Dell
Dell has a policy of manufacturing its products close to their customers. In North America, desktop computers are assembled in their plant in Austin, Texas and North Carolina and their servers in Nashville, Tennessee. In Europe, their computers are assembled in Ireland.
95% of Dell's laptops are assembled in their massive assembling plant in Penang, Malaysia and the remaining percentage in Ireland. Dell plans to consolidate the manufacturing in Malyasia in 2007 and has also decided to enlarge their plant in Malaysia. For additional quality, Dell routes these computers through U.S. fufillment centers in the U.S.
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Dell uses several brand-names for its product ranges, including:
OptiPlex for office Desktop computer systems
Dimension for consumer Desktop systems
Latitude for commercially-focused laptops
Inspiron for consumer laptops
Precision for workstation systems and high-performance laptops
PowerEdge for larger corporate servers
PowerVault for direct-attach and some network-attached storage (NAS)
Dell EMC for storage area networks
XPS for enthusiast/high-performance systems
Axim for PDAs utilizing Microsoft's Windows Mobile
Dell Digital Jukebox (DJ) MP3 Player for MP3 fanatics
Dell LCD/Plasma TVs and Projectors for HDTV and Monitor enthusiasts
Dell currently ships Microsoft Windows XP as the operating system of choice for most of its new computers, but it also offers Red Hat and SUSE for servers. Dell also sells "bare-bones" computers without any pre-installed software (the N series) - at significantly lower prices. Due to Dell's licensing contracts with Microsoft, customers can obtain such systems only upon request, and Dell has to ship them with a FreeDOS disk included in the box and issue a so-called Windows refund or a merchandise credit after sale of the system at the "regular" retail price.
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The OptiPlexTM line of desktops from Dell is targeted at the corporate, government and education markets. These systems typically contain Pentium CPUs from Intel, although some models are available with Celeron CPUs as well. They contain business-oriented components (such as Gigabit ethernet, which is only available on Precision, OptiPlex and PowerEdge systems) and software than their Dimension counterparts.
Their newest models break from Dell's proprietary form factors and are, for the most part, BTX standard.
The OptiPlex series comes in four form factors - Tower, Desktop, Small form Factor, and Ultra Small Form factors.
Models
G1 - Came equipped with Intel's Pentium II processors.
GX1 - along with the IBM 300PL, one of the most widely used business desktops of the past 6 years. Only recently being replaced in some companies. These used Pentium II and Pentium III CPUs.
GX50 - Equipped with Intel Celeron CPUs upto 1.2GHz and SDRAM memory, budget version of the GX150
GX60 - Equipped with Intel Celeron CPUs from the Pentium 4 family and DDR SDRAM, budget version of the GX260
GX100 & GX110 - Came equipped with Intel's Pentium III processors or Intel's Celeron processors.
GX150 - Equipped with Intel Pentium III and Celeron derivitive CPUs from 600 to 800 MHz
GX240 - An early Pentium 4 Equipped 200 series OptiPlex.
GX260 & GX270 - Dell's first Ultra small form factor systems. They are capable of having monitors mounted to them.
GX280 - a more recent model with Pentium 4 CPU and no PS/2 peripheral ports.
GX520 & GX620 - the latest models containing a Pentium 4 or Pentium D CPU and a trusted platform module. This model has a BTX form factor. The GX620 is available in four sizes.
170L and 210L - models with Pentium 4 or Celeron CPUs, budget systems
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"Dimension" is the name of a home Desktop computer series made by Dell, Inc. As of late 2005 Dell has split its consumer desktop models into two lines, Dimension and XPS. Dell has also renamed many of their models, i.e. the successor to the Dimension 5100 became the E510, the successor to the Dimension 3000 became the E310.
The current series is as follows (listed with Dell Home/Business name):
B110/1100
E310/3100
E510/5150
XPS 200/5150c (this is a slim form factor system)
XPS 400/Dimension 9150
Dell XPS 600/Dimension XPS 600
Dimension 4300
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Dell Computer's Latitude laptop brand is specifically targeted at the commercial market (as opposed to the Dell Inspiron aimed at the consumer market). The laptops have a similar design and parts as the Inspiron model. Current models include the X1, D410, D810, D610, D510. Models based on the Intel Core Duo are forthcoming including the D420, D520, D620, and the D820. The D420, D620, and D820 will feature Wide Aspect LCD screens: 12.1", 14.1", and 15.4" respectively. The Latitude D620 weighs in at 4.7 pounds, and includes a 1.67GHz Intel Core Duo T2300 processor (667MHz front-side-bus) and 2M of L2 cache. It comes with 512M of RAM, expandable to 4G, four USB ports. For graphics, it offers the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950.
