Is the XServe RAID expensive?

If you consider that each single XServe RAID - configured as 6 RAID sets, you get 4 volumes with 800GB and 2 volumes with 1200GB.
You are getting a LOT of storage capacity in one unit.5.6TB


The retail price of the largest XServeRAID is $13000.
Using this to drive 6 Catalysts is then ~$2000/server.
Add 8 port Fibre switch. $2000
Fibre channel cards are about the same cost as scsi cards

A SCSI disc array with 800GB capacity using 140GB drives at $600/drive is 5*600= $3000

The XServe RAID is 50% cheaper per RAID set for the same drive size than using SCSI.
And you can network this between multiple macs, you cannot do this with SCSI.