Dell Poweredge SC420 For $229!!! Celery 325J

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alright, wasnt sure if i needed to download them or not. Mine just shipped out yesterday via UPS so i guess it will be another 3-5 days before i see it lol.
 
mine came in 2 days.. total... (after it shipped) counting a one day delay.. and I did the free shipping.. and i'm in washington.. who woulda thunk it?
 
i'm about to order one of these with the 3.4F (EM64T), 80GB SATA and 1GB DC for $582.
 
Rogue4mula said:
all it is is a better processor and double the ram and you're more than double the price! :eek:
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512MB DC to 1GB DC is only $99. From a Celeron 325J to 3.4F is $249. Neither is a bad upgrade. You still can't really find the 3.4F anywhere outside OEM systems. I'd probably just dump the SC420 with a nice 84W P4 3.4 E from my 8400 system and keep the 3.4F. :D
 
Anyword on the number of PCI slots? Will I be able to stick a PCI snd card, vid card and TV tuner in it? Are the slots standard or are they something else?

Might pick one up with the 80gig and use it as a HTPC.
 
Nuc_E said:
Anyword on the number of PCI slots? Will I be able to stick a PCI snd card, vid card and TV tuner in it? Are the slots standard or are they something else?

Might pick one up with the 80gig and use it as a HTPC.
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I believe it has 3 pci slots, 1 PCIe 8x slot and 1 PCIe 1x slot. 1 IDE channel, a floppy channel and 2 SATA ports.
 
note to future buyers... i'm regretting (kind of ) not getting another 80 gig and having em raid it... but i dunno if the extra $ is worth it.
 
Rogue4mula said:
note to future buyers... i'm regretting (kind of ) not getting another 80 gig and having em raid it... but i dunno if the extra $ is worth it.
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I do not know what brand of drives dell uses, but I am sure you can get a 80 GB drive of the same brand at the egg for less than $159 dell would have charged.

Egg Prices All OEM, 8mb Cache, $3.19 shipping:

Hitachi $62
Maxtor $63.45
WD $63.69
Seagate $66
Samsung $67
Seagate $72
 
Rogue4mula said:
note to future buyers... i'm regretting (kind of ) not getting another 80 gig and having em raid it... but i dunno if the extra $ is worth it.
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That's not really a good idea as pointed out above. $159 during configuration for the 80GB drive and cable is horribly overpriced.

Dell usually ships a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 (8MB, 7200RPM, ST380013AS) as the 80GB SATA drive. newegg has that drive for $69 shipped (elsewhere on pricewatch for $61-$66 shipped), plus you need another SATA cable.

I picked up a retail WD 250GB SATA drive from Fry's yesterday for $109AR. outpost.com has it for $169.99 - $50MIR = $119.99 + ~$7 shipping: http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3868597 . I'll pick up a second one when the new rebate is in effect/on sale again, probably less than a month from now.

Yesterday I ordered the SC420 with the 3.4F (EM64T), 80GB and 512MB DC DDR2-3200 for $480. I only really want the CPU.
 
I want to get me one of these, but I'm not sure which processor I should upgrade to. As far as I know, the Celerons are terrible, but I don't play a lot of games and don't need a ton of computing power. What do you guys suggest?
 
The 2.8 is a decent upgrade, gives faster FSB and more cache, as well as the extra MHz. Beyond that I don't see the point, unless you actually have an application that can use the speed.
 
It really depends on what you will use it for.

Celerons aren't Terrible. I got 1 celeron 2.53 and 1 p4 2.8. They're not being used much but Folding.

Really cant tell that big of a difference between them. Save yourself the $100 and go for the Celeron.

You cant game on this system anyway so it doesnt really matter what processor.
 
i've been sittin here staring at the dell.com site now for about 25 mins thinking about whether i should order this for my parents to use for internet cruising and emailing.

i think this would be friggin' perfect, and i priced this out at the egg and its over $300 roughly with no case, psu and motherboard.

2.53ghz, 512mb DDR2, and an 80gb SATA drive for $264 shipped, i'm about to order one for me just for the hell of it... :D

hopefully i will be able to add a soundcard to it, onboard video is fine..
 
kleptophobiac said:
Simple business, it has three standard 32 bit PCI slots.
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3 standard PCI? Good. Or not so good. Looks like I have to put off buying a new TV
 
The Dell site says "Unavailable" for a shipping time, but you can still order, and a shipping time will show up as like January 7th or so.

