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AMD Hardware

Analysts Predict Dell to Use AMD 196

Posted by Zonk from the grain-of-salt dept.
An anonymous reader writes "CNet reports on an analyst's prediction that Dell will begin using AMD chips, instead of their much-touted Intel processors." From the article: "Dell likely will reverse course and begin selling computers with Advanced Micro Devices' processors, Piper Jaffray analyst Les Santiago predicted Tuesday, sending the chipmaker's stock up 4 percent in midday trading."
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Analysts Predict Dell to Use AMD More

Analysts Predict Dell to Use AMD

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  • Dear Lord, No! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gbulmash ( 688770 ) * <semi_famous@ya h o o .com> on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:13PM (#14440566) Homepage Journal
    Please, no.

    Dell has become a poster child for crappy [crn.com] customer [clickz.com] service [thisistrue.com]. Do AMD fans want Dell dragging AMD's good name down with them? I'd prefer that Dell self-destruct on their own without pulling AMD into their vortex of suckage.

    - Greg

    • A reaction to Apple's no "Intel Inside" sticker (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:23PM (#14440699)
      Seems til today (macworld) Dell always had the sweetest sweethart deal from Intel; but when Jobs gets to announce that they're exempt from Intel's branding campaing - and God (Jobs) knows what other concessions Intel had to give Steve to win them from IBM, I bet Dell is pretty pissed.

      It'll be fun to see the new wars brewing between the big PC players - Dell & Intel using Linux against Microsoft. Dell & AMD using AMD against Intel. t. Microsoft using IBM (Xbox) against Intel. Intel&Apple using MacOS against Microsoft. The computing industry's starting to get fun again.

      • As far as I know Intel gives companies a break if they use the logo. For example the CPU cost $20 each, but if you put our logo on the box it is $18 each. I know also that if on commericals if they put the logo and chime in they get a chunk of money to help pay for the commercial.

        So A: Apple pays more per CPU, or B: it was part of the deal years ago for Intel to get into Apple's pants.

        Intel, AMD I could care less who I buy. Who ever gives me more bang for the buck. Usually that was AMD in the past for me. I

      • Re:A reaction to Apple's no "Intel Inside" sticker (Score:5, Insightful)

        by i41Overlord ( 829913 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @08:44PM (#14441982)
        Seems til today (macworld) Dell always had the sweetest sweethart deal from Intel; but when Jobs gets to announce that they're exempt from Intel's branding campaing - and God (Jobs) knows what other concessions Intel had to give Steve to win them from IBM, I bet Dell is pretty pissed.

        It'll be fun to see the new wars brewing between the big PC players - Dell & Intel using Linux against Microsoft. Dell & AMD using AMD against Intel. t. Microsoft using IBM (Xbox) against Intel. Intel&Apple using MacOS against Microsoft. The computing industry's starting to get fun again.

        Apple is a minor player compared to Dell. Look at the volume. You can rest assured that Dell gets a better deal than Apple.

      • http://www.twice.com/article/CA6250068.html/ [twice.com]

        Marketshare in Q2 2005

        Vendor. Units shipped (thousands), Marketshare
        Dell. 4,988 , 32.0%
        Hewlett-Packard 2,711 , 17.4%
        Gateway 890 , 5.7%
        Apple 663 , 4.3%

        Dell ships 7.5x more computers than Apple. And they do advertising for Intel. Who do you think gets the better deal?
      • I agree 100%. And I think its past posturing, Dell is gonna stick it to them for this unless they get the same rate. Of course intel does not want to give Apple the rate forever, so they are kind of stuck.

        If Dell goes with AMD this should be reflected by a reduced bonus for the management of intel for failure to keep them. Doubt it will.
      • Given that Apple has made a TV ad promoting the Intel processors, I don't think Apple has completely gotten out of promoting Intel, but probably with different requirements.
      • Really? We could be close to seeing/hearing the end of that horrible "Doe Dwink Doe Doe" noise at the end of every computer commercial? Yay!!
    • Ya, who would think you might actually get what you pay for? And clearly not get what you didn't pay for.

      Dell is cheap as in price. Don't expect the world on a nickel, in fact don't even dream about it, it's not going to happen!

