Lenovo IBM System x3250 M5

Key features

The System x3250 M5 server is a compact, cost-effective, single-processor 1U rack server that has been optimized to provide outstanding availability, manageability, and performance features to small-to-medium-sized businesses, retail stores, or distributed enterprises.

Scalability and performance

The x3250 M5 offers numerous features to boost performance, improve scalability, and reduce costs:

• The Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3 product family improves productivity by offering affordable single-socket system performance with four-core processors with up to 3.6 GHz core speeds, up to 8 MB of L3 cache.
• Choice of processors with up to four cores to enable the effective use of multithreaded applications.
• Intelligent and adaptive system performance with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 allows processor cores to run at maximum speeds during peak workloads by temporarily going beyond processor thermal design power (TDP).
• Intel Hyper-Threading Technology boosts performance for multithreaded applications by enabling simultaneous multithreading within each processor core, up to two threads per core.
• Intel Virtualization Technology integrates hardware-level virtualization hooks that allow operating system vendors to better use the hardware for virtualization workloads.
• Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) significantly improve floating point performance for compute-intensive technical and scientific applications.
• The four 1600 MHz DDR3 ECC memory UDIMMs provide speed, high availability, and a memory capacity of up to 32 GB.
• The server offers up to four integrated Gigabit Ethernet ports with a convenient Lenovo Features on Demand (FoD) upgrade process that does not require the purchase of additional hardware.
• The server offers PCI Express 3.0 I/O expansion capabilities that improve the theoretical maximum bandwidth by almost 100% (8 GTps per link using 128b/130b encoding) compared to the PCI Express 2.0 (5 GTps per link using 8b/10b encoding).
• With Intel Integrated I/O Technology, the PCI Express 3.0 controller is integrated into the Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3 product family. Such integration reduces I/O latency and increases overall system performance.
• Up to eight 2.5-inch hot-swap or simple-swap drive bays or four 3.5-inch hot-swap or simple-swap drive bays provide maximum internal storage capacity in a compact 1U form factor.
• The use of solid-state drives (SSDs) instead of, or along with, traditional spinning drives (hard disk drives or HDDs) can significantly improve I/O performance. An SSD can support up to 100 times more I/O operations per second (IOPS) than a typical HDD.

Availability and serviceability

The x3250 M5 provides many features to simplify serviceability and increase system uptime:

• ECC memory provides error correction not available in PC-class "servers" that use parity memory. Avoiding system crashes (and data loss) due to soft memory errors can mean greater system uptime.
• Tool-less cover removal provides easy access to upgrades and serviceable parts, such as processor, memory, and adapter cards.
• The server offers simple-swap or hot-swap drives with support for an affordable ServeRAID or advanced hardware RAID redundancy for data protection and greater system uptime.
• Solid-state drives (SSDs) offer significantly better reliability than traditional HDDs for greater uptime.
• The server offers two redundant hot-swap power supplies and five redundant non-hot-swap fans to provide cost-efficient availability for applications.
• Basic light path diagnostics detects when system components (processors, memory, and hard disk drives) operate outside of standard thresholds and generates proactive alerts in advance of possible failures, therefore increasing uptime.
• Built-in Integrated Management Module II (IMM2) continuously monitors system parameters, triggers alerts, and performs recovery actions in case of failure, to minimize downtime.
• Built-in diagnostics using Dynamic Systems Analysis (DSA) Preboot speed up troubleshooting tasks to reduce service time.
• Three-year customer replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty, next business day 9x5. Optional service upgrades are available.

Manageability and security

Powerful systems management features simplify local and remote management of the x3250 M5:

• The server includes an Integrated Management Module II (IMM2) to monitor server availability and perform remote management.
• An integrated industry-standard Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) enables improved setup, configuration, and updates, and simplifies error handling.
• Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) alerts on memory, SAS/SATA hard disk drives, fans, power supplies, and temperature
• Integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) support enables advanced cryptographic functionality, such as digital signatures and remote attestation.
• Industry-standard Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) New Instructions (AES-NI) support provides faster and stronger encryption.
• Intel Execute Disable Bit functionality can help prevent certain classes of malicious buffer overflow attacks when combined with a supporting operating system.
• Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides enhanced security through hardware-based resistance to malicious software attacks, allowing an application to run in its own isolated space protected from all other software running on a system.

Energy efficiency

The x3250 M5 offers the following energy-efficiency features to save energy, reduce operational costs, increase energy availability, and contribute to a green environment:

• Energy-efficient planar components help lower operational costs.
• Energy Star 2.0 compliant.
• 80 PLUS certified power supplies enable greater energy savings while providing flexibility to meet your business needs.
• The optional thermal enhancement option kit allows the use of x3250 M5 servers in environments with temperature limits extended to 40 degrees C. It also helps lower fan speeds depending on the environment's temperature to lower acoustic noise and energy use.
• The Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3 product family offers better performance over the previous generation, while fitting into the same TDP limits.
• Intel Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, to reduce power draw.
• Low-voltage Intel Xeon processors draw less energy to satisfy the demands of power and thermally constrained data centers and telecommunication environments.
• Low-voltage 1.35 V DDR3 memory UDIMMs consume up to 19% less energy compared to 1.5 V DDR3 UDIMMs.
• Solid-state drives may consume as much as 80% less power than traditional spinning 2.5-inch HDDs.
• The server uses hexagonal ventilation holes, a part of Calibrated Vectored Cooling™ technology. Hexagonal holes can be grouped more densely than round holes, providing more efficient airflow through the system.

Components and connectors

The following figure shows the front of the server with eight 2.5-inch hot-swap drive bays (models with 2.5-inch simple-swap or 3.5-inch simple-swap or hot-swap drive bays are also available).