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Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
System analysis	GreatestOne	01/10/04
I just got a new sys from a friend and was wondering how good it is.. i know that's a general question, but bear with me and read through the whole question and you will see what I am getting at: This is one of the systems I used to use and to which am comparing: Soyo DragonPlus MB Athlon XP 1800+ 768 MB DDR nVidia GeForce3 Ti200 ... and this is the one I just got: PowerEdge Server 400SC P4-2.26GHz 533FSB (faster processor, but not sure about the 533FSB bec most people say the 800FSB has noticeable improvement) 128MB DDR, ECC, 400MHz, 1X128MB (low, I can always get more, but is this one a good type?) ATI Rage XL PCI graphic card (is this any good? it doesnt even use the AGP slot, seemed like it was plugged into the PCI slot, so what u think?) Onboard 1000Mbps NIC (pretty standard NIC right?) 6 x USB 2.0, 1 parallel, 2 serial, 2 PS/2 (cool, USB2.0 which i dont have now) 8x AGP, 4 PCI slots Serial ATA Motherboard is based on the 875P chipset, has SATA, 8x AGP, integrated audio, and supports 800FSB CPUs. Drivers for the advanced features can be found at Intel. It has a nice clamshell case design. Also works with non-ECC memory. The power supply is 250W but Dell rates it conservatively. 250W is equivalent to ~350W. Oh and case is pretty cool, nice jet black and opens in that clamshell design, not great but nice, and nice fan system for the CPU, runs directly to it in a bent tunnel system... Because I do everything from design to business to gaming, I will need to upgrade the video card it seems on the server, and definitely the RAM to at least 512 for now, more then i can afford it, but do you think it is a general upgrade in everything else from the other sys? One other gripe I have now is that I need to use a PCI adapter to make my extra large HD's work bec the Soyo MB doesnt support anything over like 120 GB or something... thanks.
Clarification/Follow-up by GreatestOne on 01/11/04 7:54 am: Thanks for your input... what do u think my pc right now is worth? I also have a first gen Sony DVD+RW drive and I can put in a 40 GB hd, or whatever.... I was thinking about $300-400... And so u are saying I should replace the power on the dell and replace with a 450W? I did hear that having plenty more power does reduce crashes, etc, but besides eating more electricity (since my pc is on 99% of the time), doesnt more power than necessary harm any of the components? Clarification/Follow-up by GreatestOne on 01/11/04 5:59 pm: What would it take for me to upgrade the 533FSB to the 800FSB? And is that upgrade negligible or is it more like a cpu upgrade of the same magnitiude? Clarification/Follow-up by GreatestOne on 01/12/04 6:58 pm: How do you upgrade the FSB speed Clarification/Follow-up by GreatestOne on 01/13/04 2:55 pm: Oh I see, so that means i would have to get a whole new cpu and new memory, etc.... so basically the point is that the MB is the one that SUPPORTS 800, but it is the cpu and ram that actually decides it? Also did you say that u were not too hot on the radeon ati's? You think I should stick with the nvidia for this Pentium? If I get some non-ecc memory, do I have to discard the ecc already in the machine and stick with non-ecc only to be safe? i know how volatile memory can be so... How do i find out the exact mb model that is in the machine now... i have been looking up some 875P chipsets but cant find the one in this one.... i hear that the 875 is a real good model, much improved from the old 875PE is it... but i would like to read a review of the MB in my machine right now just to see.... any ideas? I have a photo copy as well on their spec sheet but no model # whatsoever... is it possible that Dell makes their own MB or at least gets them and sells under their own name only? Thanks for your help, I am sure I will have some more questions coming up, since I wanna make sure I dont screw up this new sys.... or maybe it is just the power system that is lacking in my current one, hmmmm? I guess I just dont feel like getting a new power supply and putting it in there.... but I guess I have to do it for the new one anyways.... do people even buy used or new power systems on ebay, i.e., is it even worth selling, since I have no idea what price they go for, last time I bought one was like 4 years ago, i think a 250W one for like $40 for a client. Clarification/Follow-up by GreatestOne on 01/22/04 6:20 pm: I cant seem to find any DDR memory at 800 mhz for my system. Are you sure there are 800mhz modules for the 875P mb? All i can seem to find is 400 mhz, but the mb is supposed to be operating at 533, so what is the issue here? I also browsed through Crucial for memory, and they didnt even state the bus speed on their modules, and on top of that, they did not have any non-ECC for the PE400SC, probably because its for a server... so how can I find a compatible module(s) for the PE400SC that is non-ECC, since I agree I prefer the speed over error checking.... Clarification/Follow-up by GreatestOne on 01/24/04 1:11 pm: Well there are like 50 lines of board and memory info, what specifically do you need or should I be looking at? I would think there is only one type of memory for the Dell PE400SC 975P chipset. Clarification/Follow-up by GreatestOne on 01/24/04 5:47 pm: MB ID - DMI MB Name - Dell Computer Corporation Poweredge 400SC front bus type - intel netburst front bus width - 64 bit memory bus bandwidth - 2666 mb/s mem bus type - ddr sdram mem bus width - 64 bit Clarification/Follow-up by Denied1 on 01/25/04 5:34 am: ok what your after for information can be found here the memory wont run at 800 mhtz the chip can all the details are on this page i will include another page for info also. http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/pe400sc/en/ug/j0323aa0.htm#1039152 http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/pe400sc/en/index.htm

Summary of Answers Received	Answered On	Answered By	Average Rating
1. price wise yea you have it about right, power supply no i ha...	01/11/04	Denied1
2. Have you ran the program AIDA32? if not try running it,it wi...	01/24/04	Denied1
3. looking for board model number, the specs on it and any othe...	01/24/04	Denied1

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