Got it for $248 even with the 80gb/2.53Cel/512MB
 
why does it say it cant be used as a desktop?
physical impossibility? or legal/price reasons?

i was gonna gut out the mobo (maybe) and just cannabalize the rest
mouse keboard chip ram hard drive case psu, etc.
 
Sphexi said:
The Dell site says "Unavailable" for a shipping time, but you can still order, and a shipping time will show up as like January 7th or so.
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yep. it said unavailable when i ordered it on friday afternoon and the status already shows boxing. i'll have it next week. :D
 
Ocean said:
why does it say it cant be used as a desktop?
physical impossibility? or legal/price reasons?
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you can use it as a desktop.

1. the PCI-E x8 slot needs to be modified to accept a PCI-E video card
2. dell doesn't support WinXP on it (but it works fine)
3. lots of n00bs probably complained after buying it because of #1 and #2
 
I've said before, Dell has a contract to put MS OS on all desktops. By saying this isn't a desktop, they are free to have other OS choices. That's why this isn't a desktop.
 
kleptophobiac said:
I've said before, Dell has a contract to put MS OS on all desktops.
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That's not true. Dell has offered desktops with FreeDOS installed (even just several months ago... e.g. 2400n) in the US and still does overseas.

The reasons for the "not a desktop" disclaimer are exactly what I wrote above, and you can verify it on Dell's site: WinXP is not supported for that server and even with the older 400SC (which had an AGP slot) the slot was not supported at all.

sc420 configuration page said:
Dell does not support the use of a graphics card on the SC420.

...
Note: Dell does not certify/support Operating Systems that are not listed below to run on PowerEdge SC420 Servers. (WinXP is not listed as a choice, only RH ES 3.0 and Win2003)
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Ocean said:
how does one modify a pci-e 8x slot?
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There are 1 or 2 tabs that you need to remove from the slot. Various methods include melting through the plastic, chipping it off or using a dremel.

See http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2058 for the basic info and a link to the longer thread with slot modification and PCI-E successes. The new A01 BIOS seems to have fixed the NMI problem with some nvidia pci-e cards. My 8400 had the same problem originally with a 6600GT, a harmless NMI error on start-up with a prompt to disable it. Shutting it down had no ill effects and updating the BIOS completely fixed it.
 
wow... mine processed and was built all in the same day... it was supposed to be shipped the 5th... but then i got the real 1gb free upgrade (if your gonna order one email and ask them... didnt charge me the 99) after i asked for that it was supposed to be shipped the 11th.... now it says it will be deliverd the 5th :) cant wait..... i love getting stuff in the mail :) ....orderd 2uv cathodes from xoxide... 1 was broke they sent me another 2 pack free... so now i have 3 in my case :)
 
Considering that the 560J (P4 3.6 LGA 775, EMT64) is only $349 MORE on this rig, yet that processor is $449 on newegg...... I think the better deal is this


P4 3.6GHZ / EMT64 / 800MHZ FSB / 1MB L2 CACHE
Base system
1 gig DDR2
80 gig sata

$682
 
Laforge said:
Considering that the 560J (P4 3.6 LGA 775, EMT64) is only $349 MORE on this rig, yet that processor is $449 on newegg...... I think the better deal is this
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I decided on just 512MB because it's possible to get 1GB of DDR2-4200 for $160 (fry's and/or outpost) when it's on sale. 512MB of ECC DDR2 (2x256 DIMMs) is easily worth around $100. A little more hassle, but saving $$$ is saving $$$.

Does the 560J support 1066MHz FSB like the regular 560 and 570 (extra lower multiplier unlocked)?
 
I ordered mine on Friday and it got built over the weekend, they shipped it today. Should have it sometime this week. Can't wait! This has to be possibly the best computer deal I have ever seen. I plan on using this as a home media server running Gentoo. It would also serve as a nice backup box in the event one of my desktops go down. Anyone got any pictures of the innards? I'd like to see what I will be faced with before I get it :D
 
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