    • Re:Dear Lord, No! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:35PM (#14440858)
      I have had bad experiences with every major corporation in America / Japan. Whether it be Toyota, GE, etc. Especially if it is "consumer" grade. People don't understand that profit margins on things like 50dollar DVD players and 500 dollar laptops are so slim that to get someone on a phone call for as many times as some people like to call becomes a cost prohibitive business. Dell excels in B2B where you have programs in place where IT shops can order their own parts under warranty and they have access to skilled technicians that are paid by the higher costs of the warranties and hardware / contract.

      Back when an average system sold for three thousand dollars and all you had to worry about was config.sys and autoexec.bat and Windows 3.1 or DOS 6.22, you could pay an American tech 15bucks an hr to hand hold consumers and still have decent profit in place. But, as the computers got more powerful and the applications they performed began to vary widely and the advent of the internet and the driving down of systems to 300bucks expecting the same level of support is hard to deliver. This is why Dell has launched other services and fee based alternatives.

      Just my 2 cents.

      • Re:Dear Lord, No! (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jsight ( 8987 )

        Dell excels in B2B where you have programs in place where IT shops can order their own parts under warranty and they have access to skilled technicians that are paid by the higher costs of the warranties and hardware / contract.

        I'm actually not down on Dell (had some decent experiences with their consumer support recently), but this made me laugh!

        "skilled technicians"? Ie, the same ones that demand you reboot and run diagnostics to replace a bad drive in a HOT-SWAPPABLE RAID ARRAY! I would say their B2B s

    • I am not sure why Dell gets such a bad rap, I have been in IT industry for over 10 years and have never seen anything even remotely approaching Dell quality (dont get me started on Compaqs and the eternaly broken StinkPads). Having converted to Dell in my company a few years back pretty much illiminated hardware desktop support work (prior to using Dell, hardware support was averaging at least 10 hours a week) In past 3 years we had 2 DELLs fail, one hard drive and one memory, in each case DELL rep was over
      • Like any big company some parts are good and some are bad. The dell corp stuff is usually pretty decent. That goes for the hardware and support if you need it. The home stuff is where I think most of the complaints come from. When you're selling a new computer with a flat panel for ~$400(?) costs have to be cut somewhere.
      • I'll agree with you on the desktops. They work, they're reasonably priced and fairly simple to order and warranty. We only order a few per year.

        For laptops? Not a chance that we'd use Dell.

        We've spent the past 5 years using Toshiba Tecras and are starting to switch over to Thinkpad T43s instead. The Tecras have done a very good job of standing up to the use and abuse of our remote users.

        Biggest problems lie with the newer M1s. They seem to have CPU fans that like to fail often (one user who rarel
      • You will experience a huge variation in quality between the Dell "consumer-grade" gear (Dimension desktops and Inspiron laptops) and the business gear (Optiplex/Latitude). Dell themselves almost admit as much in their equipment selector -- they classify Optiplex and Latitude as being for the user who needs stable, standard hardware that may not be bleeding-edge, while the Dimension/Inspiron lines are for people who want the absolute latest and snazziest hardware (but the implicit admission is that it may b

    • Re:Dear Lord, No! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by SchrodingersRoot ( 943800 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @07:19PM (#14441317) Journal
      At a minimum, don't you think that AMD processors would improve the reliability of Dell computers, while enabling (note that I did not say causing) lower prices? Especially in the low-end computing arena (i.e. Celeron processors)?

      And since most of us who use/recommend AMD processors now would know that any continued problems with Dells are not, in fact, due to AMD processors...

      Assuming AMD continues in the path they've been making, I would see this as a good thing.
      • Reliability? Probably not, Intel has a pretty good reputation there.
        AMD might beat them on performance and power dissipation, so the computers could be faster and less noisy.

    • Re:Dear Lord, No! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by kalislashdot ( 229144 )
      We use Dell at work, excellent customer support, but we are business level where we get parts replaced in 4 hours. I have no idea on the Home side, but i hope it is good since my Father just bought a Dell.

      Also with people saying "I hope they die and go out of business" need to realize the more the better. Competion really helps inovation. Look at Microsoft, wiht barely little compention things go crappy. they STOPPED working on IE for gawd's sake. Now that Firefox is creating competion they fired up IE dev

  • In related news (Score:4, Funny)

    by A beautiful mind ( 821714 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:13PM (#14440567)
    Bush will decleare atheism.

    Paris Hilton will stop being famous.

