* Dell adds to Opteron lineup
Remember when Dell didn’t support Opteron? Remember when it was the Intel-way or the highway? Things have changed. Last week, Dell expanded its Opteron lineup, first launched last fall, with two new servers that it touts as being more energy efficient than any servers it has offered so far.
Dell also noted that the dual-core Opteron boxes are ready and waiting to upgrade to AMD’s new quad-core Opteron, codenamed Barcelona, when that is available this summer. Intel already has its quad-core Xeon in the field.
Dell’s new Opteron servers are the PowerEdge 2970 and the Energy Smart 2970. Dell says it put the dual-core servers in head-to-head tests with its Xeon boxes and the Opteron servers came out on top. The PowerEdge 2970, for example, uses up to 34% less power and provides more than twice the performance per watt of a similarly configured Xeon server.
The tests were done using the PowerEdge 2970 with two, dual-core 2.0 GHz Opteron processors and 16GB of 667 MHz DDR2 memory vs. the PowerEdge 2850 with two, dual-core 2.8 GHz Xeon processors with 8GB of 400 MHz DDR2 memory.
Dell is playing up the systems as great platforms for virtualized environments. Dell executives say they’re reducing complexity in the data center by providing customers with systems that can be seamlessly upgraded to more powerful processors. That way, once the quad-core Opteron is available, customers slide in the more powerful chips and can immediately consolidate more workloads onto the servers without altering their data center architecture.
Get all the details on the PowerEdge 2970, including the Energy Smart configuration of the server, here.
The PowerEdge 2970 is available now and priced starting at just under $1,900. The PowerEdge Energy Smart 2970, which is built on a low voltage Opteron processor and includes a number of energy efficient features including fan control and high-efficiency power supplies, will be available in the next few weeks. Pricing for the Energy Smart 2970 has not been set.
