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Dell Finally Goes for AMD

this great guy writes "You read it correctly. It had to happen one day. According to Forbes 'Dell Inc has informed its Taiwan contract makers of plans to develop devices based on Advanced Micro Devices Inc's microprocessors, and these suppliers are awaiting orders for global shipment, the Economic Daily News reported, citing industry sources.'"

18 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Next story: Remarked Semprons Sold As Athlons by missing_myself · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dell-inux ready for mass market

  2. Real Men Use AMD by gsonic · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not the GHZ speed, it's how you use it.

    1. Re:Real Men Use AMD by paranode · · Score: 5, Funny

      Exactly. It's not the speed of the clock, it's the suction of the instruction.

  3. Dell rumor... by LaTechTech · · Score: 5, Informative
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    I want my! I want my! I want my Eee PC!
  4. weather today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Snow in Hell.

  5. With a pinch of salt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as only Forbes are saying it, I would take it with a large pinch of salt. I've seen enough of their reports written by/for SCO to know they can't be relied on to check their facts.

  6. No such luck by magicchex · · Score: 5, Informative
    Dell Dismisses Rumors.

    Dell has clarified that any rumors of it planning to manufacture a Dell PC based on AMD processors are false. Market has reported that the company had notified Taiwanese PC contract manufacturers to ready production lines to produce Dell PC systems using microprocessors made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. the statement from the company now nullifies these rumors.

    Taiwanese companies like Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. and Quanta Computer Inc. were mentioned in the rumor reports. Some of these Taiwanese companies are the biggest outsourced suppliers for Dell and they are usually the first one to see some of the newer products from the tech giant.

    Dell has a special business relationship with Intel, which the market analysts claim gets them huge discounts. This is also said to be the reason why Dell does not build PC products using AMD processors despite high demands for them. However, the rumors of an AMD powered Dell became stronger after Dell started selling AMD processors on their web stores sometime back.

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    How many fulltime jobs can one man have?
  7. In other news by kaiwai · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hell has just frozen over; on the spot is FOX News correspondance, and close friend of Satan, Karl Rove...

    "So Satan, it appears that hell has frozen over.."

    "NO, thats just a vicious rumour spread by enemies of the US, sorry, Hell.....things are just getting ready for Christmas.....this snow is just.....decorations.....*excellent*"

    "Really?!"

    "Yes really, so piss off...I"m trying to order my Dell AMD machine...."

  8. Must be renegotiation time w/Intel again by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems whenever Dell needs more price concessions from Intel, they just have to dangle the possibility out there that they could start offering AMD-powered systems. I suspect after a few quick phone calls, Dell will get cheaper processors and this "rumour" will be relegated to the dustbin (again). Sigh...

  9. Re:intel... by masklinn · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Anyone know why Intel, with all their resources, didn't have a decent x64, multi-core product before AMD? Never mind one that uses fewer watts.

    Because Intel invested all it's brainpower into the overpriced Itanic whose incompatibility with x86-32 made every single potential buyer back from, as few people are interrested in a platform with no OS and barely a handful of apps not including your own legacy apps.

    --
    "The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
  10. It didn't really have to happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dell are about low inventory and overheads. While some people didn't buy Dells because they wanted AMD chips, I doubt the number of people buying AMDs from Dell will offset the immense cost of running a much larger warehousing and manufacturing operation due to incompatibilities between part lines.
     
    I'd assume that because of this fact, AMD will most likely only appear in servers where Intel can't deliver, because if they go down to the desktop level, and there's no product differentiation, Dell will most likely find themselves in the same position as HP, who I don't buy from simply because I don't have the time to fathom the differences between 47 desktop models, 37 laptops, 53 laser printers and 73 inkjets with varying specs.
     
    Dell won out for me because they kept it simple and focused, I hope they still do that, rather than end up fighting AMD vs. Intel between their own products as others do.

    1. Re:It didn't really have to happen by brxndxn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't have the time to fathom the differences between 47 desktop models, 37 laptops, 53 laser printers and 73 inkjets with varying specs.

