Dell C-Series microservers pack in more compute nodes

Dell has updated its PowerEdge C Series of microservers with a new form factor that crams in more server modules and is aimed at dense compute environments such as datacentres operated by hosting and cloud providers.

The PowerEdge C5000 line consists of a 3U rack-mount enclosure that can fit up to 12 separate server nodes with shared fans and dual hot-plug 1400W power supplies.

Dell said that its microservers are specifically designed for situations in which multi-core chips and virtualisation are not necessarily required, but fitting as many individual servers into as small a space as possible is more important.

Each node is thus a single-socket server dedicated to running a single application.

Available server nodes include the PowerEdge C5125 based on AMD chips, and the Intel-based PowerEdge C5220. Both types have dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and can be fitted with two 3.5in hard drives or four 2.5in drives.

The C5125 modules, available from April, can be configured with Phenom II X4, Athlon II X4 or Athlon II X2 processors with two or four cores per chip, and have four DIMM slots for up to 16GB memory.

Meanwhile, the C5220 modules feature Intel's latest Xeon E3-1200 series or Core i3-2120 chips, based on the Sandy Bridge architecture. These can be fitted with up to 32GB of memory and will be available from May.

Dell said that the PowerEdge C5000 chassis, with its shared infrastructure, helps save energy, space and weight, producing one of the most dense hyperscale servers available today for datacentre operators.

"Our new PowerEdge C microservers further solidify our position as the premier vendor of specialised server solutions, leveraging our experience working with this unique set of customers and placing that power into the hands of a broader customer base including web hosting and IT service providers," said Andy Rhodes, executive director of marketing for Dell Data Center Solutions.