    Microsoft will produce quality software

    Linus Torvalds will soon to begin working at SCO.

  • Just a trick (Score:5, Insightful)

    by snwobird122 ( 779810 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:13PM (#14440570)
    Once or twice per year, Dell themselves hint that they *might* start using AMD chips. I think they do this just to get good pricing from Intel.

    • Re:Just a trick (Score:5, Interesting)

      by the eric conspiracy ( 20178 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:23PM (#14440697)
      Yes, but this time it is different because Dell is getting creamed in server space by HP Opteron boxen. Nobody wants Xeon.

      If Dell does ship AMD stuff I'd bet it is servers, not laptops or desktops.

      • The sad thing is that most hardcore / power users are probably more interested in AMD over Intel chips, especially for dual core since they're better performing and consume less power. But Dell is stuck with Intel which means that their high end & gaming PCs look somewhat lame. I know myself that my next PC will be a kickass system and having bought a Dell the last time around I think the next I will just build it myself. Dell makes reasonable PCs but I am sick of their site basically forcing me to buy
        • Built-it-yourself is good, if you already have some of the excess parts. (This is where it pays to constantly DIY, because you can keep bringing certain parts forward into new units.)

          A MB/CPU/RAM bundle usually runs $400-$800, depending on how much RAM you want, how beefy of a CPU you want. Last bundle I bought was an Athlon64 3200+ (single-core) with 2GB RAM for around $450.

          DVD burner $40, good case $90, good PSU $90, floppy $9, decent gfx card $250, WinXP OEM $135. ($614 for the parts other then MB
      • Are you sure about that? Dell is trying to gain gamming support and many gammers want AMD. I wouldnt be surprised if Dell was putting AMD chips in their high end gaming machines as well.
      • As someone who has recently being one of the technicians to review a public bid for a medium cluster, I have to agree. For the same price we got more than twice the number of Opteron processors (40x Opteron 880, 2.4 GHz) offered than Intel Xeon (18x 2.8 GHz). Even if the tasks for this cluster were running better on Xeons for some reason, the sheer number of Opertons still would make the opteron cluster the faster offering.

        If Dell wants to compete in this market, they have to get a better pricing structure
      • Xeon sounds like a 1980's novelty toy that was called back because of toxic components and or hazardous parts that caused choking.

        It was painted in those carish metalic plastic coatings.

        Intels new servers are going to be called super mega mega zippy kapow. Someone at Intel had better be sleeping with the fishes if they thought 'Xeon' was going to sell.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:29PM (#14440784)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Yep. Now instead of hinting at it directly, they have analysts suggest it instead.

      I honestly think it will take a long time for Dell to *actually* start using AMD processors. As you already know, its happend many times already:

      http://www.amdboard.com/dell.html [amdboard.com]
      • " Yep. Now instead of hinting at it directly, they have analysts suggest it instead."

        No, Michael Dell announced it, Santiago upgraded their rating of AMD. They did not have analysts suggest anything -- keep in mind that Piper Jaffray is not a bit player on Wall Street, they have a lot of clout.

        Because of the Opteron, a lot of analysts see Dell as having to offer AMD chips, or lose server market share. Opterons are cheaper to operate than Intel's chips.

        Of course, MDell saying "it's a distinct possib

    • Re:Just a trick (Score:4, Insightful)

      by stienman ( 51024 ) <adavis@@@ubasics...com> on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:32PM (#14440830) Homepage Journal

      Yes, this is the usual course of action. However, Intel has recently obtained another largish customer, and Dell has measurably (not significantly, but measurably) less bargaining power in this situation.

      It is unlikely that Dell will use AMD processors anytime soon. The bulk orders they place with Intel lower costs enough that if they decide to offer both processors then they will likely end up paying the same or more - it won't decrease the overall cost of their computers, nor increase their revenue.

      As you pointed out, though, about once a year this noise is made, and both parties reevaluate their multi-year agreements and wonder if now is the time to move.

      -Adam
  • I'd rather AMD over Intel anyway but bought an Intel based Dell since I didnt have the option at the time.

  • yes! (Score:2)

    by altoz ( 653655 )
    this will lead to even more bargains at fatwallet.

    now if only they'd stop shipping it with so much crapware...
    • No joke. [H]ardOCP did a review [hardocp.com] recently of a Dell XPS "gaming" machine, and found that all the junkware that came pre-installed actually prevented the user from playing some of the most popular games on the market, including Sims 2. Considering that someone buying an XPS is probably not savvy enough to mess around with uninstalling all the crud that comes pre-installed, it's a gaming machine that doesn't game.

