takes memory 
upgrades in pairs and provides either two-way or four-way interleaving (depending on the 
number of DIMMs installed). 
Hard Disk Drives — IBM hard disk drives help you improve the transaction and cost 
performance of your System x servers. The choice of hard disk drives can be a critical aspect of 
maximizing the I/O throughput of the system. SAS hard disk drives are available for the x3650 
with capacities up to 300GB (3.5-inch) apiece at 15,000 RPMs, up to 146.8GB (2.5-inch) apiece 
at 10,000 RPMs, or up to 73.4GB apiece  (2.5-inch) at 15,000 RPM. 3.5-inch Serial ATA hard 
disk drives are available with capacities up to 1TB apiece at 7,200 RPMs.  
Backup Drives — IBM backup drives help you protect your data. Several choices of capacities 
(from 36/72GB to 400/800GB), technologies (removable disk cartridge, DDS5, VS160, LTO3), 
and interfaces (SCSI, SATA, USB) are available. 
Power Supply — The optional second power supply for the x3650 enables redundancy for hot-
swap power (and adds five additional fans for increased cooling capacity and redundancy). 
Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine — The x3650 includes a plethora of systems 
management features built-in; however, sometimes additional management capability is 
needed. In those situations, the Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine not only offers powerful 
new features, it does so without taking up a valuable PCI-X or PCI-E adapter slot, instead using 
a dedicated slot on the motherboard. 
ServeRAID Controllers — System x servers using embedded ServeRAID-8k technology allow 
companies to build a reliable foundation for business-critical computing. IBM ServeRAID 
technology allows an array consisting of multiple physical hard disk drives to be treated as one 
logical drive. ServeRAID technology also allows data to be stored redundantly, across multiple 
hard disk drives— enhancing both the integrity and the availability of the data. SAS and SATA 
ServeRAID controllers offer enhanced performance due to onboard processors and cache. 
Because IBM ServeRAID controllers can help significantly improve data transfer rates, this 
technology is extremely effective when implementing demanding, transaction-oriented 
applications. By employing the advanced fault tolerance of IBM ServeRAID technology, 
companies can effectively implement networked business systems that require large amounts of 
storage space for data and applications that must be available for their businesses to continue 
operating.  
The optional integrated ServeRAID-8k SAS/SATA controller offers enhanced performance over 
the integrated ServeRAID-8k-l controller, 256MB of battery-backed cache memory, and 
supports six RAID levels: 0 (striping), 1 (mirroring), 10 (mirroring and striping), 1E (enhanced 
mirroring, supporting odd numbers of drives), 5 (striping with parity), and 6 (striping with double 
parity).  
The family of ServeRAID-6M (Ultra320) SCSI controllers offers high performance via an 
onboard processor and cache, and the ability to add external storage capacity for the x3650: up 
to 8.4TB (28 x 300GB drives) using a ServeRAID-6M adapter and two IBM TotalStorage 
EXP400 Storage Expansion Units, with industry-leading ServeRAID Manager (RAID 
management) software. 
The optional MegaRAID 8480 SAS controller offers high performance and 256MB of cache 
memory (with optional battery backup) for external SAS storage capacity. The adapter supports 
five RAID levels: 0 (striping), 1 (mirroring), 10 (mirroring and striping), 5 (striping with parity), 
and 50 (striping/mirroring with parity). 
External SAN, NAS and direct-attach storage is available using one of several IBM System