January 28, 2000 Web posted at: 9:40 a.m. EST (1440 GMT) by Deni Connor

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(IDG) -- Network professionals wanting Intel-based Web or application servers that are as fast as Unix boxes might want to take a look at the servers Dell is introducing this week.

Dell will roll out two 800-MHz processors that the company claims are ideal for Web hosting, e-commerce authentication or application servers. The single- and dual-processor PowerEdge servers are Pentium III Xeon systems with 133-MHz frontside buses that feature an advanced caching system. The frontside bus is the data path between the processor and memory. By moving Level 2 cache from the backside bus to the frontside, performance is increased.

That system increases processing and performance speeds by placing the 256K-byte Level 2 cache directly on the processor chipset.

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"For a very heavy Web site with a lot of application and transaction traffic, the more horsepower the better," says Mike Zeiman, IT analyst for Dow Chemical Employees Credit Union in Midland, Mich. "Traditionally, the Intel platform has fallen behind in performance to some Unix boxes. This is a place where someone may look at the Intel platform in place of a Unix box."

Dell will announce the PowerEdge 2450, a rack-mounted machine that accommodates up to 21 servers in a standard rack. The 2450 supports hot-pluggable redundant drives, optional hot-pluggable power supplies, 2G bytes of memory and up to 89G bytes of internal memory.

The server contains an on-board 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet network adapter and a single-channel Ultra3 SCSI RAID controller on the motherboard for easy connectivity to internal storage. The 2450, which can be clustered, can run Windows NT and 2000, NetWare and Linux operating systems. Prices begin at $4,000. The box is available now.

The PowerEdge 4400, in addition, offers a floor- as well as rack-mounted configuration with up to 4G bytes of RAM, 288G bytes of internal storage, dual-channel Ultra3 SCSI RAID controller on the motherboard and 64-bit quad independent PCI bus support. Both servers also support Fibre Channel. The 4400's pricing begins at $4,700. The server is available immediately.