Dell T1500 entry-level workstation with FirePro card specifically designed & certified for AutoCAD

Dell today announced the Precision T1500. It is the cheapest workstation in the Dell lineup (with a starting price of $949) and was built from the ground up and certified for AutoCAD.  It ships with a choice of AMD’s ATI FirePro V3750 or Nvidia’s Quadro FX 580.  What makes this an especially interesting workstation though is that it is based on the new Intel Core i5 (or i7) processors (as opposed to Xeon).  This could be particularly interesting when DirectX 11 is out.

News useful for this announcement is the recent review of the Intel Core i5 and i7 systems by 3DProfessor.  He also covers performance with the ATI FirePro v5700 and Quadro FX1800.