Friday, February 8th 2008

Dell to Stop Selling AMD Based Computers Online

For years, users wanted Dell to include AMD processors in Dell builds. In May 2006, Dell was happy to announce that they were bringing AMD on board. Everything seemed to be working out, until now. Dell recently announced that they're discontinuing almost all AMD-based Dell computers. The few ones that are left cannot be purchased online, and are only found in stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. This is likely to be a huge blow for AMD, and could not have come at a worse time. AMD recently posted abysmal revenue/loss figures for Q4 2007, and is running a company (ATI) that is worth 30% less than it was at the time of initial purchase. Hopefully, AMD will find more people to sell their processors.
Source: DailyTech
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52 Comments on Dell to Stop Selling AMD Based Computers Online

#27
pepsi71ocean
asb2106I dont love dell's, infact I barely think of them as good, but I have seen some real cheap computers come from them, most of the time - even cheaper than what I can build. They do stuff the computers with bad cooling and some weird HD mounting systems sometimes, but when all is said and done, for the average consumer they are just a computer.
I totally forgot about the heat issues and bad cooling. I just think that a dell gaming pc just is a rip off money wise. i priced a gaming rig that would cost around 4x what it cost me to build mine. Dell will come crawling back to AMD.
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#28
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
You are absolutely correct Pepsi. If you want a high-end gaming PC for a good price, build one yourself. You simply cannot do better.

If you want a decent gaming rig, then Dell systems are not too bad. BUT ... you have to know what you are looking for, and how to maximize your purchasing dollars. You also must be aware of what you cannot upgrade on the Dell (this goes for any pre-built system).

I bought a Dell XPS 3.0 GHz P4 System that I ended up upgrading as far as I could, and it still does a fine job of playing most games. (Not the latest GPU though).

I bought my wife a Dell laptop (real 3.0GHz P4) and she loves it. It does not overheat (which is amazing) and has doen everything she has needed it to do for years.

The whole point of my post is, you can get a good pre-built if you know what you are doing and you know what you want.
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#29
imperialreign
With Intel still currently being investigated for a breach of anti-trust laws, Dell dropping AMD certainly doesn't look good for either Dell or Intel; even if AMD wasn't making Dell any money.

Either way, it's one less PC manufacturer that AMD will be shipping procs to at "list price," more money AMD can keep in their pocket once they've solidified and gotten back on their feet.
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#30
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
imperialreignEither way, it's one less PC manufacturer that AMD will be shipping procs to at "list price," more money AMD can keep in their pocket once they've solidified and gotten back on their feet.
Are you trying to imply that AMD will make more money by not selling millions of processors to Dell? Please explain.
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#31
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
Dell sucks with AMD stuff anyways. Lots of folks are gobbling up AMD based notebooks and desktops. OF course, Intel advertises a hell of alot more so they are widely known.
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#32
ShadowFold
AMD not getting much support and Intel getting sued? What if they both go out :twitch:
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#33
imperialreign
KreijAre you trying to imply that AMD will make more money by not selling millions of processors to Dell? Please explain.
yes and no.

as of right now they won't make any more money - it'll hurt them quite badly, TBH . . .

but, once they've gotten their act together and are starting to turn profits again, it's quite possible they might sign a deal with a different PC manufacturer that will pay better than Dell did, or, Dell might come crawling back (in which case, AMD should force them to pay retail pricing).


it's one of those incident that could seriously go either way - there's good potential for either outcome.
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#34
ChillyMyst
jocksteelukDell wont regret a thing, fact is the majority of the AMD systems Dell are currently selling are on discount because people right now know the AMD chips are inferior and the pro AMD fans didn't support AMD by purchasing Dell systems featuring AMD processors, Why should Dell stock something just to please some people who have no intention of buying the items? Dell like most capitalistic entities like to make profit and eliminate unnecessary costs and until AMD bring out a competitive processor AMD based dell systems will be and unnecessary cost to Dell to appease a few people.
it has NOTHING to do with the quility of the cpu, 99.99999% of dell or any prebuilt companys buyers have no fucking clue what a prosessor is, they just want it to be "fast" and have lots of "memory" and by memory they mean storege space not ram.

you think to much like a geek, most of the computer users in the world dont even know what the diffrance between ram and storege are, or the diffrance between windows and office, you would be SHOCKED by how many people answer they have windows xp when you ask them what office program they use........its crazy, my mother use to be like that till i learned her up on it :)

most of the amd dells sucked total ass, they where overpriced for what you got and you couldnt upgrade them like you could the intel version of the same system, im SURE this was intentional, dell has a LONG standing close relationship with intel, and im sure that intel told them to make sure their amd systems didnt sell very well so they could dump them asap.

really stock for stock price for price intel isnt killing amd and amd isnt killing intel, at stock speeds for the same price amd's chips are very compeditive.

