Dell PowerEdge T620

Dell PowerEdge T620. Dell continues to push the envelope in feature set and capabilities in its PowerEdge server line—enterprise-level servers targeted to the SMB. The T620 is custom-made for fault-tolerance, redundancy and virtualization. Powerful performance. High scalability. Many expansion options. Virtualization capable. Many management options. Remote management. Runs quiet. Couple of glitches in some management utilities. Lengthy boot up.

With all the clamor over cloud computing, it would seem datacenters everywhere are freeing businesses from the yoke of on-premise servers and embracing the ethereal world of the “you-name-it-you-got-it-as-a-service” cloud. The reality is that many datacenters, particularly in the SMB, are more likely to deploy virtualization solutions in physical servers they host, because they remain leery of the cloud. Robust servers, like Dell's latest PowerEdge T620 remind us what SMBs love about servers: fault-tolerance, scalability and efficient virtualization.

Virtualization and fault tolerance are the hallmarks of the T620. While it may be too much server for smaller businesses without high data demands, for SMBs that are looking to consolidate physical servers into virtual machines, that have high workloads, or that need remote server administration, the T620 is well worth considering.

Specs
The T620 is built on Intel's SandyBridge EP/EX processor technology. The unit I tested had dual Intel Xeon E5-2650 @2.00 GHz processors and 64 GB RAM. The server houses 32 drive bays and supports SAS, SSD and SATA drives in a variety of configurations. For example, the drives can consist of eight 3.5” hot swap drives plus four PCIe SSD drives or you could go with 32 3.5” hot-swap drives. The maximum storage capacity is 32TB and maximum memory is up to 768GB with 24 DIMM slots.

The T620 has tons of expansion options. The rear panel alone has 7 PCIe slots, as well as 6 USB ports, VGA, and a console port. The front has two additional USB ports and what looks like an SD card reader, but it's for a special type of SD card: vFlash cards. Used in conjunction with iDRAC, Dell's Integrated Remote Access Control/Life Cycle Controller features, the vFlash card allows server admins to emulate USB flash storage and perform tasks such as backing up and restoring the platform in case the motherboard needs replacing or perhaps for downloading and booting a custom image from BIOS.

The server also has redundant hot-plug fans, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as redundant power supplies. This redundant hardware, in addition to dual hypervisors comes as a standard offering in the T620.

An LCD on the front plate gives at-a-glance system messages and also allows for configuring some features at the touch-of-a-button like networking settings, asset tag number, and more.

It's apparent that Dell set out to create a server that is quite scalable and pretty-well future-proofed. It's worth noting that Dell included redundant hypervisors that can support Microsoft's Hyper-V which is slated to undergo many new capabilities evidenced by Windows Server 8's recent beta debut. The T620 also features optional embedded hypervisors for Citrix XenServer and VMWare vsphere. Clearly, software and hardware vendors are banking on the wide-spread adoption of virtualization in SMB datacenters.

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Dell Precision T1600

Dell Precision T1600. If you need a single-processor workstation, particularly for mid to high level graphics tasks, the Dell Precision T1600 has one of the best balances between price, performance, and expandability. Speedy workstation-class components. ISV certifications. Tool-less expansion. Supports dual graphics cards. 3-year warranty. RAID array. Limited hard drive expansion space. No USB 3.0, No FireWire, nor eSATA.

Workstations are the desktop machines you buy if your results count. While a high end business PC will make quick work of a spreadsheet, graphics, engineering, and scientific apps require a little more oomph. Aside from power, ISV certifications, error-free memory, and expandability are major factors in the workstation purchase process. The Dell Precision T1600 passes all tests with flying colors, and is therefore our new Editor's Choice for single-processor workstations, replacing the HP Z210 Small Form Factor Workstation.

