IBM Kills Off Power5+ System i Boxes

November 24, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan

As expected, IBM is taking the old model Power5+ System i machines that helped get the i platform back on track off the market, now that Power6-based machines give as good or better bang for the buck. Well, in most cases, and especially if you don’t think about any discounting going on out there in the reseller channel on Power5+ machines.

Anyway, last week, IBM pulled the plug on the user-priced machines that finally came to market last year and gave the entry i platform a fighting chance against Windows-based machines among small and medium businesses. Specifically, the feature 8971 1.65 GHz Power5+ processor card for System i 570 servers is out of the catalog as of December 1; IBM had planned to kill it off on July 8, but didn’t.

January 1, 2009, is the last day you can get a System i 515 (9407-515) or a System i 525 (9406-525). That is also the last day that IBM will sell the Power Systems i Edition boxes that were announced in April 2008–that the Power 520 Express (9407-M15 and 9408-M25) and the Power 550 Express (9409-M50)–which were replaced in October of this year with converged AIX, Linux, and i boxes. Model conversions between these boxes are also being taken out of the catalog on New Year’s Day. New Year’s Eve is the last day these products will be available from resellers in the channel. These boxes are all replaced by newer, converged Power Systems boxes.

On February 3, 2009, IBM will be killing off the 70.56 GB and 282.25 GB 15K RPM disk drives used in the new Power Systems 520 and 550 converged boxes. On May 29, the DVD-ROM drive and 36 GB 4mm tape drive used in System i 520, 515, 525, and 570 machines will be withdrawn.

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