Blades of Glory

5. HITACHI BLADESYMPHONY 320
Sometimes the middle of the road can be darn powerful. Designed for midmarket companies, Hitachi’s BladeSymphony 320 is a 6U, 10-slot blade server that combines functionality with a compact form factor. The 320 packs a lot of power into that small space too, with as many as 10 twosocket, quad-core-processor servers per chassis (80 cores per chassis and 560 cores per 42U rack). What makes the unit really interesting, however, is that it has an Intel architecture and has been certified to run both Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. A 110-volt power option enables customers to get up and running using any existing wall outlet—no special adapters or cabling is required. Pricing starts at less than $10,000. http://www.bladesymphony.com

6. INTEL BLADE SERVER CHASSIS SBCE
When it comes to servers, more does not always make merrier—there’s just more to deploy and manage. The Intel Blade Server Chassis SBCE, on the other hand, enables you to add more blades and use shared components for power supplies, blowers, switches, and management modules, all of which can be hot-plugged or hot-swapped quickly without tools. The chassis holds up to 14 dual-processor blade servers or seven multiple-processor blade servers in a 7U space, which is twice the density of rack-mounted units. It includes a management module that monitors temperatures and controls fan speeds; two modules can be accommodated for redundancy. Other features include a media tray to support floppy and DVD drives and a USB port. Price: $2,955. http://www.intel.com