PC Week
Monday, August 4, 1997
Vol. 14, No. 33
Dell NT Workstation Hits Low Price Point
Gruener, James
Dell Computer Corp. officially entered the exploding Windows NT
personal workstation market last week with its first workstation that
features the Pentium II processor--a move that should lower prices in
the market for some users.
Called the WorkStation 400, the NT personal workstation will have
single or dual Pentium II chips with speeds of 266MHz or 300MHz. It will
be targeted at mechanical CAD, financial services and software
development markets.
The company plans to take the success of its direct sales model, used
in the server and desktop arenas, to workstation customers. Dell is
planning to offer an in-house 24-by-7 technical support staff for
customer inquiries and has worked with selected workstation graphics
application vendors to make sure the vendors' software will be
compatible with its workstations.
"The biggest thing that sets Dell apart is its prices," said Joey
Lamb, a network administrator for Pioneer Military Lending Inc., of
Kansas City, Mo., which recently purchased two WorkStation 400s. "I did
some rather extensive research [and] found that no one really had a
large enough advantage for me to choose them [over Dell]."
The new systems have 64MB to 512MB of error correction code memory;
standard 2GB, 4GB or 9GB Ultra Wide SCSI hard drives; integrated 3Com
Corp. 10/100M-bps Fast Ethernet networking; 16-bit sound; two Universal
Serial Bus ports; and a 12/24 variable-speed CD-ROM drive.
Analysts suggest that Dell will likely become the vendor of choice for
second-round customers. Its entrance into the NT personal workstation
market may trigger a change, insofar as the market will look more like
the PC market, having five vendors with significant market shares
jockeying for position.
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