Dell Precision 7960 Tower and Precision 5860 Tower announced with Intel Sapphire Rapids processors

Dell has launched two new workstation-grade pre-built desktop PCs for applications that require copious amounts of computing power. The Dell Precision 7960 Tower and Precision 5860 Tower don't skimp out in terms of hardware and can be configured with the latest Intel/AMD/Nvidia trinkets. Their prices will be announced close to their April 18 launch.

Intel's recently launched (and long overdue) Sapphire Rapids processors power the Dell Precision 7960 Tower and Precision 5860 Tower. The former gets the 3xxx series of processors, while the latter receives the 2xxx series. Refer to the attached spec sheet to find the complete list of CPUs for each model (it's long).

Graphics card choices max out at the Nvidia RTX A6000 (48 GB) for Team Green and Radeon Pro W6800 for AMD enthusiasts. Precision 7960 Tower users add a total of four graphics cards if required. The Dell Precision 7960 Tower supports up to 4 TB of DDR5 4,800 MT/S ECC memory, and the Precision 5860 Tower up to 2 TB. For storage, one can opt for up to a 4 TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD boot drive and couple it with a myriad of solid-state and mechanical hard drives.

The Precision 5860 Tower supports up to a maximum of 56 TB storage, while the Precision 7960 Tower ups it to 152 TB. Additional peripherals such as a Thunderbolt card, RAID controller, Wi-Fi 6E module, PCIe SSD expansion cards and external Ethernet cards will be available post launch. A cursory glance at the Dell Precision 5860 Tower and Precision 7960 Tower's I/O reveals it uses a proprietary motherboard. Thankfully, it has two RJ45 Ethernet ports, one rated for 1 Gbps and the other for 10 Gbps.

Other options include three USB 3.2 Type-A and Type-C ports each, a serial port, two PS2 ports, a full-fledged SD card reader at the front, two more USB Type-A and Type-C ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack. One can install two optical drives in the vacant bays. Dell lets Precision 7960 Tower users configure their rigs with up to a 2,200 Watt Platinum power supply. The Precision 5860 Tower, on the other hand, is capped at 1,350 Watts. While that might seem like a lot, the Xeon processors combined with the Nvidia graphics cards can quickly draw upwards of 1,000 Watts at full load.