Dell saves power from the desktop to the server

New laptops, desktops and servers are designed to use less energy

Dellthis week announced new energy-saving products, and released details of its first desktop systems to ship with AMD chips.

At the Dell Technology Day press event in New York, chief executive Kevin Rollins outlined the firm’s energy-efficiency strategy, including forthcoming OptiPlex desktops designed to save power; and Inspiron and Latitude notebooks and Precision mobile workstations that comply with the Energy Star scheme to conserve energy. Dell also claimed that recently launched PowerEdge servers could reduce power consumption by up to 25 percent compared with previous models.

“As the marketplace changes the needs and desires of customers also change, so we’re investing in new capabilities and products so we can continue to deliver value to our customers,” said Rollins. “We challenge our partners and suppliers to align under this [strategy] to produce more energy-efficient products.”

The refreshed OptiPlex line so far features just one model, the 745, which was launched at the event and includes new security tools as well as energy saving capabilities, and is designed to “reduce complexity in the enterprise”.

The 745 has higher-performance Intel Core 2 Duo processors, HyperCool heat management technology to ensure quieter, cooler operation, and a pre-loaded version of security specialist Wave Systems’ Embassy Trust Suite to enable multifactor user authentication and encryption.

Dell’s Energy Smart feature means the product comes with factory-set power-saving settings enabled. Dell said the system may use up to 70 percent less power than previous generations of hardware.

Rollins also announced a new energy guide on Dell’s web site to help customers to calculate their power needs and see how much money they could save by using various Dell products.

Richard Nicholas, CEO of web hosting firm eSolutions, welcomed Dell’s moves. “Energy efficiency is an enormous issue,” he said. “Energy costs are sky-rocketing [so] anything they can do to have equipment which uses as little power as possible is a good thing.”

Although Dell is joining rivals such as HP and Sun in investing in energy-saving products, its latest moves may also be an attempt to regain some of the initiative after a series of recent problems that have damaged its reputation.

On Monday the firm was forced to delay its second quarter financial results and suspend its share buy-back programme after questions were raised over previous financial reports by an ongoing US Security and Exchange Commission investigation. The vendor has also launched its own investigation, which is being handled by the audit committee of its board of directors; and a probe by the US attorney for the southern district of New York continues.

Last month Dell recalled over four million of its laptops after a defect was found in batteries. And it faces increasing pressure from its competitors such as Lenovo, whose chairman Yang Yuanqing has announced it will cut prices in the huge Chinese market.

Dell’s latest moves in energy-saving products are part of a larger initiative – termed Dell 2.0 – to develop its products and services to better meet customers’ needs, from design right through to customer services and support.

Founder Michael Dell said this “new era of the company’s history and product leadership” would see the firm expand further. He also announced that later this year the firm would introduce a broad range of printers “to simplify the printing environment for the IT administrator”, and revealed the first Dell products to feature AMD chips are two Dimension desktops, E521 and C521, already available on order.

Both models offer AMD Sempron, Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 processor options. “More and more customers have been asking for AMD products,” Dell said. “It has been able to deliver [what] customers want today… and meet their requirements for capacity and quality.”