Laziness: New XPS vs. 8400?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I usually build my own PC clones, but I don't have much time and I need
a new box.

So I looked over the Dell site and ran a comparison of an 8400 with a
3.4GHz processor and the XPS with the same processor. I equipped both
machines exactly alike, and the XPS came in at $1851 and the 8400 at
$1520, both one gig of memory machines, 160 gig hard drive, 48X CDRW, no
monitor, same 238 meg PCI Express Radeon x800SE video card, et cetera.
Same motherboard, too, it seems.

Now, the XPS has a slightly larger case...but other than that...
any differences?

AND, most important, any thoughts about these new machins, positive or
negative?

Thanks!

h.

 

[Molly]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I have a Gen 2 XPS box. The boxes have a larger power supply, and will take
3 HD and 3 internal drives. The computer has two firewires one in front and
one in the back located on the sound card. The twin cooling fans are a
little noisy. The box can be worked on while it is sitting on a table, and
of course you get the blue SATA round cable for the HD. I purchased this
outlet store cpu because, I did not want to put the best video card at the
time in a 8300. You can not buy the best card and put it in a 8400 box
today. You have to purchase an XPS.

"Harry Krause" <piedtypecase@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2nnr5tF2p67bU1@uni-berlin.de...
> I usually build my own PC clones, but I don't have much time and I need
> a new box.
>
> So I looked over the Dell site and ran a comparison of an 8400 with a
> 3.4GHz processor and the XPS with the same processor. I equipped both
> machines exactly alike, and the XPS came in at $1851 and the 8400 at
> $1520, both one gig of memory machines, 160 gig hard drive, 48X CDRW, no
> monitor, same 238 meg PCI Express Radeon x800SE video card, et cetera.
> Same motherboard, too, it seems.
>
> Now, the XPS has a slightly larger case...but other than that...
> any differences?
>
> AND, most important, any thoughts about these new machins, positive or
> negative?
>
> Thanks!
>
> h.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Unless you are a hard core gamer, go for the 8400. It supports four SATA
and two PATA drives. It is much quieter than an XPS which is important to
me. And it has a larger than average power supply.

I paid $1104 with free shipping last month for:

3.0 GHz Pentium 4 Processor 560 w/HT 800 FSB
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
128MB PCI Express x16 ATI Radeon X800 SE
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD-ROM and CDRW
No monitor



"Harry Krause" <piedtypecase@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2nnr5tF2p67bU1@uni-berlin.de...
>I usually build my own PC clones, but I don't have much time and I need
> a new box.
>
> So I looked over the Dell site and ran a comparison of an 8400 with a
> 3.4GHz processor and the XPS with the same processor. I equipped both
> machines exactly alike, and the XPS came in at $1851 and the 8400 at
> $1520, both one gig of memory machines, 160 gig hard drive, 48X CDRW, no
> monitor, same 238 meg PCI Express Radeon x800SE video card, et cetera.
> Same motherboard, too, it seems.
>
> Now, the XPS has a slightly larger case...but other than that...
> any differences?
>
> AND, most important, any thoughts about these new machins, positive or
> negative?
>
> Thanks!
>
> h.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 20:28:45 -0400, "Molly" <ctalia4000@comcast.net> wrote:

>I have a Gen 2 XPS box. The boxes have a larger power supply, and will take
>3 HD and 3 internal drives. The computer has two firewires one in front and
>one in the back located on the sound card. The twin cooling fans are a
>little noisy. The box can be worked on while it is sitting on a table, and
>of course you get the blue SATA round cable for the HD. I purchased this
>outlet store cpu because, I did not want to put the best video card at the
>time in a 8300. You can not buy the best card and put it in a 8400 box
>today.

Is that right? The 8400 has a 350 Watt power supply not as opposed to the 250 in the 8300.

Do today's best graphics cards using ATI and Nvidia graphics processors require more than
350 Watt power supplies? I tried to find the answer but google is down and I can't spend
any more time looking right now. I don't see any system requirements at the Gigabyte site
for the top ATI cards.


