Four Intel Xeon 7550 Nehalem EX 2.0GHz eight-core processors with 18MB of cache and 1066MHz bus speed. Up to 15 SAS/SCSI hard drives. Up to 1TB of DDR3 RAM. Seven available RAID configurations: 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60. Virtual Rack connectivity. What else could you need in a server?

As you may have heard, The Planet was the first hosting provider to offer a Dell PowerEdge R910 server chassis with a four-socket configuration of Intel’s Nehalem EX processors. Because each processor has eight cores, the server operates 32 individual cores out of the box and 64 cores with hyper-threading enabled.

When I heard about this server, I had to see it. You could probably describe it the same way Sam Rockwell describes his company’s smart bomb in Iron Man 2: “If it were any smarter, it would write a book … A book that would make Ulysses look like it was written in crayon … And it would read it to you.” Never mind the fact that it retails for more than 10 times the cost of my first car.*

Chances are that if you’re reading this post, you’ve already been distracted by the pictures I’ve posted below, so I’ll quickly get out of your way so you can ogle the majesty of this magnificent piece of hardware. Click on any picture for additional detail.

Dell PowerEdge R910 Chassis

Opening the Quad Xeon 7550

Removing one of eight RAM risers

Up to eight 16GB RAM modules per riser

Six heavy-duty internal case fans

Heat sinks covering four Nehalem EX processors

Heat sink and Xeon 7550 processor removed

Xeon 7550 – Eight cores, 2.0GHz per core

Dell PowerEdge R910 connectivity

If you can’t get enough of these detailed images, visit The Planet Flickr photostream for more.

And if after seeing this server, you want to add one to your hosting infrastructure, we can help you out: Quad Xeon 7550.

-Kevin

*For those who are curious, my first car was a big, mostly white Dodge Ramcharger.