  • Next Year's Story (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "Dell likely will reverse course and begin selling computers with Advanced Micro Devices' processors"

    Seriously, how many times have we heard this before?
    • Dell likely will reverse course and begin selling computers with Advanced Micro Devices' processors.
    • Seriously, how many times have we heard this before?

      Its a good way for Dell to increase their bargaining power with Intel. AMD's manufacturing capacity cannot currently fill much of Dell's volume.
    • Seriously, how many times have we heard this before?

      It might actually be different this time. A few years ago AMD's advantage over Intel was just price, so Intel could always cut Dell a good deal on price and get exclusivity. If AMD manages to maintain a lead in performance (with less power consumption), Intel simply can't offer Dell anything that is going to please Dell customers looking for the best server performance. Add to that the antitrust lawsuit against Intel [slashdot.org] and maybe it is AMD's time to get a

  • instead? (Score:5, Informative)

    by mapmaker ( 140036 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:15PM (#14440600)
    In addition to Intel processors, not instead of them.

  • Wait til aprils fool (Score:5, Funny)

    by bubulubugoth ( 896803 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:16PM (#14440608) Homepage
    Intel based mac.
    AMD based dell.
    IBM based Xbox.

    Whats next? ASP.net based Slashdhot?

    Hell is truly freezing...

  • So if an Analyst says it... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LehiNephi ( 695428 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:18PM (#14440625) Journal
    So if an Analyst says it, it must be true? C'mon, anybody can state an opinion that Dell will go with AMD, or it won't, but where's the proof?

    Dell will begin selling computers with AMD processors in them when it makes good business sense to do so, i.e. will make them more money. I wonder sometimes if AMD's lead over Intel over the past couple years has had any effect on Dell, considering the brand awareness of Intel, very cheap low-end computers by Dell, and inherent conservative-ness of major corporations (read: customers).
    • No joke, did anyone even do a check on this analist? A 4 percent increase in AMD stock could be worth some money to someone with enough AMD stock. It's not likely a plot, but there isn't really any other reason this guy would have a professional opinion.

      • No joke, did anyone even do a check on this analist? A 4 percent increase in AMD stock could be worth some money to someone with enough AMD stock. It's not likely a plot, but there isn't really any other reason this guy would have a professional opinion.

        Er...well, the other reason he would have a professional opinion is that his profession is having an opinion on the future activities of the companies he analyzes.

        Seriously, your comment shows complete ignorance of what a stock analyst does. The people

        • Well as my op stated, I don't suspect a conspiracy. Simply the weight this man pushes with no data to back his claims is what is really influential. The bottom line is 1: what he said is very unoriginal, 2: it is not validated by his "research", and 3: there is significant reason it will not happen (intel).

          He probably still wont get caught for running his mouth however, simply because AMD is a booming business, and Dell needs AMD more than vice-versa.

          • And what I said (roughly: "you don't have any clue what you're talking about") is still far more accurate.

            Simply the weight this man pushes with no data to back his claims is what is really influential.

            The very suggestion that a stock analyst is just going out and making a guess about this with "no data" is laughable. Again, you haven't the slightest idea how these people work, and you're just piling up bullshit assumptions. This guy does have data, and if you went and read his whole analysis, I'm sure

    • Dell has been moving to get a piece of the gaming segment recently. Hardcore gaming machines is one area where AMD is huge. They generally outperform comparible (in performance, not price, Intel being more expensive) Intel chips in gaming benchmarks, and most serious gamers know it. So it would make a good deal of sense for Dell to start offering their chips. That's the only way they could compete in the gaming market with the specialty companies like Alienware.
    • I wonder sometimes if AMD's lead over Intel over the past couple years has had any effect on Dell, considering the brand awareness of Intel, very cheap low-end computers by Dell, and inherent conservative-ness of major corporations (read: customers).

      When I told a customer that he would probably have to replace his 3-year-old entry-level Dimension because it wasn't enough computer to serve graphic rich files to his entire (18 workstations) network, he stammered, "...but, but, but it's a Dell..." as if by
    • I wonder sometimes if AMD's lead over Intel over the past couple years has had any effect on Dell, considering the brand awareness of Intel, very cheap low-end computers by Dell, and inherent conservative-ness of major corporations (read: customers).

