What is wrong about the System i 515?

Today, IBM released a new machine, the System i 515.



It's aimed at the SMB market. Even though pricing isn't out yet in
Europe, it still doesn't look like a good offer.



Here's what Express Config #2 (#6011) contains:



One CPU (800CPW)

XW1/QU1/ST1/SS1 for one CPU

1 GB of Memory

Two 70GB 3.5" U320 Drives

One 30GB QIC Drive

WAN IOA for Service Agent

No Console



As always, the stock express config doesn't get you nowhere, with V5R4
needing somewhat around 4GB of RAM just for all the stuff that is lying
around in a default install - ESA, Admin Webserver, Help Infocenter,
etc.



The included tape drive is half as big as the standard set of disks. Why
don't we see an LTO2 drive included in this system?



Also, why does it still use outdated 3.5" disks? 2.5" SAS disk have been
on the market long enough to proof that it is stable, and it would help
the system to get smaller - or fit a heck a lot of arms into the base
unit.



And where is the CPU power? Why don't these machines with a dual core P5
CPU, fully unlocked? It's about time, because that's what you get with a
System x server.



Why don't we see a new System I in a standard 1U or 2U form factor? The
x3650 fits 8 arms plus a tape drive into 2U. Plus two quad core xeons.
Plus a maximum of 32GB of RAM.



Why isn't IBM using current technology in this machine? Why are we stuck
with small disk controller caches?



The ServeRaid 8k for the IBM System x has 256MB of cache - the 515
features less than 100 for each controller.



Where is PCI-Express?



Where is my remote console without the need for an uber-expensive HMC?



God damnit IBM, i5/OS is so very cool, but the hardware you sell is
several years old and slow (and probably overpriced, but I don't know
that yet).