D&H Component Division Adds New AMD Processors

D&H’s Component Division has added new AMD processors, including Threadripper, Epyc, Ryzen and Athlon series, and Radeon graphics cards to satisfy growing demand for high-performance, high-demand gaming, e-sports, content creation, server and AI applications.

The additions help the division offer more complete white-box ecosystems to D&H’s system integrators, VARs, resellers and other partners.

D&H’s Chris Geiser

“It’s not a stand-alone sale; you really do need an entire solution,” said Chris Geiser, the distributor’s senior director of components and systems, referring to CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, power supplies, memory, cases and other components. “All of the different vendors recognize that not one of them is the single solution provider; they all want to work together. That’s the reason the PC industry has advanced so far. Every individual vendor is trying to hyper-optimize their own performance.”

Most of the AMD components are available through D&H, except for the latest versions of Threadripper, which should be out soon. High-performance chips like Threadripper are being used more frequently for the intensive workflows generated by demanding engineering and science-driven applications.

Hot Markets Looking for Killer Systems

Sales of high-end gaming systems, another hot area for AMD’s premium processors and graphics, has slumped a bit since the pandemic surge, but are still stronger than in 2019, Geiser said. The “content creation” space is also ripe with opportunity, mainly because it covers so many different applications in need of high-performance computing. Those could include scientific modeling, gene splicing, energy and weather studies, 8K video production, and AI development. There is also a huge army of amateur content creators developing videos, graphics and other content that require powerful systems, custom laptops, high-end monitors and other components.

“We’re seeing products that are specifically targeted towards being used in all of those different kinds of workflows. Luckily, there’s a lot more capacity and processing power and ability to render and create all these cool video effects,” he said. “In the semi-professional space you see all of the streamers and anybody else creating content benefiting from the different types of products that are now available.”

New Features Target Specific Applications

Chipset developers are also building features into next-gen platforms targeted at specific applications. Those could include simple functions like background management or eye-tracking on web cams or heavy duty AI processing applications, to name a few.

“All of that stuff can theoretically be offloaded from the CPU and the software and put directly into the hardware. That allows more efficiency when serving up those workflows,” Geiser said. “It’s interesting that we’re starting to see the chipset manufacturers develop strategies around that and starting to integrate more core technology into their platforms to be able to micro-optimize for some applications. It’s going to be a huge advantage for users working in those environments.”

D&H Adds Components and Sales Support

Since starting the Components Division two years ago, D&H has continued to add vendors to the portfolio and the sales staff to support them. “When we add a vendor like AMD, we’ll add dedicated headcount to be able to support the AMD product line on both the retail side and the commercial side,” Geiser said.

The Components Division has also become more integrated into D&H’s overall supply chain DNA and its Professional Services Division, which provides on-sight configuration, drive imaging, Microsoft Autopilot implementation, etching, asset tracking and everything-as-a-service (XAAS), among other services.

“Thinking about how we can incorporate components more into our endpoint solutions and how we manage those kind of upgrades on the server and client sides has been a big change for us,” Geiser said. “We’ve been focused on adding capabilities and building out those skills internally.”