Dell ships midrange server

Dell Computer Corp. last week announced availability of its PowerEdge 4100 a midrange server powered by Intel Corp. Pentium Pro processors.

The PowerEdge 4100 ships in single- and dual-processor Pentium Pro configurations at speeds of 180 MHz or 200 MHz. An entry-level configuration with a single 180 MHz processor 256K cache 64M of RAM 4G hard drive 8X CD-ROM drive and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT Server 4.0 among other features will be priced at $6 199 on the General Services Administration's schedule.

Roger Harden director of marketing at Dell Federal Sales said he expects the PowerEdge 4100 to land on the GSA schedule in about two weeks. "The schedule is really starting to take off " he said. He added however that Dell would also explore adding the servers to indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contracts such as the Army's Small Multiuser Computer II.

The PowerEdge 4100 offers standard features such as Error-Correcting Code memory and hot-plug disk drives. Optional features include a Peripheral Component Interconnect-based caching Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) controller which supports 16 hard drives and offers on-the-fly capacity expansion. Other options include hot-pluggable redundant power supplies. The server can also be shipped with Novell Inc. NetWare.

Lary Evans vice president and general manager of Dell's server group said these features make the PowerEdge 4100 an "enterprise-capable machine." Dell officials said the product will find a role in Internet/intranet server database and messaging applications.

The PowerEdge 4100 is the second server to be announced in the PowerEdge line. In September Dell introduced the PowerEdge 2100 which runs a single Pentium Pro 180 MHz or 200 MHz processor. Early next year Dell is slated to ship the PowerEdge 6100 a four-way Pentium Pro server.

GSA pricing for the PowerEdge 4100 starts at $6 199 and ranges to $17 658 for a machine with dual 200 MHz Pentium Pro processors redundant power supplies 512K cache 256M of RAM 6x2G hard drives and NT Server 3.51 or 4.0 among other features.

Brad Day a vice president with market researcher Giga called the PowerEdge 4100 a "very competitive" server. He said a key point of differentiation for Dell was its customer service. As a direct marketer Dell can maintain "more direct contact with the installed base.