Dell to release tri-core AMD business machine?

TG Daily's reporting that Dell's on the verge of releasing a new OptiPlex called the 740 Enhanced with options for triple and quad-core Phenom processors. It won't be any big deal for the majority AMD-spurned end users, but if you're an AMD-loving systems buyer your ears probably just perked up a bit.

[Thanks, Schnucki, Tom]

[Aguiluz @ Feb 17th 2008 12:59PM]

Why go Tri when you can go Quad? (And easier to come by too.)

[mattclarkie @ Feb 17th 2008 2:03PM]

Well they are Quad core, only 1 of the cores is defective so they turn it off, or that is what I heard AMD did. It is cheaper than a Quad core, but faster than a Dual Core, and in most instances you would only need 2/3 of the 4 cores in a Quad, so it makes sense.

[LondonConsultant @ Feb 17th 2008 2:58PM]

Dell has confirmed there are only 3 sides to these tower cases, but hasn't yet confirmed whether they're reusing cases returned with a broken side...

[flYY @ Feb 17th 2008 3:45PM]

cases have six sides..

[Abuzar @ Feb 17th 2008 4:47PM]

Not faster than a overclocked E8400! Don't give me bullshit about overclocking a AMD Tri-core, because let's face it, they don't overclock all that well.

AMD is full of fail right now. So is Apple, but I guess they have always been that way ;)

[LondonConsultant @ Feb 17th 2008 5:49PM]

@flYY: If I said there were stripes on the sides, I guess you'd think there were stripes on the top and bottom too...

[Krono6 @ Feb 17th 2008 8:16PM]

Because we all know that companies buy machines by the bulk to overclock, right?
.. Or not. RTFA

[Abuzar @ Feb 17th 2008 9:50PM]

I suppose that IS true. Still, I believe even when it's not overclocked a E8400 can beat out a Phenom CPU when it's only a tri-core.

[John P @ Feb 17th 2008 1:00PM]

I wouldn't mind too much if my school's CS department decided to upgrade to these. We're still on P4s in the student lab and Pentium Ds in the classrooms. And I hate them, especially running in Windows.

[octoberasian @ Feb 17th 2008 2:06PM]

Well, majority of schools-- elementary to college-- have poor performing computers in the computer labs and libraries for menial tasks such as web browsing or word processing.

My last college were still using Pentium IV Celerons and Windows 2000 in every library workstation as of last year. They haven't updated ever since I started there many years ago. If you think that's bad, my elementary school are still using IBM PS/2 and Macintosh IIc computers in their computer labs, and I graduated from there in 1994.

*sigh*

It would be nice if the schools a whee bit more cash towards updating their computers for their students. These Tri-core or dual-core would be perfect since they're affordable.

Amazingly, my high school actually updates their computers. They now have Windows XP and MS Office 2007 on all their PCs in the only computer lab on campus with Intel Core Duo CPUs (cheap, affordable ones of course).

[asphixiated @ Feb 17th 2008 2:16PM]

haha the libraries at my school use dell thin clients with old celerons, and they make even simple web browsing a chore. However, our engineering labs have the dell workstations with core 2 duo E6400's in them.

[John P @ Feb 17th 2008 2:31PM]

Octoberasian - I agree with you that most labs at schools are meant for web browsing and word processing. And the computers in the library have Celerons still, and they are very very slow. But for most applications, they are really fine. Where I'd love to see these new Optiplex PCs is in our computer science majors labs, where the software engineering happens. It is a real pain to be told you have to use Visual Studio and then wait 10 minutes for it to start every time you log in. And don't get me started on compiling.

[Andrew Danks @ Feb 17th 2008 3:49PM]

John P: Looking at your avatar is what made me buy a PS3 today.

[John P @ Feb 17th 2008 4:48PM]

@ Andrew: I'm glad that my avatar can single-handedly drive the economies of both Japan and America. Hope you enjoy your new console (I'm a proud 360 owner, but the PS3 is a great piece of equipment)

[Abuzar @ Feb 17th 2008 4:51PM]

What's wrong with Windows XP?

[John P @ Feb 17th 2008 4:56PM]

At my university Windows is a very slow environment on dual-boot machines compared to the Fedora distro. I enjoy Windows XP on my home machine, it boots fast and is reliable. On school machines no settings are saved because they dont want to give us server hard drive space. As a result, it's like booting up for the first time every time. And with Visual Studio that is a problem because it takes 10 minutes to configure first-time use.

[Abuzar @ Feb 17th 2008 5:03PM]

Oh then, yeah it would suck.

Have you ever used OSX? First time I used it I was like "Look it's Linux, but only a few programs work with it!".

Linux is actually pretty good now, before it used to lack that Finish, but it's come a long way.

[oppositelock @ Feb 17th 2008 9:32PM]

yea, but Linux never lacked Finnish!

I wouldn't blame that on the computers or Windows though. My university's windows machines use Novell, which really works pretty well, runs most engineering apps fairly quickly on a mixture of P IV, Pentium D, and a few Core 2. All the settings and profiles are saved and everything behaves the same no matter what computer you are on. Although I use the older non HT PIV's with Debian for most things.

Does anyone else have a bunch of ridiculous Sun SPARC workstations around that never get used?

[Abuzar @ Feb 17th 2008 9:51PM]

Sorry, typo. I meant Finish.

[mattclarkie @ Feb 17th 2008 2:00PM]

Didn't Dell announce they were no longer going to use AMD processors, or is that just for consumer goods.

[Glazun @ Feb 17th 2008 2:31PM]

I think that was just a rumour that went around.

[Jim @ Feb 17th 2008 4:39PM]

No, they didn't.

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 17th 2008 7:54PM]

lol no, they didnt. engadget did.

[iofthestorm @ Feb 17th 2008 7:55PM]

No, that was just a stupid rumor Engadget was spreading because it hates AMD for some unknown reason.

[Tiptup300 @ Feb 17th 2008 5:14PM]

I'm confused. So odd numbers do with computers?

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 17th 2008 7:52PM]

normally no.. but in this case the data isnt split 3 ways and sent to each core it has to be nominated a different core

windows does it to an extent.. but not very well

that's why people downplay ( and rightfully so ) the power of quad-core systems, there just arn't any quad-core apps out there.

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 17th 2008 7:51PM]

why do i keep relating amd to HD-DVD in my head?

i love both..

and i guess im going through the 5 stages of coping with their death

[iofthestorm @ Feb 17th 2008 7:55PM]

AMD is much farther from death than HD-DVD is, though. Especially their ATI portion.

[Apple Mac Bon Jovi Aerosmith Ipod -Unicorn Tears- ilife forever @ Feb 17th 2008 11:25PM]

AMD was king 2 years ago... cant wait to see them back!

[superseagulls @ Feb 18th 2008 12:49AM]

OH Great
A tri core chip that should have been a quad core but wouldn't work..... AMD's sorting of there chips to 'increase yield' seems to be just an excuse to punt there '5hit that wouldn't work' onto some other sucker...... Sorry AMD you had the opportunity to kick Intel in the nuts.... but you messed it up proper!

[Nick @ Feb 19th 2008 12:40PM]

Actually, this is a move that makes sense considering AMD's move to acquire ATI.

ATI once did the same thing (and may still for all I know) with their "high end" video cards. If the high end card failed to pass QA, but with some features disabled passed QA as a lower end card, they would re-badge that card and sell it off (I think this happened a lot in the 9600 series).

I don't know if ATI still does this anymore since I switched to Nvidia (8800gt Alpha Dog FTW!!!), but this recycling strategy might actually help ATI out of its current rut.