IT Pro Verdict
Fujitsu’s new Primergy RX350 S7 is a solid choice as a server consolidation platform and for running critical database applications. Its modular design gives it a massive expansion potential and although the system came with the lower specified 6-core E5-2600 CPUs, it still represents very good value.
The Primergy RX350 S7 sits comfortably in this gap as its big 4U chassis offers plenty of expansion potential, but keeps costs down by supporting up to two of the very latest Intel Xeon E5-2600 processors. Fujitsu offers the entire range of E5-2600 server CPUs too, which gives 16 to choose from.
For our review system, Fujitsu opted for a lower cost set-up and provided a pair of 2GHz E5-2620 Xeon processors. These represent the entry point of the three main six-core E5-2600 chips and have a goodly sized 15MB L3 cache, plus support for Intel's Hyper-Threading.
The new Xeon E5-2600 family use the new Socket-R LGA 2011 package that increases the number of inter-socket QPI links from one to two, but QPI speeds top out 7.2GT/sec, as opposed to 8GT/sec on the eight-core chips.
In addition, memory speeds are limited to 1333MHz and the new Turbo Boost 2.0 (which allows cores to be pushed briefly beyond their TDP) is not supported.
These processors are almost entirely responsible for the low price of the system on review. Intel's launch guide price for the E5-2620 is $406 (around 257) whereas the high-end 2.9GHz 8-core E5-2690 and its 20MB L3 cache will set you back a whopping $2,057 (around 1,300).
