POLL: do you actually believe it this time?

[Tannin]

News posted by Bozo:

Dell to sell AMD. But they are still Dells

http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2005/11/20/afx2347168.html

Is this the real deal? Or is it false alarm number 147377?

 

[Mercutio]

I really can't even begin to care. Dell makes substandard products. Maybe they will soon be making substandard AMD products. Maybe not.

On the other hand, I maybe moving into a 100% Dell shop, in which case I can only hope they go AMD.

 

[Buck]

It doesn't really matter. The entire system is still Dell engineered. It's like the older Compaq systems with AMD cpus -- they're still Compaq systems. :hurl:

 

[i]

Just wait until they bring back Cyrix...

 

[Tannin]

Actually, there was a Compaq Presario vomit box that used an AMD K6-2/550 in a very fat and ugly mini-tower that was ... well ... "quite good" would be going too far, but "acceptable if you are stuck" would be a fair description, as would "bloody brilliant considering it's a Compaq". We see quite a lot of them.

Give them a half-decent hard drive and a bit of RAM, oh, and a clean install of Win98 with none of that pre-installed Compaq crap, and they run reliably and not too sluggishly, all things considered. The PSU is non-standard, but apart from that they were almost OK.

One assumes that somebody in the design department got the axe for that one.

 

[LiamC]

No.

But maybe. AMD have trumped Intel two months running in retail in the U.S.--the first month by little, the second by a lot. And retail maybe the only growth sector left--driven by gamers and upgrades. Dell's earnings have been flat for some time, so they may see this as an unconquered market that they need.

The word from Joe Av is Games==AMD.

In the server world, Opteron continues to make significant inroads. If _Groo is right:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27824

then AMD are really going to smack IBM/HP in their high margin/only point of differentiation from Dell markets. Dell will want a piece of this action

If retail sales for October show AMD trouncing Intel again, expect a Dell announcement soon--the arguments for will start to look compelling

 

[Buck]

Give them a half-decent hard drive and a bit of RAM, oh, and a clean install of Win98 with none of that pre-installed Compaq crap, and they run reliably and not too sluggishly, all things considered. The PSU is non-standard, but apart from that they were almost OK.

I've seen a few Compaq Slot A systems, with these never used 2x DVD ROM drives. Essentially, if you replace all the peripherals, you're fine. But if that is what it takes to make it an acceptable system (plus a reinstall of the os), it's gonna get pushed out to pasture.

 

[CityK]

One assumes that somebody in the design department got the axe for that one.

Come on Tannin, we're talking Compaq here -- they received a promotion while the competent designers were fired.

 

[Gilbo]

I think it's driven by the fact that the Xeon is getting its ass handed to it in the server space. Performance, cost, heat, whatever yanks your crank the Opteron is the better choice. Once Dell starts shipping Opterons, their Intel-only, preferred pricing is out the Window, so why not just go balls out?

I also think that John Stokes at ArsTechnica is on to something when he says that this move might be driven by Apple's imminent switch. It's interesting speculation that rings insightful to me. You can't fight Apple on "it just works" or in the OS space, so you damn well better be able to offer better-performing PCs at better prices. Push AMD-based gaming boxes for the kids when the parents are thinking OS X home PCs.

 

[Bozo]

This doesn't help Intel's cause either:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39237341,00.htm


Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[LunarMist]

Yawn.

 

[CityK]

Maybe Dell didn't initiate anything. Maybe Intel, confident with new orders from Apple, said "hey Michael, about your next contract, its going to cost a little more." And maybe all along AMD was saying "hey Michael, cut us some action and we'll cut you some slack". Anyways, the only loser I see in the whole picture is Apple.

 

[LiamC]

This doesn't help Intel's cause either:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39237341,00.htm

Everybody keeps saying that Merom/Conroe/Woodcrest is Intel's saviour--and given some of the sources that I have read, this could very well be a very good chip. But it uses a shared cache/multiple thread design a lá P4, so it may suffer from the same server workload issue. Time will tell I guess.

 

[Tea]

Hmmmm

.... so Apple have gone Intel

.... and Dell have gone AMD

.... and Cyrix don't exist anymore

.... guess we better stat buying Motorola chips, Tannin

 

[Tannin]

Stupid ape

 

[Santilli]

The Dell XPS 400 came with a pos, but silent, 200 Watt power supply.

That quickly quelled all my upgrade plans for it.

I've had a compaq donated to me, and, it came with a stoneage hard drive, and never ran reliably.

Time to hit the sack.

gs