      I'm by no means a "big fish", but in the past 6 months, I've been part of 6 migrations on 6 new servers. ALL the new servers were opteron-based, 1U rack mounted systems ranging in price from $1,500 to $4,800. We looked closely at Dell's Xeon-based servers.

      The de

  • Not a chance. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mmell ( 832646 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:18PM (#14440632)
    Intel would smack them back to infancy and spank them!

    Besides, I'd be more impressed if I could buy bare metal from their retail locations rather than pay the M$ tax. Getting AMD chips instead of Intel would just be the icing on the cake IMHO.

    • I'd be more impressed if I could buy bare metal from their retail locations rather than pay the M$ tax.

      Retail is all about selling ready-to-run office machines and home appliances. Customers don't spell Microsoft as M$ and they don't think of the OEM install as a tax.

  • As if the world didn't know Dell was considering, you know, the 2nd biggest chip manufacturer out there that outperforms Intel in many (though not all) respects.

  • AMD lags in on-chip cache capacity (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mrm677 ( 456727 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:22PM (#14440690)
    Intel's SRAM technology is pretty much an entire generation ahead of AMD's. Thus Intel can fit nearly twice as much cache into a given die area. Given this, its quite impressive that AMD's performance numbers are competitive (or better).

    However you often don't see cache-sensitive benchmark numbers. SpecINT and SpecFP fit and the stuff you see on the ./-type review sites (Tom's Hardware, etc) probably fit too. But give it something like TPC-C, does AMD's numbers lag here?

    • Thus Intel can fit nearly twice as much cache into a given die area.

      They'd have to because cache is their remedy for FSB memory latency issues. AMD has the better answer with the integrated memory controller.

      • Re:AMD lags in on-chip cache capacity (Score:5, Interesting)

        by mrm677 ( 456727 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:34PM (#14440851)
        They'd have to because cache is their remedy for FSB memory latency issues. AMD has the better answer with the integrated memory controller.

        Your integrated memory controller reduces DRAM latency, but it is NOT the answer to smaller caches!

        And it isn't entirely clear that on-chip memory controllers are the way to go. For one thing, a northbridge allows the pin bandwidth to be used for both DRAM accesses and inter-chip sharing communication.

        But Intel probably hasn't switched to on-chip memory controllers because of the uncertainty in DRAM markets and standards. Intel's volume is huge compared to AMD and by integrated an on-chip controller for a particular interface, they are placing a lot of eggs in one basket.
        • And it isn't entirely clear that on-chip memory controllers are the way to go. For one thing, a northbridge allows the pin bandwidth to be used for both DRAM accesses and inter-chip sharing communication.

          Maybe for 2 way. But 4-way and up FSB bus contention is a clear loser.

          But Intel probably hasn't switched to on-chip memory controllers because of the uncertainty in DRAM markets and standards

          Maybe, but they are going that way in 2007.

    • Intel has larger caches because they were forced to throw an extra hundred million transistors into the cache to make up for their shitty pipeline architecture and poor memory interface.

      And one of the big costs of this is the heat and power issue. SRAM cells are densely packed and generate a lot of heat.

      What people need to realize is that overcompensating for poor design is not a good thing. A large cache isn't necessarily a good thing just like a fast frequency isn't, and just like having hyperthreading

  • Dell doesn't stock processors, not Dell model. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The article states that Dell is buying up AMD processors for a 2H06 launch. That is not how the Dell Model works and this analyst obviously doesn't know any better. He probably gets paid more than you or I too to come up with this and affects stock prices just the same. He cobbled together a bunch of disparate rumors and proclaims his this must be true.

    Truth is, if Dell went AMD, they wouldn't pay for the processors until they were manufactured.
  • Please wake me up when you can buy an AMD based Dell till then this story should be given a chance to die gracefully along with Phantom and other such stories to give new stories/rumours a chance for example:

    iPod to be scrapped by Apple for new brain based implant
    or:
    Microsoft officially gives up and open sources Windows
    or:
    *insert random open source program* says it will be able to pwn with *insert random uber cool feature that no one does yet but has yet to be implemented by said open source program*

  • Cry Wolf (Score:2, Interesting)

    by no_pets ( 881013 )
    News articles about Dell using AMD processors is the tech equivalent of crying wolf. If Dell ever actually uses AMD processors nobody will believe it.