Non overclockers wont see a benifit of moving to an intel core2 from a x2 system, i have seen this more then a few times with clients who where reading a few reviews and saw c2d chips getting better benches in stuff like superPI so they had me "upgrade" them to a cheap c2d system, then they endup being suprised that everything they do isnt faster, even tho their superPI times are better and their synthetic benches are better.

people need to stop ASSuming everybody overclocks and that because intels chips overclock better and bench better that they are a better buy for everybody then amd's chips........MOST PEOPLE DONT OVERCLOCK!!!!!

blah, amd just got Gateway and some other OEM's to support them so this isnt a big deal, with the numbers of cpu's dell was buying its not a huge loss period, because dell intentionaly tanked AMD system sales.

and dell wanted to make a go of AMD systems they would have offered equivlant amd systems to all their lines not just the uber low end, and they would have offered decent upgrades with them insted of stuff like a x1300 over onboard video........
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#35
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
imperialreignDell might come crawling back (in which case, AMD should force them to pay retail pricing).
This will never happen. Dell's buying power is enourmous. When you buy quantities in the millions you can basically set your own price as long as the supplier is not losing money.

Sometimes even that is not enough. Suppliers will sometimes sell below their own costs on certain products if they can make up the lost revenue somewhere else.

Dell would never have to pay retail price.

The interesting thing is that I am sure that Dell and AMD are in talks right now on new strategies for their products. Dell may simply be clearing house in order to introduce a completely new AMD based line.
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#36
imperialreign
KreijThe interesting thing is that I am sure that Dell and AMD are in talks right now on new strategies for their products. Dell may simply be clearing house in order to introduce a completely new AMD based line.
hand't even thought of that . . . t'would be t'werrific
Posted on Reply
#37
ChillyMyst
they may be, look at how well the gateway phenom systems are selling on newegg for example, maby dells caught the clue, but i dought it, dell is very very much intels buttbuddy and has been for years.

acer
hp/compaq
gateway
emachiens
asus

hell there are a good number of companys that offer amd lappy's and computers that are decent, just not dell.....they offer CRAP........
Posted on Reply
#38
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
imperialreignhand't even thought of that . . . t'would be t'werrific
Dell, as a company, is not stupid. Their annual net profits is testimony to this fact.
While they may change their current alignments, they will not burn bridges to other manufactureres.
They will go with what suits them best at the moment, and change when they need to.
It's called being "agile". It is one of the most sound business practices to keep a company on the leading edge of their sector.

Many people on this board will trash companies for thier decisions, but how many TPU'ers have any experience in leading a multi-million or billion dollar company.
Posted on Reply
#39
imperialreign
KreijDell, as a company, is not stupid. Their annual net profits is testimony to this fact.
While they may change their current alignments, they will not burn bridges to other manufactureres.
They will go with what suits them best at the moment, and change when they need to.
It's called being "agile". It is one of the most sound business practices to keep a company on the leading edge of their sector.

Many people on this board will trash companies for thier decisions, but how many TPU'ers have any experience in leading a multi-million or billion dollar company.
I completely understand about a company being "flexible" - we just don't see it all too often in the tech industry and I guess I kinda forget about that. Hell, I see it all the time in the auto industry, though.
Posted on Reply
#40
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
imperialreignI completely understand about a company being "flexible" - we just don't see it all too often in the tech industry and I guess I kinda forget about that. Hell, I see it all the time in the auto industry, though.
IF you look close, we do see it in the tech industry constantly. Intel is a great example of that. They adjust their lines constantly. The reason the WE don't see it is that we are only looking at the products that interest us. Like processors.

Look at the LCD market. The change in product line on a 3 month basis is significant. Most uninformed people will say, "ok so they have another 42", but the monitor size is not the driving force. It is the features and improvements that drive the changes. If a certain monitor is doing poorly, it is removed or replace on the market very quickly. Agile.

