Hdd storage capacity, High-performance adapter slots – IBM 250000 User Manual
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Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and 
expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server 
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
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The integrated ServeRAID-BR10i controller offers hardware RAID-0/1/1E support. The controller 
provides data transfer speeds of up to 3Gbps
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per SAS port on an 8-lane 2.5 Gbps PCIe card. It
connects to both SAS and SATA SSDs and tape drives.
The x3550 M2 also supports full RAID-0/1/10/1E/5/6 support using the optional ServeRAID-
MR10i card. It also offers higher performance, due to the 256MB battery-backed onboard 
cache. 
The x3550 M2 also supports hardware based full disk encryption with RAID-0/1/10/1E/5/6 
support using the optional ServeRAID-MR10is card. 
For external storage, the ServeRAID MR10M controller enables connection to up to four IBM 
System Storage EXP3000 SAS expansion units (48 HDDs total). It provides RAID-0/1/10/5/50 
support and 256MB of onboard cache 
Additional external storage is available.
HDD Storage Capacity
The x3550 M2 offers a flexibility with up to six (6) 2.5” HDD bays; optimal price/performance 
disk drives that provide ultimate drive density and allow you to scale up as your business grows. 
• Support for six300GB hot swap SAS HDD — 1.8TB total internal SAS storage 
• Support for six 300GB hot swap SATA HDD — 1.8TB total internal SATA storage (500GB 
SATA HDD planned 3Q09)
• Support for solid-state drives (SSDs); 32GB or 50GB capacity deployable in all 6 HDD bays
32GB SSD – Slim FF (2.5”) HS HDD (SATA interface) or Simple Swap HDD
50GB SSD – Slim FF (2.5”) High IOPS Hot Swap HDD (SATA Interface) or Simple 
Swap HDD 
• High IO Performance
Up to 8X IOPS more than HDD (67/33% Read/Write OLTP transaction base mix)
Optimized for heavy mix of Read and Write operations such as transaction processing
Media Streaming, Surveillance, File Copy, Logging, Backup/Recovery, Business 
Intelligence 
• Lower Cost IOPS Performance
Yields better $/IOPS: lower capacity (GB) required to achieve higher IOPS
Utilizes Less power and heat than conventional disk drive
• Superior Uptime
3X the availability of mechanical drives with RAID-1
No moving parts to fail
Enterprise wear leveling to extend life even further
• Flexible Deployment with full OS Support
Traditional HDD form factor offerings
Supports Linux, Windows and VMware
2-5-inch drives not only require less space than 3.5-inch drives, they weigh less, consume half 
the power, produce less noise, seek faster, and offer increased reliability. 
The hot-swap SAS drives use the Converged Tray for interchangeability with other IBM System 
x
®
systems. If you need more storage space, terabyte capacities are possible with external direct-
attach, NAS and SAN solutions.
High-Performance Adapter Slots
The x3550 M2 provides two x16 (“by 16”) 8GBps PCIe (PCI Express) Gen 2 high performance 
I/O slots help double the performance vs. the previous-generation x3550 for added long-term 
investment protection. Each is capable of supporting x1/x4/x8 adapters at full speed. One slot is 
full height, half length. The other is low profile. Each is convertible to one PCI-X/133 MHz using 
the riser option. High-performance x16 Gen 2 slots are ideal for digital media, 2D graphics 
environments 
PCI Express is a high-performance, low-latency, next-generation serial I/O bus that is rapidly
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Data transfer rates depend on many factors and are often less than the maximum possible.
