Dell PowerEdge 400SC (ed: 9/4 offering P4 3.2G for $100) w/ P4 2.8 800FSB hyperthread $448 free ship

[Whitneymuse]

Update: 8-18 PM, only P4 2.4 at this price; add $100 for P4 2.8

How long will it be going on for? Who knows. The original brochure stated that the basic server was on sale Aug 7-20. I only found it as I was cancelling my order for the P4 2.4c made yesterday (8-14) for the same price. But when they essentially gave the 2.8c/800 for $100 less than they were charging yesterday, I signed up again. BTW, this is the i875 chip on the mobo, dual channel, hyperthread, 800 MHz FSB, atDELL small business

And do read the thread (I did.) olliebg's excellent FAQ on configuring this into a workstation. (It's covered in the original link, above, but here it is without having to jump through another thread).

After reading this again, I should mention that you will see a number of these people on the Dell board's Customer Care and click on the Community tab, then go to the discussion on the PowerEdge servers...here is is if this link works:PowerEdge Community discussion and click on the "General Hardware" discussion threads. There are about 5 that are very good and get you started.

It's not as great as the one day P4 3.2c of several weeks ago, but then it's also $130 cheaper than that one, too.

 

[ivwshane]

This looks good!!

Some things I have to get confirmation on first and yes I read the FAQ's FW linked to.

Is the power connector proprietary?
What type of network chip is used? is it an intel chip that supports bootp?


Should I swap my intel d845pebt2 for this dell mobo?



Now if I can find a 10% off coupon

 

[oaaltone]

Originally posted by: ivwshane
This looks good!!

Some things I have to get confirmation on first and yes I read the FAQ's FW linked to.

Is the power connector proprietary?
What type of network chip is used? is it an intel chip that supports bootp?


Should I swap my intel d845pebt2 for this dell mobo?



Now if I can find a 10% off coupon

Howdy from the FAQ guy!

- The motherboard uses a standard ATX power connector (for once, Dell got this right!)
- The network card is an Intel PRO/1000 (onboard Gigabit), so yes, it supports bootp
- Up to you, they're both good motherboards. The Dell has the 875P though...

 

[VSOP]

Now if only I could get my hands on a 10% coupon.. Damn dell stopped sending me them..
If anyone is not going to use one you can pm or email me: vsop2k1@yahoo.com

 

[ivwshane]

Originally posted by: olliebg

Originally posted by: ivwshane
This looks good!!

Some things I have to get confirmation on first and yes I read the FAQ's FW linked to.

Is the power connector proprietary?
What type of network chip is used? is it an intel chip that supports bootp?


Should I swap my intel d845pebt2 for this dell mobo?



Now if I can find a 10% off coupon

Howdy from the FAQ guy!

- The motherboard uses a standard ATX power connector (for once, Dell got this right!)
- The network card is an Intel PRO/1000 (onboard Gigabit), so yes, it supports bootp
- Up to you, they're both good motherboards. The Dell has the 875P though...

Thanks! Great FAQ by the way!

One more question, does this board fit in a regular atx case?

Oh and one more Can I install a standard stock intel heatsink on this board, meaning does it have the correct brackets?

 

[oaaltone]

Originally posted by: ivwshane
Thanks! Great FAQ by the way!

One more question, does this board fit in a regular atx case?

Oh and one more Can I install a standard stock intel heatsink on this board, meaning does it have the correct brackets?

- I don't believe so. The motherboard isn't held in place by standard ATX screws, it uses a tab system, shown here.
- The heatsink mount isn't standard, it looks like this.

 

[ivwshane]

Hmm that clip design doesn't make sense to me. I even see cooling pipes which would lead me to believe this system is cooled in a similar fashion as the shuttle mini pc's, if that's the case then it's probably pretty effecient.

I've seen gateway systems that use a similar style motherboard tray. You had to slide and pull up as well but the only reason you had to do that was because instead of normal motherboard mounts they used some other type of motherboard mounting system but it was still a standard atx board.

Hmm...that's the only thing holding me back, if I can't use my existing case then this is a no go

Has anyone found out who makes the mobo? I tried searching newegg for something similar but nothing showed up. Does anyone know who dell usually goes through for their motherboards? I checked intel's site and nothing looked similar either.


I see you are all over the place olliebg, nice work

 

[oaaltone]

- The system is cooled by a SINGLE ultra-quiet fan (temperature controlled, 92mm,NMB 3612KL-04W-B66). The fan blows air through a duct and over the HS on the CPU. (pic of duct lifted, pic of duct down)
- The motherboard may be ATX size (I haven't measured it...), but it doesn't have an ATX screw layout. Here's a big pic of the board.
- Dell usually has custom boards, and I believe this is the case here. I believe Intel makes the board for Dell. It is similar to the D875PBZ, but not identical.

 

[ivwshane]

Originally posted by: olliebg
- The system is cooled by a SINGLE ultra-quiet fan (temperature controlled, 92mm,NMB 3612KL-04W-B66). The fan blows air through a duct and over the HS on the CPU. (pic of duct lifted, pic of duct down)
- The motherboard may be ATX size (I haven't measured it...), but it doesn't have an ATX screw layout. Here's a big pic of the board.
- Dell usually has custom boards, and I believe this is the case here. I believe Intel makes the board for Dell. It is similar to the D875PBZ, but not identical.

Damn

It looks like I'll have to pass

 

[yhelothar]

lol it's not quiet at all...
only ultra quiet if your room is like 20C and your computer is idle...

my room is 28-30C... and the thing is loud.. not only that... it spins up and down which makes it even more annoying...
then when you start up a game.. it's like the flowFX.. it revs up to like 5000RPM... ultra loud... louder than flowfx i bet...
well you had the 2.2GHz P4... so i guess that runs a lot cooler than this 3.2GHz monster...