System Configuration
Processor: Pentium M
Screen: Depending on the model selected screen size varies from 12.1 inches WXGA on the X1 to a 15.4 inches WUXGA on the D810.
Operating System: Choice of Windows XP Home or Professional
Hard Drive: Range from 60 GB to 120 GB hard drives.
Ports: Features a wide range of ports including: two USB 2.0 (including one via D/bay connector); IEEE 1394; VGA; Fast (10/100) or Gigabit (10/100/1000) ethernet via RJ-45 port; Modem; Audio; SDI/O, CF
The Latitude C-series notebooks covered the range of processors from the Pentium 166 MHz to the Pentium 3-M. Models in this series included the CP (Pentium processors), CPi (Pentium II processors), CPx, C600 and C800 (Mobile Pentium III processors), CPt, C500 and C510 (Celeron processors), C400, C610 and C810 (Pentium 3-M processors) and C640 and C840 (Mobile Pentium 4 processors).
C series laptops were notable for their consistent and interchangable accessories across this wide range of processors. The series was one of the first to offer the UXGA 1600x1200 resolution display and included a NVidia GeForce MX400 32 MiB Video Accelerator to compliment the display requirements. A robust design made it a favorite in harsher climates; however, this design lacked the visual appeal of many of its competitors. The most popular of the C-series included the C800, C810, C840, and later the C640.
An interesting note on the C840 is that it contained a Pentium 4 Processor and utillised Rambus-DRAM instead of the standard SDRAM modules, giving a performance boost to an aging model.
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Dell Computer's Inspiron laptop brand is a range of computers targetted at the consumer market (as opposed to the Latitude range aimed at the commercial market).
The following are some current configurations of Dell laptops:
Inspiron 6000
A base Inspiron 6000 is shipped with a 1.7GHz (upgradeable to 2.13GHz) Intel Pentium M processor and a 15.4-inch XGA wide-screen monitor. Like the Inspiron 9300, it features DDR-2 memory. In comparison with other Inspiron models, the 6000 is considered the "versatile and affordable" member of the Dell notebook line.
Inspiron 6400
Inspiron 9300
Inspiron 9400
Also known as the Inspiron E1705 in the States. It uses the Intel Centrino DUO processor (with Mobile dual core) and a 17-inch XGA wide-screen monitor. This model uses 667mhz DDR2 memory. In comparison with other Inspiron models, the 9400 is considered the Next Generation of Mobile "entertainment powerhouse" in the Dell notebook line. It's one of first Dell machines to include Media Direct, which allows you to watch DVDs and listen to music without booting up Windows XP.
Inspiron B120
The Inspiron B120 is Dell's lowest priced offering. Standard options include a 1.40 GHz Intel Celeron M 360 processor, 14.1 inch WXGA screen, 256 MB shared RAM, a 40GB 5400rpm hard drive, and a 24X CD burner/DVD combo drive. By default the B120 does not come with any integrated wireless support, but it can be added as an option.
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Dell Precision products include Workstations and "mobile workstations" (high-performance laptops).
The latest line includes the
Precision 670, a large dual processor workstation
Precision 470, a medium-size dual processor workstation
Precision 380, a medium-size single processor workstation
Precision M70, a large single processor laptop
Precision M20, a medium-size single processor laptop
The dual core workstations use Intel Xeon processors, using either single or double core variants.
The single core workstations use Pentium 4 Processors.
The laptops use Pentium M Processors. Both the M70 and M20 can be customized to come with processor numbers 750,760,770, and 780.
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PowerEdge is the name given to all of the servers produced by Dell, Inc.. The first generation was produced in 1996. Currently all of Dell's servers use Intel Pentium or Xeon processors and ship with either Microsoft Windows, SUSE, Red Hat Linux or no operating system preinstalled.
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