Asus Unveils its Nehalem-based Server

Asus keeps surfing on its EEE-PC success, even though the poor performance of those models have pushed Asus and other manufacturers to offer boosted netbook models. To demonstrate that Asus can also release Pro oriented products, the company unveiled its 1U Nehalem-based server, the RS700-E6/R.

As shown on this photo, the design is clean, quite similar to Apple's knowledge in this field, not a single cables visible. Regarding specifications, as it is powered by a Nehalem, there are not a lot of surprises:

•  2 Xeon Nehalem sporting 8 cores each.
• 12 RAM memory slots, 6 for each CPU.
• 2 independent and redundant PSU.
• 8 bays for 2.5" HD, 4 of them only hot-swappable.

The lat point is the most interesting one. so far Apple has only been offering Xserve based on 3.5" HD (3 bays), not the best design for RAID 5 volume. Last but not least, Asus model sports 2 PSU certified 80+, in other word, high efficiency with a yield over 80%, a marketing (and environmental) parameter on which Apple did not communicate so far.