Dell is starting to put AMD chips into its more popular server ranges. It has been slowly expanding its adoption of AMD chips after years of being an Intel only shop. However this week it has rolled out an AMD version of its most popular server, the PowerEdge 2970.

The new machine is similar to the PowerEdge 2950, which runs on Intel chips, only this one will run on Opteron processors. Dell claims that the servers, which start at $1,849, use a third less power than other dual-core servers it already makes.

It will also be upgradeable to AMD's quad-core processor due out later this year. Multicore processors are especially well-suited to servers. By dividing up demanding tasks between the cores, the processor can deliver better performance while using less power.

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