Design and Features
The Precision T1600 is a basic looking tower, though its silver and black two-tone façade will help distinguish it from the Dell Optiplex business systems in your organization. There's no mistaking this system for a run of the mill PC. The raised rectangular front panel channels air into the chassis to cool the system's workstation class Intel Xeon processor and Nvidia Quadro 2000 graphics card. The system has a decent amount of interior expansion room, including space for another optical drive, two more memory DIMMs, a PCI card, a PCIe x1 card, and an additional PCIe x16 graphics card so you can use more than two monitors. The system's Quadro card only supports two displays simultaneously. There is mount for an additional hard drive, but there's only one free SATA port, so you can either add an optical drive or a hard drive, but not both simultaneously. The system's two main hard drives are on tool-less sleds, so they can be swapped quickly in case of a drive failure. The system's PCI/PCIe cards are also tool-less, so you don't need a screwdriver for most upgrades. Outside, the system has ten USB 2.0 ports for external peripherals like hard drives, tablets, or the mouse and keyboard. The system lacks next gen ports like eSATA or USB 3.0, so you're stuck with slower USB 2.0 external hard drives. Essentially this means that this system is suited more for non-video workstation tasks. You wouldn't want to transfer multi-GB video files using the system's slower USB 2.0 ports.

The Precision T1600's Xeon processor, Nvidia Quadro graphics, and Intel-based motherboard combine (like Voltron) to give you the power to run high-end workstation apps. While the Precision T1600's ISV certified list isn't quite as long as the one on the Lenovo ThinkStation D20, the Precision T1600's certifications still cover monster apps like AutoCAD, Maya, and SolidWorks. Speaking of apps, the system is devoid of bloatware. The two 500GB hard drives combined into a 1TB RAID 0 array are pretty empty when you turn on the system for the first time. Preloaded software was limited to useful apps like PowerDVD and Roxio Creator. Basically, you'll want very few pre-loaded apps, so there will be fewer opportunities for conflicting apps to crash your system and ruin millions of dollars worth of work. Besides, apps that stay running in the background use up processor power that could otherwise be doing real work, which is the reason you considered a workstation over a high end PC in the first place.

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Laptop Dell XPS 14z

It takes more than fancy tattoos and a cool haircut to be a rock star—you need to have the complete package. That includes being thin, attractive, and powerful—and you have to hit all the right notes. Dell attempted this with its slim, gorgeous Adamo XPS a few years back, but the company soon realized that the system met only two of those requirements. What could have been a great laptop lacked power and features, with a low-powered processor, limited storage and ports, and short battery life.

So on October 24, 2011, Dell is launching its XPS 14z, a thin, gorgeous, full-featured notebook that brings to mind the old Adamo. It’s meant to be a rock-star notebook for rock-star professionals who buy their own PCs and use them at work—just like many of us have been doing with our smartphones for years. And while we tested the base unit (minus 2GB of RAM), we see enough raw talent here to pass it through to the next round and recommend it for the rock stars among you.

Unlike the Adamo, which was heavy on the beauty but light on brains, the XPS 14z is equipped with solid components, even at its lowest configuration. Our test unit featured an Intel Core i5-2430M CPU, a 500GB hard drive, Intel's on-processor integrated graphics, and 4GB of RAM. (U.S. models will come with 6GB of RAM standard for the same price.) This base configuration is $999. Dell offers three more configurations that reach up to $1,599. The top one has a Core i7-2640M processor, a 256GB solid-state drive, 8GB of RAM, and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 520M graphics processor with 1GB of video memory. The mid-level models use one of these two processors, 750GB hard drives, and the same Nvida graphics card as in the high-end model. You can find those for $1,199 and $1,299, and they all go on sale November 1.

The thinnest 14-inch laptop with an internal optical drive, Dell’s XPS 14z showed us a lot to like in our trials. We have some quibbles about the audio, as well as the placement and selection of the ports, but if you’re just as serious about design as you are about your work, the Dell XPS 14z deserves an equally serious look.

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