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Dell Starts Selling Servers and Workstations with Intel's Quad-Core Xeon Processors
09/11/06
Last week Intel announced that quad core processors were here. This week Del announces that servers and workstations with Quad core processors are ready to ship. Although there are many reasons to avoid Quad Core Processors (see 8 Reasons Why You Should Not Buy Intel’s Quad Core), all those reasons relate to the desktops. When talking about servers and workstations it seems that the Quad Core Processors will revolutionize the market. Quad cores will offer a lot more computing power and better performance per watt also. So it seems that quad cores are starting to seep in to the market.
Here are some more details:
Even though Intel won't formally unveil its quad-core chips until next week, Dell's new quad-core servers and workstations are available immediately.
The company is the first to announce availability of the new processors which become an option for all ranges currently offering Intel dual-core processors.The new quad-core servers are based on existing Dell models.
The Dell PowerEdge 1900, 1950, 2950 and 2900 all include quad-core Xeon processors, as do the SC1430 and 1955 PowerEdge blade servers. There are two processor versions available, the 1.6 GHz E5310 and the 1.8GHz E5320. The chips, developed under the codename Clovertown, cover the lower ranges of the quad-cores detailed by Intel, and the faster 2.33GHz and 2.66GHz processors may not be available in quantity until 2007. The PowerEdge 1950 and 2900 will cost $1,599 in their base configurations, with the quad-core Xeon 5300 series processors, while the 2950 will cost $1,699. The SC1430 is a tower model that starts at $1,099, while the 1955 blade servers start at $1,799. The 390 costs $2,213 with the Core 2 Extreme quad-core processors, formerly known as Kentsfield. The 690 and 490 use the quad-core Xeon processors, and cost $2,399 and $2,149, respectively. All are available immediately.
Pin compatibility means the dual processor servers are available with either duo or quad configurations. It also means that Dell's lead will be short-lived. The workstations will appear soon after the servers, Dell said, but the higher performance versions using Quad-Core Extreme chips will probably not be available until early next year.
According to Dell, when equipped with quad-core, the new systems "rival the performance of dual-core, four-socket systems" and have up to 63 percent greater performance and up to 40 percent better performance "per watt." Quad-core "will become the mainstream technology in the market, This is not a niche market."
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