Just read this news.com article (http://news.com.com/2100-1001-955205.html?tag=fd_top). Ok, who's rolling out these Blade servers? Any datacenters/suppliers around these parts? They look like a great way to maximise space in datacenters.

RLX which advertises in here make these blades but I am not sure if they are worth the money though. At least cheap enough compared to the amount of money you will save in space.

They're rather expensive but if you're in an expensive colo facility such as Exodus they can be worth it.

I found the server blade pricing just do not justify buying them, even if you are in a premium colo facility. For a single blade, I found the price to be more than twice as much as for White Box 1U server.

But consider that you can fit 12 white boxes into a rack vs 48 1U servers into a rack vs 280 blades in a rack.

Hopefully the pricing will drop as demand for them picks up.

heh... i hope to be deployin' 'em... in bulk... i'll let u guys all know how it goes... but then again, i m sure client(s) would run here n let u all know their reviews anyways... heh... needless to say... over $400,000 for a 312 server setup i want to do... those are for the blades alone, no support hardware... heh

Originally posted by netdude
heh... i hope to be deployin' 'em... in bulk... i'll let u guys all know how it goes... but then again, i m sure client(s) would run here n let u all know their reviews anyways... heh... needless to say... over $400,000 for a 312 server setup i want to do... those are for the blades alone, no support hardware... heh
Got an eta on this one yet?? :)

i do... but can't say on the forums... heh

PM me ur ICQ/MSN contact n i'll msg ya... :)

hp has blades as well - but generally, I think blades are not worth the price.... colo space is CHEAP nowadays!

Originally posted by infortech
I found the server blade pricing just do not justify buying them, even if you are in a premium colo facility. For a single blade, I found the price to be more than twice as much as for White Box 1U server.

And when you are in a place like New York City where space is at an utmost premium, than you actually save money. Not everyone lives in the middle of no where.

Originally posted by mushrew
But consider that you can fit 12 white boxes into a rack vs 48 1U servers into a rack vs 280 blades in a rack.

Its actually 16 of those white boxes in a rack, 24 blades each = 384 blades in a 48U rack (336 in a 42U rack). Not bad at all.

http://www.rlx.com/products/products_chassis.php

I am getting my hands on them when they are at least 50% cheaper. No reason to rush now.

I have looked at these things, but with current pricing its not very competitive. I would rather buy 1U servers and save the cash then dump a wad on these things, not to mention the prices of racks/cabinets has dropped alot lately.

Sprint PCS uses blades for random applications

amazing how many of those things can cram into a rack lol

You guys forget one important thing.. power :)

Most racks come with 20 amps, 30 at most.. its normally around $200 a month for an extra 20 amps... 40 servers can run "ok" on 30 amps... so you figure another 2,000 a month in power... just don't forget that ^_^

You might want to pick the brain (ewww) of Steve from Tera-byte as well. I know he looked into them very seriously to replace the large numbers of 1U's they run. I haven't talked to him in quite a bit actually, but from what I can recall, he decided against it. Might be a good person to ask why, etc.

I think you'll see them selling like any new 'trend' for about a year and then they'll dissapear again. They're not cost effective enough to stay - your customers don't care if the server is small, but costs a few hundred more.

There are more benefits to blade servers than just the space they consume.

- they generally require less power
- produce less heat
- usually have excellent remote access capabilities

In highly clustered environments blade servers can play a very key roll. When you need more raw distributed processing power than IO blade servers are an excellent solution. Probably not the best solution for web hosting, but advanced application serving is a better fit.

demand for blades wont ever signifigantly increase unless the pricing comes down, and the pricing wont come down unless they have demand, and can mass produce the blade servers, so its just another pretty-boy technology that few will ever use.

The point on electricity is very valid, also, lets not forget rack weight, i dont know about you guys, but filling racks with 1u servers top to bottom makes me a tad uneasy (just because i've seen racks move and sway when very heavily loaded), i bet the blades weigh at least 5x what a rack full of 1u's do :eek:.

Originally posted by porcupine
The point on electricity is very valid


Dell Poweredge 1655MC consumes roughly 850 wats for 6 server blades (including the enclosure). This is a save of roughly 50% in terms of power.

also, lets not forget rack weight, i dont know about you guys, but filling racks with 1u servers top to bottom makes me a tad uneasy (just because i've seen racks move and sway when very heavily loaded), i bet the blades weigh at least 5x what a rack full of 1u's do :eek:.

The blades weigh much less since each blade does not have to carry the weight of a rackmout cases and power supply, which can be around 20-30 Lbs in itself. I will say each blade server (in Dell Poweredge 1655MC) is probably around 10-15 lbs compared to 30-40 Lbs for the same loaded 1U server.

So in terms of electricity and weight, blade servers are doing much better.