IBM Rolls Out X-Series Servers For Small Biz

IBM on Thursday rolled out two new entry-level Intel-based servers in its xSeries line targeted at the small business market.

The new servers -- dubbed the xSeries 206 and xSeries 306 -- are single-processor devices that feature Intel's 3.0GHz Pentium 4 CPU, and are priced beginning at $499 and $1,339, respectively.

While the xSeries 206 comes in a tower enclosure, and hopes to find a home in small and distributed businesses that need a low-cost file/print, communication, or e-mail server, the 306 is a 1U-format rack server that IBM is aiming at customers after a smaller footprint unit for Web, firewall, VPN, and load balancing applications.

The pair boast simple-swap Serial ATA (SATA) drives -- access to the drives is through the front panel of both and can be pulled for replacement without picking up a screwdriver -- come standard with IBM's ServerRAID 7e enterprise-grade security technology, and can be configured with as much as 8GB of memory.

The 206 and 306 are available now.