The System x3500 M3 servers include:

- Quickpath Interconnect (QPI) support for 4.8, 5.86, and 6.4 Gigabit transfers/second (GTS)
- Three hot-swap fans standard and three additional, with redundant power and cooling optional
- Six PCI-Express card slots, and one PCI 32-bit/33 MHz card slot
- Integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet and standard RAID -0, -1, -10 (upgradeable), or RAID 0, -1, -1E, -5, -50, with PCI-E adapter
- Optional RAID 6 or 60 via Advance Feature Key
- DDR3 ECC DIMMs, combined with an integrated ECC memory controller in core logic that corrects many soft and hard single-bit memory errors and minimizes disruption of service to LAN clients
- Integrated management module with Remote Presence function standard
- Light path diagnostics with a light path panel visible at front of chassis

IBM Redundant Power and Cooling Option
This redundant power supply is designed to supply power for all systems. Power supply cooling are located in the fan cage.

High-performance server subsystems
System x3500 M3 servers are high-throughput, two-way, SMP-capable network servers with excellent performance scalability when you add memory and a second processor. They incorporate powerful Intel Xeon processors with 8 MB or 12 MB cache, model dependent. These flip-chip, land grid array 6 (FC-LGA6) processors feature advanced transfer caches integrated onto the processor core and run at the same clock speed as the processor core.

Two processor connectors are standard on the system board to support installation of a second processor. High-speed, 1333 MHz DDR3 RDIMMs are optimized for 1333 MHz processor-to-memory subsystem performance. The System x3500 M3 server uses the Intel Tylersburg DP chipset-36D to maximize throughput from processor to memory and system I/O buses.