Notice of Intent to Specify Brand Name Supplies - Video Editing Workstation

The United States Army Corps of Engineers; Detroit District intends to solicit on a competitive basis for a Dell T5600 workstation under the authority of FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A) - Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements for the listed equipment. The successful vendor shall supply a Dell T5600 workstation with dual Xenon processors E5-2687W (Eight Core 2.7GHz, 20M, 8.0 GT/s, Turbo+) with 32 GB RAM. To ensure file input\output is not a problem the workstation shall include a 256GB solid state boot drive with additional storage drives totaling at least 2TB of storage operating at 10k RPM. Software to be installed will require the use of a 2GB NVIDIA graphics card at a minimum. A full list of required specifications is provided in the attached document. The Dell T5600 model has been tested to comply with Army Corps of Engineers information technology (ACE-IT) standards, which were tested for security vulnerabilities and operational capabilities, Dell products are required to be purchased. Although other manufacturers provide similar workstations, none of these have been tested on the USACE Enterprise network and could potentially present system integrity issues and impact the US Army Corps of Engineers mission. The Government intends to specify the Dell workstation by brand name in a forthcoming solicitation via the Army's CHESS commercial IT hardware procurement system. Manufacturers may identify their interest and capabilities to provide equivalent products in writing to the identified point of contact no later than 2:00 PM Eastern Time on 15 August 2013. Your response must demonstrate your brand's capabilities and compatibility. These responses will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement with a brand name or equal specification. A determination by the Government not to solicit with a brand name or equal specification, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. No RFP will be issued based upon this Notice of Intent. Interested parties may submit any information for consideration by the government to: contact@example.gov with "Video Editing Workstation - Brand Name Components" referenced in the subject line.