    • News articles about Dell using AMD processors is the tech equivalent of crying wolf.

      Slashdot needs something now that the semi-yearly rumors of Macintosh switching to Intel are over.

  • Intel lost the technology lead two years ago and hasn't got it back yet - and won't for at least another year. It's behind the game on dual/multi core and all the tech fixes in the world won't reverse that unless they can get Intel can get the 64 and 45nm fabs up and running fast. That said Intel can do volume in a way AMD never can in the short term. On the other hand Intel's put too much of its manufacturing expertise in Israel and if the Iran war kicks off those plants are vulnerable. Interesting time
  • Intel is back on track, albeit not entirely caught up yet, and it seems like analysts are just now catching hint of the lead AMD has held for almost 2 years now. The analysts are just behind the times. Apple's addition of Core Duo to desktops is just the first step, but it is the beginning of the end for the decisive performance lead AMD held for so long that probably once had Dell considering the switch.

    As has been said, Dell uses AMD to get better prices from Intel, and always remains with Intel. It so
  • Dell will use AMD processors.
    Pigs will fly.
    Hell freezes over.

    Pick any two.

  • Wow.. they must be fortune [forbes.com] tellers.. or something. [dell.com]

  • Piper Jaffray? (Score:3, Informative)

    by eander315 ( 448340 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @08:58PM (#14442086)
    Ashok Kumar must have quit for a Piper Jaffray analyst to get away with saying that in public. Mr Kumar was an ex-Intel employee who famously made his entire analyst career bashing AMD and waving the Intel flag.

    (Sure enough, I Googled him and found that he moved to Raymond James a couple of years ago)

  • Why haven't they been selling AMD? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mr. Droopy Drawers ( 215436 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @09:35PM (#14442345)
    Besides the conspiracy theories (Intel won't offer as good a deal on their parts), what is the reason why Dell hasn't offered AMD up to this point?

    I'm told there's some personal animosity between the two companies?

    Anyone have some insight based on fact?
  • Who needs analysts. I want to see the results then I will believe it.

  • Rephrased headline (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mike Markley ( 9536 ) <madhack&madhack,com> on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @10:04PM (#14442548)
    "Analysts make shit up, news outlets inexplicably pay attention."

    Film at 11.
  • even if Dell sucks, it means they finally smartened up and realized that theres a whole plethora of gamers out there who use AMD chips exclusively. until now, it seems like Dell has focused on selling to schools and businesses, which are HUGE market areas, but gaming is easilly bigger, since there are so many gamers and the top of the line parts demanded are insanely more expensive, they make more per computer. Dells current line of what they claim to be gaming machines were crap and they realized people wo
    • "Gaming is easily bigger?" Now that is a laugh. Gaming is no where near the corporate market, nor even anywhere near the mom and pop box.

      I used to order boxes starting on the low side at 50 machines per shipment. And as high as 500 on some machines. The real money is the margin of selling large numbers of boxes to the corporate world.

      Did I mention corporate users outnumber gamers by a magnitude? Also the eleventy billion home users who use their computers for other tasks, like email, browsing, ye old q

  • Maybe, maybe not (Score:3, Informative)

    by NXprime ( 573188 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @11:22PM (#14442968)
    Right now there are SHORTAGES of AMD processors. How can AMD make so much more to satisfy the sales demands of Dell PCs? They can't and that's the hold up here. come back in a year or two when Fab 36 is up and running at full steam. However Dell is selling AMD processors separately for a while now which is awfully interesting in itself that doesn't get much attention.
  • Doesn't it belong to Dell? They already sell AMD based computers.

  • Doesn't need to be under the "Dell" brand. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WoTG ( 610710 ) on Wednesday January 11, 2006 @02:40AM (#14443803) Homepage Journal
    I read an idea on some forum (maybe here) that suggested that Dell could get the AMD chips that it needs a lot more easily for all parties by buying someone that specializes in Opteron based servers -- the company suggested by the poster was Rackable.

    I doubt that Dell will "tarnish" their relationship with Intel by directly selling AMD machines; however, a back-door approach does seem possible to me. Heck, they already sell the CPUs out of their parts store.

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