      OMG.. How the hell do you buy groceries then? There's like 40 different types of toothpaste. God.. that must scare the crap out of you.

      You're the first person I've ever heard of condemning variety..

      --
      --- We need more Ron Paul!
  11. Must be negotiating with Intel again... by PhiltheeG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are they shopping for a another price break from Intel for staying with a single vendor?

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    -Phil
    Shoot questions, first ask later...
  12. Re:Loyalty by masklinn · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What matters is the price point here. We don't buy AMD because they're "better" than Intel - a clock is a clock. They're no more or less stable, no better supported. We buy them because they're cheaper.

    Duh, no, people DO buy AMD because it's "better". Only Intel's marketting droids and retarded monkeys used to think that "a clock is a clock". AMD chips have been outperforming Intel's for years now, clock for clock (shall I remind you that top of the line P4 reach 4GHz and still get their balls busted by Athlon64 who have yet to reach 3GHz out of the box?)

    People buy AMD because they feature

    • Better overall performances per $
    • Much better performance per watt
    • A "true" dual core in the case of AthlonX2 and dual core Opterons
    • Used to be the only chips handling both 32 and 64-bit (and managed that as while still beating the crap of the purely 32-bit P4 in 32-bit apps)

    Last thing about the performance/clock thing: Pentium-M beat the living shit out of P4 clock for clock 95% of the time.

    Shame Intel didn't work on scaling them to high frequencies, 2.5GHz-ish desktop Pentium-M would at least put some kind of fight against Athlon64 chips.

    --
    "The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
  13. Re:Nothing but good... by theStorminMormon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ditto that.

    If the lawsuit has managed to crack open Dell to using AMD processors because Intel has to mind its manners with a lawsuit on the horizon then even if the lawsuit doesn't procede it's done what it needed to do: level the playing field.

    It's true that AMD marketting hasn't been the best, but it's also true that Intel marketting has convinced the majority of casual users that more GHZ = more performance always. And all questions of marketing aside, I think AMD has a real case.

    -stormin

    --
    The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
  14. Re:How long by zenneth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    AMD isn't exactly a garage-based company. They've had several "big breaks" already, and I can remember seeing 486 AMDs running toe-to-toe with 486 Intels. This is just another push, but we'll see if it continues, and whether it even turns out to be true. Personally, I have been building AMD machines almost exclusively for the last 10 years. I moved from AMD to Intel when the Celeron 300a made its debut, but then the Athlon pulled me back less than a year later. I'm not sure where this will take AMD, but Dell using their processors to make some high-end gaming rigs would be nice... except for the fact that they're pretty limited regarding BIOS and other system tweaks. That is the one area Dell could really make some adjustments... and the one reason I don't recommend anyone buy from a major distributor of manufactured PCs.

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    The Chronic *WHAT* les of Narnia!
  15. I wonder if the sales losses are mounting? by d60b9y · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's assume for an instant that the story is correct.

    It could be that Dell have started noticing that they're losing out on contracts because of the heat that their Intel based servers are kicking out. I know of several contracts (even in my limited circle of knowledge) where the Dell submision appeared to give the most bang-per-buck, but didn't get the contract when the cost of the extra air-con was included in the total cost of ownership.

    Air-con is a non-negligible expense in any half-way serious machine room.

  16. This, is complete horse-shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    AMD has beaten Intel where marketing makes a difference, at Retail. It was only recently reported here on Slashdot that AMD had surpassed Intel in retail sales. And everyone poo-pooed it because it doesn't include the OEM manufacturers like Dell. So clearly AMD's marketing is working if they're outpacing Intel in the retail channel.

    Getting Dell to ship AMD Boxes has nothing to do with marketing and EVERYTHING to do with Intel's anti-trust behaviour, and back-room dealings. Marketing by AMD has no impact on whether Dell will ship AMD Boxes (most of the other boxed OEM's already ship AMD based systems).