Dell 8250 P4 2.4 GHz from hotdeals

[Tom]

PC1066 is faster than PC800. Will you notice the difference most of the time ? Probably not.

If the reason for adding additional memory above 256m is just for a general performance increase it doesn't make sense to me to use the slower PC800 memory. That is like taking one step forward and one step back and paying for the privilege of doing so.

On the other hand there are specific applications where the additional memory will speed things up considerably more than going to a slower memory speed will slow things down. The only way to rationallly determine this is to do some research on the specific application you want to use.

 

[ClakClak]

mobo space on 8 usb ports when they could have put a better integrated audio sound system in.
Is there a difference in the motherboard if we optted for the premium sound instead of the integrated sound? So if you got the integrated sound, could you still upgrade your soundcard?
Thanks

 

[Tom]

I haven't looked it up yet, but if the 8250 has the same integrated sound the 4550 has then it is actually very good.

And if you get the integrated sound rhen it is possible to disable it and add a different pci sound card. Personally I might add an audigy at some point because it also has a Firewire port on it.

 

[ylim11]

I disable the onboard sound and use my creative audigy....

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: CalcMan
RossMAN you seemed gungho before why'd you cancel it now?

The whole FedEx fiasco (I even had my 7 digit FedEx Ground account number but used my 9 digit account number instead which means I would have been charged $80 - $120 shipping) and waiting about 120 days for $560 in rebates isn't my idea of fun.

 

[Hankysmoo]

Does this computer need 512M ram to feel more "responsive"? I have heard that this computer feels sluggish right off the bat. I think its because of all the dell preloaded software which I will be erasing anyways with a clean install of WinXP Pro. Do you guys think $120 for 256 samsung pc 1060 will be worth it? I mostly just want to play the newest games with my gf4 ti4200. Thanks

 

[ylim11]

I don't like the preloaded dell software, I did a clean install the windowsXP on this baby.
You can get all the driver from the dell driver CD. That's the only CD I copy the driver to the harddrive.

 

[ai42]

Just took mine apart because I CAN!

Intel 2.40GHZ/512/533/1.525V
SL6DV Costa Rica (this is C1 stepping for any of you overclockers ) (BTW this the cooling is like ass?! on the heatsync they put some black thermal grease? then like a layer of aluminum foil that contacts the CPU?!!)
Maxtor DiamondMax 8 30GB
Samsung MR16R1624DF0-CT9 1066-32P
BTW empty ram slots have this terminator stick things
Don't care about floppy/cd.

Mobo/Video card are all dell manufactuered.

Also this cooling method is just silent! it's like a 92mm (I'm guessing but it doesn't look like an 80mm) fan sucking across that giant P4 heatsync.

Two stupid overservations because I've never owned a P4:
The P4 is a lot heavier than you would expect.
Those ramsinks make the RAM quite heavy as well.

 

[dannybin1742]

so what is the final price after you get al your rebate checks

i really missed this deal by a few days... i'm so pissed

 

[Bob0]

Damn, this thing is fast, compared to the clunker P3 800 I was using before. Just ran a quick 3DMark, and got a 13227. My old system used to pull 5879.

 

[dboy]

Mine came yesterday afternoon (third try from the UPS man) and I of course switched lots of parts between this and my "old" computer. Now I have:

2.4 GHz P4
256 meg PC1066 RDRAM
40gig IBM 60gxp HD
80gig Maxtor 740something HD (made $10 on it from staples)
GeForce4MX420 video
Hercules Game Theater XP 7.1 (though only 2.1 speakers currently)
16x DVD
24x CDRW (liteon, made money on this one too after rebates from OM I think)
dell floppy
no modem
onboard NIC
Pinnacle TV Tuner (~$15 AR a while back)
MS Internet Keyboard Pro
MS Wheel mouse optical (red, not blue, and free AR)
19" monitor
Deskjet 952C printer (paid like $40 for it AR/AC a year ago)

All in all, pretty happy. Obviously with swapping the HDs around, I reinstalled XP from scratch and didn't put on all the dell crap. The 30gig HD that came in it is going into my old box to keep it running (1ghz Athlon, 512meg DDR, 30gig HD, geforce2pro, CDRW, win2k)

I really liked the dell case. Pretty easy to work in, laid out nicely, looks better than my old case too. Now just need to get some vinyl dye and darken my DVD and CDRW cause right now they look butt!

 

[Tom]

As far as overall system sluggishness, going from 256m to 512m isn't going to make much if any difference. It will help when running several programs at once and with programs that need a lot of memory like graphics and database.

The most likely cause is the slow hard drive that was the lowest cost option. The software Dell pre-installs may be a factor too but I think the hard drive is the main thing. In a system where every other component is very fast, a slow hard drive can really slow a system down a lot.

Of course I think most of us don't plan to run these system on that hard drive permanently anyway.

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: dannybin1742
so what is the final price after you get al your rebate checks

i really missed this deal by a few days... i'm so pissed

$90

 

[dboy]

Am I correct in remembering that Dell uses non-standard mobos? I'm thinking that the power connector is unique, and maybe mounting holes too. I was considering the idea of putting in a new DDR capable mobo - I've got 256 meg of that lying around, plus it's cheaper if I wanted more. I know you can get standard-to-dell power connector converters (just don't remember where I've seen them), but is there anything else that would cause a problem?

 

[Tom]

Why?

Is the PC1066 too fast ?

 

[NeXus4400]

Does anyone know what company manufactures this motherboard. I want to flash the bios because I hate the Dell thing. I flash my old Dimensions PC with an Intel Bios; works like a charm.

 

[yqren]

If I install one HD on Prim IDE, it is UDMA mode 5. Interesting thing is that if I put 2 HDs in the Prim IDE slot, both show me UDMA mode 2. Anyone has some idea about it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rally1]

i think both devices can only go as fast as the slowest device on the cable.

that said that must be an old HD if it's 2.

 

[yqren]

thanks for response.

they are both new maxtor ata133 hd 7200rpm. one 30gb, one 80gb

 

[Rally1]

and you have one set to master, and one slave, ie not using cable select?

 

[yqren]

yes, one master one slave, actually I tried CS also. same thing UDMA mode 2 if I connect two HDs in one cable.

 

[RSMemphis]

Maybe a bad cable? If the cable is not fully rated for UDMA 5 or 6, it may handle it ok with only one HD attached, but not with two?
UDMA 2 = 33 MB/s, right?

 

[yqren]

cable no problem, since I use it on my AMD XP 1700+ machine, it supports 2HDs with UDMA mode 5, no any problem.

 

[ylim11]

Does anybody know the brand of the 8250 motherboard?

 

[NeXus4400]

I think Dell makes their own motherboards. My Dell Dimension XPS D266 had an Intel motherboard which I flashed with Intel Bios. I've read that Dell handcrafted this motherboard for the 8250.

-Samuel