Originally posted by: RossMAN
ActuaryTm and jpeyton,
Please talk me out of ordering this
List all the con's
Cons. Sheesh, very hard. In no specific order:
- Case is slightly larger than midtower. Clamshell design rather than standard removable panels.
- Uses the standard Dell plastic drive rails. Some prefer a railess interface. Some call the case ugly (as mentioned before, I prefer to think of it as simple elegance).
- Slightly unconvential case layout (power supply mounted vertically, rather than horizontally, etc).
- PCI Express is becoming more mainstream, and the board lacks any PCI-E slots. No "bleeding edge" factor in this regard.
- Only a 2.8GHz, 512KB Cache Processor. (very large stretch here)
- Only two 5.25" bays. Some might prefer more.
- Comes standard with ECC ram. Upgrade path would be either continuing with ECC ram (more expensive, of course) or scrapping/selling original ram, and replacing with less expensive non-ECC ram. Additional cost factor.
- Limited bios. If you're a serious overclocker, the 400SC might be found wanting in this department.
- 400SC operational noise is almost
too quiet.
- Only six USB ports.
- Have to pay tax on the purchase (oh, wait.
Ross doesn't have to pay tax)
- 400SC deals seem to be repeating often (although this rivals most of them, save the 3.2GHz deal ages ago)
All of the above listed are an immense stretch (and rather insignificant) when compared with the features at this price point, but attempting to be honest and list all the possible points
against a purchase. Simply a very solid system, and an excellent price.