Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2007/04/11/dell_poweredge_2970/

Dell turns green waiting for Barcelona

New box impatient for four-cores

By Austin Modine

Posted in Channel, 11th April 2007 00:02 GMT

Dell is dipping its toes into the AMD quad-core processor market for servers - antsy to take the plunge when AMD releases "Barcelona" in mid-2007.

The computer seller has released the PowerEdge 2970, a box that runs on dual-core Opterons today but which can also hold four-core parts down the road. All Dell needs is the damn chip.

The new box has largely the same specs as Dell's PowerEdge 2950 currently available with Intel's dual or quad-core Xeon chips. The 2970 draws up to 34 per cent less power and shows up to 105 per cent faster performance per watt than the previous generation of Dell servers running on dual-core Xeon chips.

The PowerEdge 2970 will come in both a regular and Energy Smart flavor.

The green edition, shipping "in a few weeks," boasts 25 per cent greater performance per watt, while reducing power consumption by up to 21 per cent over the standard 2970, according to Dell.

The regular 2970 PowerEdge server, available now, takes up 2U of rack space, has three PCIe slots and eight 2.5 inch SAS hard drive bays.

The dual-socket PowerEdge 2970, Plain and Tall edition starts at $1,849 with a dual-core AMD chip.

Dell spokesperson David Lord told The Register the PowerEdge Energy Smart 2970 will use AMD's quad-core chip when it ships. ®