Now that the Digital merger is complete and Compaq has emerged from its "quiet period", the company is hell bent on debunking the perception that its products are too expensive.
In conjunction with the introduction last week of new enhancements to its ProLiant 800 and 1600 PC servers, Compaq has announced dramatic price cuts across its low-end PC server range.
Savings on models in the 800, 1600 and 3000 ranges vary from 15 to 33 per cent. According to Terry Steer, Compaq's product manager for enterprise systems, that now puts the ProLiants in the same price bracket as Dell's PowerEdge servers and on a cheaper level than competitive offerings from IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
"There has been a perception amongst customers that Compaq is too expensive," Steer told ARN. "Business was being missed because of this perception."
Steer claims customer demand for the ProLiant 800s has led to the new enhancements.
"The success of the 800 has really surprised Compaq," he said. "It's shown that price really does drive server sales in this market."
The ProLiant 800 has been upgraded to include an Intel 350MHz Pentium II processor; 10/100 TX network interface card; up to eight hard drive bays; and 325 watt power supply.
According to Steer, migrating to the Pentium II processor from the Pentium Pro chip provides enhanced performance for ProLiant 800 users, which are typically small and medium-sized businesses running basic file services or communications, office productivity and small database applications.
The faster processor and bus speeds of the latest generation Pentium II chips are designed to improve file/print and other non-memory intensive applications, he said.
In the ProLiant 1600 range, models have also been enhanced to incorporate Intel's newest Pentium II chips. Available with a choice of 350MHz or 400MHz processors, the new models also have faster bus speeds; up to 1GB of SDRAM; dual channel-wide Ultra SCSI-3 drive controllers; and seven hard drive bays.
The 1600 models with 400MHz processors are available in either a rack or tower form factor.
Following Compaq's price cuts, the ProLiant 1600 range now starts at $5315 RRP, while the ProLiant 800 is now priced at $4695 RRP.
The ProLiant 3000 range now starts from $7435 RRP.
