System builder Dell continued its dual-core processor rollout with the introduction of two more Intel-based servers for businesses Monday at the launch of LinuxWorld in San Francisco.
The Round Rock, Texas-based company was the first to release Intel-based dual-core, single socket, processors with the launch of the PowerEdge SC430 last month.
The PowerEdge 830 and PowerEdge 850, like the SC430, boast performance gains over their single-core predecessors — the PowerEdge 750 and PowerEdge 800, respectively.
Officials say the tower server PowerEdge 830 with the Intel Pentium D dual-core processor runs 62 percent faster than its replacement, the PowerEdge 800. The PowerEdge 850, a 1U rack-mount server, is said to compute 79 percent faster than its replacement, the PowerEdge 750. The PowerEdge 830 is designed for small businesses, workgroups and remote offices. The PowerEdge 850 for small business networks and data centers on a budget.
Also like the SC 430 released last month, Dell is adding the bells and whistles that make the new servers more attractive. A step up from the SC430, the two servers can hold up to 8GB of DDR-2 SDRAM, including the option of U320 SCSI
Individually, the PowerEdge 830 has an optional hot-plug SCSI RAID array, while the PowerEdge 850 includes the next-generation PCI-Express
The new servers also allow customers to run single-core 2.53GHz Intel Celerons or 3.6 GHz Intel P4s. Both servers come pre-installed with Dell’s OpenManage software suite, with the option of having the operating system pre-installed before shipping.
Dell officials have high hopes for its line of dual-core servers and say they are positioned well against their competition for customers against Intel’s arch-nemesis AMD .
AMD launched its dual-core Opteron for servers in April and partnered with IBM , HP
and Sun Microsystems. Dell officials, however, think starting out with single socket dual-core processors in the volume space will give them an edge over the competition.
“It’s interesting to note that AMD doesn’t have a dual-core processor in this space; as far as these products are concerned there is no alternative out there,” said Tim Golden, Dell director of PowerEdge server marketing. “In fact, the competition isn’t shipping a dual-core processor in this space, so this is a unique time and space, if you will, of where we think we have a pretty unique advantage.”
Pricing starts at $699 for the PowerEdge 830 and $749 for the PowerEdge 850. The two servers run on Red Hat and SUSE Linux, as well as Windows Server 2003, operating systems.
In other Dell news, officials announced Monday people can buy MySQL Network and JBoss Network direct from the company. Dell has set up two Web sites, (http://www.dell.com/mysql and http://www.dell.com/jboss) with more information.