 

[Whitneymuse]

my order is "in Process" so the only person's comments I know of other than ollie's is afgInc's who's personally told me that this system is the "best value on the entire Dell...."

Here're the facts...2.8Gc/800FSB/i875 mobo/hyper..cause...it's >800MHz...ummm...also having SCSI options for a few dollars more....but not me....

Other than this thread...read agfInc...and ollie if nothing else...then peruse the threads and links from Anandtech and those other immitators...

then save yourself about $400 bucks and get the current state of the art P4, hyperthread enabled computer...

night...

 

[oaaltone]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
lol it's not quiet at all...
only ultra quiet if your room is like 20C and your computer is idle...

my room is 28-30C... and the thing is loud.. not only that... it spins up and down which makes it even more annoying...
then when you start up a game.. it's like the flowFX.. it revs up to like 5000RPM... ultra loud... louder than flowfx i bet...
well you had the 2.2GHz P4... so i guess that runs a lot cooler than this 3.2GHz monster...

Got to be the MHz difference, because it's darn hot in the room the 400SC is in: no air conditioning, and non-ventilated. The thing barely makes any noise. I haven't had the pleasure of it ramping up to 5000+ RPM

 

[VisionsUCI]

Thanks for the information. I hesitated on the 3.2ghz deal, and I'm in need of an upgrade.

 

[Whitneymuse]

Ollie...I was searching the "net" for silent fans; I even replaced a fine 250W power supply with a 300W Sparkle just to assuage the denigrators who opined it was a dB JND...just-noticeable-difference that moire would know; I'll not know whether to validate your findings or not until the 21st of Aug when mine is FOB destination San Diego.

Thanks for all your work and I know if I can't install all the drivers...I'll be the first to BWAHAHAHAHAHAH...

 

[oaaltone]

Originally posted by: VisionsUCI
Thanks for the information. I hesitated on the 3.2ghz deal, and I'm in need of an upgrade.

Worst case, use it for 29 days and return it to Dell and get all of your money back.

 

[oaaltone]

Originally posted by: Whitneymuse
Ollie...I was searching the "net" for silent fans; I even replaced a fine 250W power supply with a 300W Sparkle just to assuage the denigrators who opined it was a dB JND...just-noticeable-difference that moire would know; I'll not know whether to validate your findings or not until the 21st of Aug when mine is FOB destination San Diego.

Thanks for all your work and I know if I can't install all the drivers...I'll be the first to BWAHAHAHAHAHAH...

I'll see as well, I ordered a 2.8GHz/SCSI system to do some more fooling around with.

As for the drivers, XP install is a breeze, and I've heard 2000 installs nicely as well. The drivers are all linked in the FAQ.

 

[ivwshane]

This is definitely a good deal just not one that will allow me to upgrade what I have

 

[VisionsUCI]

Well, I ordered one for myself. I really wanted to build a computer around the DFI lanparty motherboard for its nice RAID 1.5 and light effects, but for the price, I couldn't pass up this deal.

I only wonder if the power supply will be enough for my AIW Radeon 9700 Pro. I just bought one and I've heard that it has issues with certain power supplies, but I'll find out soon enough.

edit:

Just noticed that I chose the "no keyboard" and "no mouse" options. I overlooked it. LOL. I guess I didn't need them, but never hurts to have extras.

 

[lhotdeals]

Wow, i also ordered two and I also forgot to add in keyboard and mouse! omg... those bastards at Dell!

I guess its ok though, cauz I have been wondering what to do with my 5 extra keyboards =P. Now i need a damn mouse

 

[VisionsUCI]

LOL.. thats another thing. I should have ordered 2 !

Edit: Darn, I should have gotten the SCSI.. only like $50 more

 

[yhelothar]

haha yeah i forgot to add the keyboard and mouse too.. grrr

 

[oaaltone]

Originally posted by: VisionsUCI
Well, I ordered one for myself. I really wanted to build a computer around the DFI lanparty motherboard for its nice RAID 1.5 and light effects, but for the price, I couldn't pass up this deal.

I only wonder if the power supply will be enough for my AIW Radeon 9700 Pro. I just bought one and I've heard that it has issues with certain power supplies, but I'll find out soon enough.

edit:

Just noticed that I chose the "no keyboard" and "no mouse" options. I overlooked it. LOL. I guess I didn't need them, but never hurts to have extras.

- The power supply is plenty powerful. Even though it is rated at 250W, Dell rates based on media wattage, not maximum wattage, like most manufacturers. They also use quality components so you don't go whining back to them when your server dies. You could load this thing will drives a plenty and a 9800 Pro and it will have no problems.
- Everyone forgets to add the keyboard/mouse the first time around I did too... but over the years I've collected many a Dell keyboard and mouse, so no problem there

 

[yomamma]

Begging for a 10% coupon. plz PM.

Half Life 2, Max Payne 2 are due soon. I need to upgrade!

Cheers,

Bill

 

[iwearnosox]

All 800mhz fsb processors are hyperthreading, no matter what he says. The motherboard also supports HT as efforts in other threads reveal.

The people you're talking to at Dell are clueless, Whitneymuse. Pull down your disclaimer and don't worry about it.

 

[Whitneymuse]

iwearnosox:
I hope you're right, but then that'll mean my second time reordering this machine. I was under the impression that all of the 800FSB were hyperthreading. I'm going to the Intel site and reread that paragraph.