Out-of-box comparison between Dell, HP, and

IBM blade servers

TEST REPORT

DECEMBER 2007

KEY FINDINGS

   The 16-blade Dell PowerEdge M600 Blade 

System took 14 minutes, 13 seconds to

assemble; the 16-blade HP BladeSystem c-

Class took 3 hours, 13 minutes, 15 seconds

to assemble, while the IBM BladeCenter H

took 1 hour, 56 minutes, 24 seconds to

assemble.

   The Dell PowerEdge M600 Blade System 

shipped with the blades already assembled

and installed in the enclosure; the HP

BladeSystem c-Class and IBM BladeCenter

H chassis arrived unassembled and required

us to install a processor, memory, and hard

disk in each blade.

   The Dell PowerEdge M600 Blade System 

arrived in one box, the HP BladeSystem c-

Class arrived in 78 boxes, and the IBM

arrived in 62 boxes.

Executive summary

Dell Inc. (Dell) commissioned Principled Technologies

(PT) to compare the out-of-box experience of the following

three blade systems:

"    Dell PowerEdge M600 Blade System

"    HP BladeSystem c-Class

"    IBM BladeCenter H

 

We received each chassis and set of blades in the

manufacturer s original packaging. We then compared the

amount of time it took us to set up each system. Due to

differences in packaging and design, there was a

considerable difference in setup times for the three

systems.

 

Figures 1A, 1B, and 1C show the components of the three

server arrays after we unpacked them. These photographs

illustrate the difference in the time and effort required to

set up the three blade servers. The Dell blades arrived

preconfigured and all necessary components were up and

running as soon as we plugged in the enclosure and

inserted the blades. HP and IBM shipped the second

processor, extra RAM, and hard drives separately; the total of 78 and 62 boxes, respectively, made the unpacking

and setup time for the HP and IBM blade servers much longer than that for the Dell blade servers.

 

 

 

Figure 1A: The Dell equipment

immediately after we unpacked it.

 

Figure 1B: The HP equipment

immediately after we unpacked it.

 

Figure 1C: The IBM equipment

immediately after we unpacked it.

 

Figure 2 summarizes the amount of time we spent unpacking each system and installing it in the server rack.

Compared to the process for the Dell system, the process for the HP system took more than 12 times as long and

the process for the IBM system took more than seven times as long.

 

 

Dell PowerEdge

M600 Blade System

HP BladeSystem

c-Class

IBM BladeCenter H

Task executed

 

 

Removing items from shipping boxes

00:06:22

01:00:45

00:49:42

Installing the server in the rack

00:07:51

02:12:30

01:06:02

Total time required

00:14:13

03:13:15

01:56:24

 

Figure 2: Time to unpack and install the three systems. Times are in hours: minutes: seconds. Shorter times are better.