Dell Precision Workstation 390: Core 2 Extreme Debut

Product Review: Page (2) of 2 - 07/27/06

Dell Precision Workstation 390: Core 2 Extreme Debut Conroe-packing workstation fast enough to be our new King of the Hill

Another unusual feature is the workstation's ability to convert from a tower configuration to the desktop configuration. This might appeal to some users who need to place a workstation on a desktop instead of deskside. As far as the styling of the workstation goes, we think it's a clean design, and it looks nice enough, but we usually stash away our workstations in a server closet, so the looks of the workstation matter very little to us. Nevertheless, the silver and black motif have a sophisticated look, go well with Dell's UltraSharp monitor, and would complement any design studio, workplace or home.

We're also fond of the workstation-class graphics card included in this test machine, an NVIDIA PCIe Quadro FX3500 256MB card with two DVI ports. This midrange 3D card will serve your purposes well if you're doing digital video editing, 2-D graphics, or even some 3D graphics. Dell also offers the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 with 512MB of RAM for high-end 3D graphics.

The boot drive on our test machine is an 80 GB SATAII 7200RPM disk with an 8MB cache, a basic drive that got the job done, but one of the more astonishing surprises was the drive D: that was installed on our machine, consisting of a RAID 0 configuration of those two 15,000RPM 146GB SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) hard disk drives. We're told that these are the next generation of hard disk drives, and as soon as we ran our disk speed benchmark on this array, the blazing write speed of 160MB/sec. and read speed of an astonishing 178MB/sec. did the talking for them. It was simply the fastest disk array we've tested inside a workstation. Wow. It's a pity this bad boy config adds a grand to the cost of the machine.

Indeed, it's a techno-packed package that Dell has provided for our reviewing pleasure , and nestled inside is the star of this show, the newest dual-core Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93GHz processor, along with its associated chipset and 4MB L2 cache. Naturally, we were eager to see how much faster this is than all those we have tested here before. So far, the fastest machine we'd tested was an HP dual-processor box with two dual core 2.4GHz AMD Opteron 280 processors. Would the Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93GHz processor be able to beat that four-core Opteron 280 behemoth? Take a look at the benchmark table below, and you'll see the answer.

Results in minutes: seconds
Boldface indicates winner. Apple Mac G5, Dual 2.7GHz, 4GB DDR 400 SD RAM ($4598) Boxx 7400 Workstation, two dual-core Opteron 275 processors running at 2.21GHz, 3GB DDR400 RAM ($5669)

Alienware MJ-12 7550a, two dual-core Opteron 275 processors running at 2.21GHz, 2GB DDR400 RAM ($7906)

HP xw9300 Workstation, two dual-core Opteron 280 processors running at 2.4 GHz, 4GB DDR400 RAM ($5499)

Dell Precision Workstation 380, single Intel Dual Core Pentium EE 3.2GHz processor, 2GB DDR2 RAM ($3496)
Dell Precision Workstation 390, Single Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93GHz, 2GB DDR2 533MHz NECC RAM ($3893)

1. After Effects: Animation :05 :02 :03 :02 :03 :02

2. After Effects : Video Composite :40 :42 :45 :40 :38 :20

3. After Effects : Data Project 1:15 :54 1:00 :50 1:12 :40

4. After Effects : Gambler :17 :17 :20 :17 :19 :10

5. After Effects : Source Shapes 2:15 1:56 2:09 1:46 2:29 1:21

6. After Effects : Virtual Set 2:36 1:34 1:47 1:24 1:53 1:13

Maxon CineBench Rendering Time (lower is better) 40.0 sec. 21.1 sec. 26.0 sec. 19.7 Sec. 36.8 sec. 22.9 sec.

Maxon CineBench Rendering (CB-CPU score -- higher is better) 658 1250 (3.07x multiprocessor speedup) 1014 (3.24x multiprocessor speedup) 1335 (3.05x multiprocessor speedup) 715 (2.06 multiprocessor speedup) 903 (1.86x multiprocessor speedup)

TotalBenchmark comp 1 78 sec. 85 sec. 85 sec. 79 sec. 87 sec. 50 sec.

TotalBenchmark comp 2 1202 sec. 953 sec. 997 sec. 992 sec. 781 sec.

Night Flight 44:24 (2664 seconds) 37:59 (2279 seconds) 37:49 (2269 seconds) 35:01 (2101 seconds) 50:04 (3604 seconds)

Hard Disk Speed Read: 52MB/sec.
Write: 66MB/sec. Read: 66MB/sec.
Write: 145 MB/sec.
Read: 64 MB/sec.
Write: 142 MB/sec.
Read: 121MB/sec.
Write: 97MB/sec. Read: 178MB/sec.
Write: 160MB/sec.

Not surprisingly, the Dell Precision Workstation 390 blew the doors off every machine we've ever tested on almost every benchmark. On the processor-intensive benchmarks using Adobe After Effects comps consisting of animations, video composites, illustrator graphics and a virtual set, the 390 swept every one, in some cases cutting the time of the fastest machine tested before almost in half. The 390 wasn't able to beat our fastest HP dual-core dual Opteron machine in our CineBench rendering tests, though, nor was it able to win the NightFlight render benchmark, a test created to showcase the vector graphics processing power of the Altivec engine, called the Velocity Engine in the Power Mac G5. But on the comprehensive TotalBenchmark tests, the Precision Workstation 390 won the contest handily, with a 781 second time, its closest competitor far behind at 953 seconds.

One thing to keep in mind here is that this Dell machine costs $1500 less than its closest competitor, where its retail price is $3,983, while the previous speed champ, the dual core dual Opteron machine cost $5,499 when we reviewed it back in November. Also keep in mind that without that fancy SAS array added as a technology flourish by Dell engineers, the machine would have cost well under $3000. It's amazing how much more processor speed and power you can get in a year's time for around $2500 less. In its cheapest configuration, you can get a minimally-equipped Dell Precision 390 Workstation starting at $1050.

Summing up, this Intel Core 2 Extreme processor is downright remarkable. It's more energy efficient, allows computers to run quieter, and packs a tremendous punch. It's found a luxo-sport home inside the Dell Precision Workstation 390, too. With Dell's elegantly-designed and solidly-built case, the package consists of high-quality components. This relatively low-priced Dell Precision Workstation 390 is our new king-of-the-hill, the fastest workstation we've ever tested. Highly recommended. 9.6 stars out of 10.

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