Is long-time Intel champion Dell testing the waters for home PCs using AMD processors?
The computer maker is offering six Athlon 64 chips on its Web site. The chips are individually packaged for retail sale. Speeds range from 2.0 GHz and 2.8 GHz and prices from $219.27 for the Athlon 3500+ to $1,102.91 for an Athlon 57-FX. Dell is not selling any of AMD’s other chips, such as the Opteron processor for servers or the Turion for laptops. So why suddenly can you find AMD Athlon processors on the Dell Web site? For the same reason the chips are sold individually in other retail outlets, responds Dell: customer demand. Still, AMD chips are not yet available inside Dell PCs. “Dell is constantly evaluating new technologies and at the present time, we don’t have AMD processor-based systems in our portfolio,” said Dell spokesman Bruce Anderson. Dell is the only major North American PC maker to exclusively use Intel processors. Consumer product lines from other companies, including HP, Gateway, Lenovo and IBM, offer both Intel and AMD chips. CNET Forum readers spotted the processo
