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Dell Servers Push to 667 MHz

PowerEdge 2400s feature 133-MHz bus and prices starting at $2400.

By Stan Miastkowski, PCWorld   

The Dell PowerEdge 2400 line is based on Intel's latest Pentium III processors, with speeds up to 700 MHz. In addition, features include a 133-MHz system bus; optional redundant, hot-swap power supplies; and an optional hardware-based SCSI RAID controller that can tie multiple hard drives together for increased performance and data reliability.

All configurations of the PowerEdge 2400 come with a standard contingent of parallel, serial, and USB ports, as well as a keyboard, a mouse, a 40X (maximum) SCSI CD-ROM drive, and an ATI Rage IIC video card with 4MB of memory. No monitor is included.

A typical entry-level configuration of the PowerEdge 2400 sells for $2400, and includes a Pentium III-450, 64MB of RAM, a 9GB UltraSCSI/2 hard drive, and a 100-Mbit-per-second network card. This configuration has a bus speed of 100 MHz.

A midlevel PowerEdge 2400 sells for $4770, and includes a Pentium III-600, 256MB of RAM, a 133-MHz bus, a RAID controller with 64MB of RAM, three 9GB UltraSCSI/2 hard drives, redundant power supplies, and dual network cards.

And for users who want to push the limits, a high-end configuration of the PowerEdge 2400 sells for $12,850 and includes a Pentium III-667, 1GB of RAM, a 133-MHz bus, a RAID controller, and four 18GB UltraSCSI/2 hard drives.

The PowerEdge 2400 will be available with the Pentium III-700 when that CPU becomes available from Intel. Pricing for that configuration hasn't been set yet.

All servers come with Dell OpenManage Resolution Assistant, which allows Internet-based product support. Also included are HP OpenView Network Node Manager and Dell OpenManage IT Assistant, for browser-based management of servers and clients through a network. Additional embedded software monitors the server's voltage, fans, and temperature.

Options for the PowerEdge 2400 include hot-swappable hard drives, Digital Audio Tape DDS-4 and Digital Linear Tape backup, Gigabit Ethernet cards, and rack-mount enclosures.

As usual with servers, pricing does not include a network operating system. A typical price for a 25-user license of Novell Small Business Suite 5 is $1450, and a 25-user version of Windows NT Server 4.0 sells for about $3600. Or there's Linux, with commercial distributions designed for servers ranging from $75-$100.