Dell Refreshes Corporate Line

Seeking to rekindle lackluster PC sales, Dell(DELL) spruced up its lineup of corporate computers Tuesday.

The Round Rock, Texas, company announced servers featuring Intel's(INTC) new quad-core microprocessors, as well as its first desktops and laptops to feature chips from Advanced Micro Devices(AMD).

Dell said the AMD desktops will be available worldwide Wednesday in its Optiplex brand, packing equivalent features and sporting a similar price to its existing Intel-based Optiplex desktop PC.

Dell said it was responding to customer demand for a mainstream, feature-rich AMD-based corporate PC, rather than the more value-oriented AMD desktops offered by many companies.

Dell announced in August that it would begin incorporating AMD chips into its desktops, ending a long-running practice of only selling systems with Intel chips.

At the time, Dell said nothing of AMD-based laptops, although it has quietly begun selling consumer and business laptops with AMD chips on its Web site in recent days.

It's been a tough year for Dell, which lost its spot as the world's No.1 PC maker in the third quarter to rival Hewlett-Packard(HPQ), according to a recent report by industry research firm Gartner.

According to Gartner, Dell's 3.6% worldwide unit growth in the third quarter was the lowest year-over-year performance in the company's history.

Management at Dell is taking steps to get the company back on track by improving its customer service and supply-chain operations among other things.