Summary: The company claims improved performance thanks to Intel’s new Xeon Haswell-EP processors and support for up to 1TB of DDR4 memory.
With Intel preparing to ship its latest Xeon processors, Dell has taken the wraps off a new set of Precision workstations that will take advantage of the forthcoming chips.
The revamp will add a new rack workstation and a trio of new towers to the Precision family. All will make use of the Haswell-EP Xeon E5 v3 processors, notable in part for requiring DDR4 memory, which promises improved performance and power efficiency over DDR3 RAM. The Precisions will be able to accommodate up to 1TB of DDR4 RAM.
The new Precision towers will be known as the T5810, T7810 and T7910, with the new rack workstation dubbed the R7910 and providing the same capabilities as the T7910. In addition to the latest processor options, they will also offer the most up-to-date professional graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia and feature Thunderbolt 2.0 support for speedy data transfers. Dell has also updated the design of the Precision towers, giving tool-free external access to power supplies, offering quick-release hard drives, and making the front bezel lockable.
While making sure the hardware is up to snuff for the demands of engineers and media companies, Dell has also been working on version 2.0 of its Dell Precision Optimizer software. The tool is due early next month and will be pre-installed on the new Precision workstations starting in October. It will offer on-the-fly automatic performance tuning depending on the application running; a baker’s dozen of performance profiles will be baked into the utility with the addition of ones for Autodesk 3ds Max and Inventor.
The new Precisions will also support Intel Cache Acceleration Software for Workstations, which Dell claims “provides solid state device (SSD) like performance at a fraction of the cost.” They’ll also ship with Dell’s Reliable Memory Technology to prevent “catastrophic memory failures.” Support for remote computing using the workstations comes in the form of Teradici PCoIP Workstation Access Software, while the R7910 is qualified to handle Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX workstation virtualization.
Dell says the new Precision workstations will be available starting on September 9, though no pricing information is available yet.
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