Dell Debuts First Dual-Core PowerEdge Server

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Server maker Dell last week put its first PowerEdge server into the field using a dual-core processor. Because Dell is exclusively shipping processors from Intel and has shunned chips from rival Advanced Micro Devices, Dell has to start at the low-end of the market and make do with the dual-core "Smithfield" Pentium D chip, which is the only dual-core X64 processor that Intel makes today.

The fact that Intel doesn't have a dual-core Xeon processor yet does not really have much of an effect on the entry server market, which caters to small businesses and the departments in larger businesses who generally have not acquired Xeon-class tower servers, but rather more modest boxes based on Celeron and Pentium processors. Entry servers using these desktop PC processors make up a substantial portion of Dell's server shipments in a quarter, and the machines are perfectly suitable for their intended uses. Which is why Dell has not opted to use the dual-core Opteron processors in its PowerEdge machines--at least not yet. That said, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and others have launched machines based on the dual-core Opterons, and they most certainly will try to position these boxes as a better alternative than using Pentium D processors in entry machines.

According to Tim Golden, director of marketing for the PowerEdge server line at Dell, the new PowerEdge 430 has been redesigned not just to support the Pentium D processor, but also to have a smaller form factor chassis that allows for more I/O slots. The good news for Dell is that the new machine, which is based on the Intel 7250 chipset, does not require the use of the Pentium D, but rather offers the Pentium D as an option; single-core Celeron and Pentium 4 processors are the defaults on the machine, and the Pentium D is really for customers who want to goose the performance of the SC430. Because the Pentium 4 chip supports HyperThreading and 64-bit memory addressing, customers who want to get more balanced performance do not have to even go to the dual-core Pentium D. That said, for many operating systems and the workloads they run, having four threads is better than having two, so the Pentium D will be adopted by customers who understand the benefits that threaded software offers. But, says Golden, the adoption rate of dual-core processors will be limited at first by how quickly Intel, AMD, and their partners educate consumers inside and outside of data center about the benefits of multiple core chips.

Golden says that Dell has surveyed its customer base to get a sense of the challenge it faces. "We have some work ahead of us explaining what dual core is and what it all means," he says. "We have done a good job over the years educating customers about clock speed, cache memory, and front side buses and how they contribute to performance, and now we have to explain to them about cores." Considering that chip makers can't crank up clock speeds because of heating issues and that multiplying cores is the only way to boost performance, Dell and other server makers are extremely motivated to do that education. Having many cores can balance out performance and make virtualized environments based on software from VMware or Microsoft Corp more flexible, and that is certainly a benefit. But the performance benefits of moving from a Pentium 4 to a Pentium D are not huge, so it will not be for everyone. Dell estimates that a Pentium D running at 3.2 GHz will offer anywhere from 10% to 42% more performance on the workloads typical at SMB shops. This is an important boost in performance, and one that is consistent with Moore's Law, but it is not double that of a single core Pentium chip. This is why Dell is not overplaying the Pentium D. "This chip doesn't necessarily replace the single-core chips," says Golden. "You'll see them existing side by side in the entry market, and later this year when dual-core Xeons come out, these chips will co-exist with the "Cranford" and "Potomac" single-core Xeons, too." Based on its surveys and the gut instincts of its managers, Dell doesn't even think that customers who would otherwise buy a four-socket, single-core server will downshift to two-socket, dual-core boxes. I would want to see what Las Vegas says about those odds before I made my final marketing plan. It will come down to chip and server pricing and features.

The PowerEdge SC430 supports up to 4 GB of main memory (up 50% from the SC420 it replaces). It has three PCI Express slots and two legacy PCI slots. The machine supports up to 500 GB of SATA drives or 600 GB of Ultra320 SCSI drives. While Linux, NetWare, and other operating systems are supported on the machine, Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 is the dominant operating system that will ship on the machine, and Dell expects Microsoft's Small Business Server edition of Windows to be particularly popular. With a 3 GHz Pentium D, 256 MB of main memory, one 40 GB SATA drive, no operating system, and basic service, the PowerEdge SC430 costs $798. In a reasonably heavy configuration--take the 3.2 GHz Pentium D, put in 2 GB of memory, and add two 160 GB SATA disks--the SC430 costs $2,806. This is a lot to pay compared to a PowerEdge SC420. With a 3.6 GHz Pentium 4, 2 GB of memory, and two 160 GB SATA drives, this box only costs $1,905. Clearly, the workload has to be right to justify the extra $901.