Dell gets energy-savvy with two new Optiplex desktop models

Dell has beefed up its business desktop portfolio by announcing two new Optiplex models.

It claims that the additions will help organisations to bring down costs and potentially reduce energy consumption equivalent to removing 2.5 million cars from the road.

Following on from yesterday's announcement detailing Dell's first business notebook using AMD's processors, the company has extended its relationship to the desktop in the form of the Optiplex 740, which features an AMD Athlon 64 X2 single or dual core processor.

The new AMD desktop also features built-in security tools, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2-enabled password protection and optional biometric readers and smart card keyboards.

For those who favour, the historically more dominant, Intel's technology, Dell has created the Intel Celeron D 346-based Optiplex 320.

In a bid to take its responsibility for the preservation of the environment seriously, Dell, which is a founding sponsor of the Green Grid, has equipped the new desktops with Dell Energy Smart settings, which use sleep modes to more efficiently harness processing power.

"The power conversation is being driven by some global issues," said Dell's Mark Boulton.

"The cost of energy has risen dramatically, on average about 20 per cent each year. As well as increasing costs business are also increasing consumption. Customers are really starting to notice the cost of power on their profit and loss (P&L)."

"A big challenge for chief information officers is how much of my IT budget is spent keeping the lights on and maintaining systems and how much do I spend on innovating," added Andy Rhodes, Dell's head of servers for Europe, the Middle East and Europe (EMEA).

"Dell wants to widen the debate beyond individual components to address all the areas of concern for our customers."

The AMD-based model costs 444 exclusive of VAT and delivery but inclusive of standard three-year warranty and next business day onsite support.

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.