> You have to purchase an XPS.
>
>"Harry Krause" <piedtypecase@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>news:2nnr5tF2p67bU1@uni-berlin.de...
>> I usually build my own PC clones, but I don't have much time and I need
>> a new box.
>>
>> So I looked over the Dell site and ran a comparison of an 8400 with a
>> 3.4GHz processor and the XPS with the same processor. I equipped both
>> machines exactly alike, and the XPS came in at $1851 and the 8400 at
>> $1520, both one gig of memory machines, 160 gig hard drive, 48X CDRW, no
>> monitor, same 238 meg PCI Express Radeon x800SE video card, et cetera.
>> Same motherboard, too, it seems.
>>
>> Now, the XPS has a slightly larger case...but other than that...
>> any differences?
>>
>> AND, most important, any thoughts about these new machins, positive or
>> negative?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> h.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Mon, 09 Aug 2004 05:14:39 GMT, DaveJohnson12@nomail. wrote:

>On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 20:28:45 -0400, "Molly" <ctalia4000@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>I have a Gen 2 XPS box. The boxes have a larger power supply, and will take
>>3 HD and 3 internal drives. The computer has two firewires one in front and
>>one in the back located on the sound card. The twin cooling fans are a
>>little noisy. The box can be worked on while it is sitting on a table, and
>>of course you get the blue SATA round cable for the HD. I purchased this
>>outlet store cpu because, I did not want to put the best video card at the
>>time in a 8300. You can not buy the best card and put it in a 8400 box
>>today.
>
>Is that right? The 8400 has a 350 Watt power supply not as opposed to the 250 in the 8300.
>
>Do today's best graphics cards using ATI and Nvidia graphics processors require more than
>350 Watt power supplies? I tried to find the answer but google is down and I can't spend
>any more time looking right now. I don't see any system requirements at the Gigabyte site
>for the top ATI cards.

Here's something: http://www.visiontek.com/x800xt.html

It says 350 W or greater recommended so the 8400 has the minimum required. I think this
uses the top of the line ATI GPU.

Also: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1591397,00.asp

For the GeForce 6800, "Instead of a 480-watt power supply, users can use a quality
350-watt power supply, Nvidia is now specifying."

This says the same: http://www.buyxtremegear.com/vc129121.html

This
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_8400?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn&~tab=specstab

says the 8400 has a 350 W power supply so maybe that's enough.

>
>
>> You have to purchase an XPS.
>>
>>"Harry Krause" <piedtypecase@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>news:2nnr5tF2p67bU1@uni-berlin.de...
>>> I usually build my own PC clones, but I don't have much time and I need
>>> a new box.
>>>
>>> So I looked over the Dell site and ran a comparison of an 8400 with a
>>> 3.4GHz processor and the XPS with the same processor. I equipped both
>>> machines exactly alike, and the XPS came in at $1851 and the 8400 at
>>> $1520, both one gig of memory machines, 160 gig hard drive, 48X CDRW, no
>>> monitor, same 238 meg PCI Express Radeon x800SE video card, et cetera.
>>> Same motherboard, too, it seems.
>>>
>>> Now, the XPS has a slightly larger case...but other than that...
>>> any differences?
>>>
>>> AND, most important, any thoughts about these new machins, positive or
>>> negative?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> h.
>>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<DaveJohnson12@nomail.> wrote in message
news:ugmih05vlhdfoqfrdqf08h13vhlavtiv2e@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 09 Aug 2004 05:14:39 GMT, DaveJohnson12@nomail. wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 20:28:45 -0400, "Molly" <ctalia4000@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>I have a Gen 2 XPS box. The boxes have a larger power supply, and will
>>>take
>>>3 HD and 3 internal drives. The computer has two firewires one in front
>>>and
>>>one in the back located on the sound card. The twin cooling fans are a
>>>little noisy. The box can be worked on while it is sitting on a table,
>>>and
>>>of course you get the blue SATA round cable for the HD. I purchased this
>>>outlet store cpu because, I did not want to put the best video card at
>>>the
>>>time in a 8300. You can not buy the best card and put it in a 8400 box
>>>today.
>>
>>Is that right? The 8400 has a 350 Watt power supply not as opposed to the
>>250 in the 8300.
>>
>>Do today's best graphics cards using ATI and Nvidia graphics processors
>>require more than
>>350 Watt power supplies? I tried to find the answer but google is down and
>>I can't spend
>>any more time looking right now. I don't see any system requirements at
>>the Gigabyte site
>>for the top ATI cards.
>
> Here's something: http://www.visiontek.com/x800xt.html
>

<snip>


The 8400 does indeed have a 350-watt PS, and not to take the thread
off-topic, thank you for the link to visiontek.com. It's funny - they had
briefly (?) gone out of business ( I have both their GeForce3 Ti 200/64mb
and GeForce4 Ti 4200/128mb adapters).

I see they have returned offering nothing but cards with ATI chips


Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Tom Scales" <tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:IJadncKfj79vaITcRVn-rg@comcast.com...
>I wonder if that is true anymore. Did they really put in a bigger supply or
> are they just reporting it more accurately.
>
> Tom


Dunno, Tom. I can tell you that it is a *different* supply than the 305w in
the Dim8300's. It uses what I believe is the new BTX standard 24-pin main
connector to the system board.

I suspect they're still fudging on the rated capacity due to demands and
increasing numbers of internal and external devices.

Stew