Several years ago, General Electric's upper management sent down the edict that if the individual division were not #1 or #2 (in the world market), they would be sold. What do you think of that and how do you think that effected GE's bottom line ? Just curious on your thoughts.
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#41
asb2106
Ok, catching up on the post I seen someone say that AMD is all over laptops right now, and that is the truth! AMD has allowed laptop manufacturers to distrobute cheap cheap cheap computers. At work we supply I supply our field guys with laptops, so its my job to find the best for the cheapest possible, and I have found Gateway laptops. These machines have been great to me, x2 procs (1.6~2.0, depending on model) 2 gigs of memory and 160gb HDs and less than 800 bucks. They are fast and good for atleast the next 3 years for these guys.

So I can say AMD isnt really worried that Dell is gonna stop selling AMD machines. Hell, I remember just a few years ago when Dell only used intel, and Dell started to sell the AMD procs(back when AMD was on top). I actually got my first FX proc from Dell. They didnt put them into systems back then but they sold them in box. Dell and AMD had quite a short run.
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#43
ryboto
ChillyMystyou think to much like a geek, most of the computer users in the world dont even know what the diffrance between ram and storege are, or the diffrance between windows and office, you would be SHOCKED by how many people answer they have windows xp when you ask them what office program they use........its crazy, my mother use to be like that till i learned her up on it :)
This is how my entire family was until I educated them. It's incredibly surprising how ignorant people are concerning technology...not just PC's, but even automobiles. As for this whole issue, I don't understand it. AMD is price competitive with intel on the mid-low end, and on top of that their notebook sales are increasing fast. Unless this isn't the case with Dell, and AMD is selling less for them(most likely because they never advertised AMD based systems as aggressively as the Intels), then and only then can I understand this.
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#44
ChillyMyst
dell dosnt offer good upgrade options with amd based dells, they dont offer the same kinda packeges with amd based systems, and they DO NOT ADVERTISE THEM, you have to dig around to find amd based systems on their site....its a chore, on the other hand they have intel's name on every page.
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#45
candle_86
ShadowFoldAMD not getting much support and Intel getting sued? What if they both go out :twitch:
say hello to the VIA C7
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#46
ChillyMyst
acctualy via has a new chip on the way, should be close to the low end amd and intel chips in perf when it hits the market!!!!
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#47
Basard
VIA... didn't they buy Cyrix a while ago, or maybe they owned them all along, not sure.

I remember this story linked to engadget.com, from amdzone.com. Bout 3 hours before it was posted here... There's much controversy over this rumor/story. Apparently it's HALF bullshit. They are only dropping AMD from a couple systems, and you can still buy a few AMD powered systems anyways from Dell online. Nobody even has a clue anymore whats going on.... It seems like all the news these days is some sort of mudslinging propaganda crap anyways. It's like you have to have a "bullshit blocker" installed on your browser, right along side your pop-up blocker.

Not that I would ever buy a dell anyways. But I'm sure there are a lot of people who just love Dell. Performance doesn't matter... it's all hype anyways, mostly. SOME people, not any of you guys of course, should still be living in the jungle swinging from trees, they have no right to be "citizens," just monkeys that can talk. Parrots can talk, apes can do sign language... I'm sure if you signed to an ape that AMD chips are faster than Intel's, the ape would have no problem believing the lies.

Wow, I need some meds. :D:laugh::ohwell: I'll stop now, because this is probably only makes sense to me, hahaha...
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#48
ChillyMyst
via bought the cyrex name and tech from IBM, they also bought cinatar/idt(intagrated device technologys) for their winchip design.

all of via's production chips have ended up being based on winchip designs with small influance from the cyrex side.

as to faster. well the k10 is faster in slect SERVER tests then the equivlant intel chip, really in the stock for stock races the 2 companys are pretty even, its when u overclock that intels really start to shine, but as i keep having to say, MOST PEOPLE DONT OVERCLOCK, most dont even know what a cpu clock is, they just know that if they hit the power button that pretty lights come on and after a few seconds/minuts they can check their email.
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#49
beyond_amusia
Well, Apple don't use AMD, so does it rally matter if Dell don't? Come on, the AMD systems Dell offered didn't look that impresive anyways.
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#50
asb2106
beyond_amusiaWell, Apple don't use AMD, so does it rally matter if Dell don't? Come on, the AMD systems Dell offered didn't look that impresive anyways.
What does apple have to do with this?
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