Anyone Have a Dell 440SC Using As A Desktop

[nasttcar]

Correction: I originally posted and said 400, but meant 440SC

Got an email today from Dell Small Business with a great deal on one of these.

Dual Core Pent. 915, 1gb RAM, 2ea. 80GB SATA HD's for $449.00. No Oper. System.

I need to know what the motherboard is like and what the power supply is.

I will be moving things like DVD, card reader, etc. over to this computer.

Just need to make sure it can be used like a desktop.


I am interested in this because my 400SC just died. Motherboard failure. I actually own 3 of these.

 

[pradeep1]

They still make 400SC machines! Wow. I have one as my primary workstation that I am using to write this reply and it is a 2.8 GHz P4. It is a great machine and it is reliable as a desktop workstation. You can read an unofficial FAQ about the 400 SC here:

http://poweredgeforums.com/showthread.php?t=8

 

[RebateMonger]

Hmmm...these are really 400SC boxes? I thought we bought out the last of them from Dell when they were $128 apiece a couple of years ago.

The Dell 400SCs came with Intel 875 chipsets (and lots of failing capacitors) and Socket 478 motherboards. I'm surprised that any Dual Core processors would fit them.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: nasttcar
I am interested in this because my 400SC just died. Motherboard failure. I actually own 3 of these.

I have six 400SCs, and a couple of them have bulging powr capacitors. That's been the primary cause of 400SC motherboard failure. It happens after about 1.5 years of full-time-power-on equivalent on-time.

I haven't looked at the SC440. The 400SC had a fully functional 8x AGP slot. The SC420 had a "weird" 8x PCI-E slot that could generally be modified into something that would accept a standard 16x PCI-E video card. The SC430 was, I believe, impossible to modify for a 16x PCI-E video card.

Here's the slot count for the SC440:
(2) PCI slots
(1) PCI-E 1x
(2) PCI-E 4x
(2) PCI-E 8x
So you'll need to use a PCI or a (uncommon) PCI-E 8x video card or come up with some kind of hack if you don't like whatever it comes with.

In my opinion, the Dell SC420 and SC430 were best used as Servers or as non-gaming workstations, because of the lack of free card slots and problems using modern video cards.

 

[pradeep1]

If you have bulging capacitors on your 400SC (I did on mine), call Dell tech support and ask nicely and they'll replace it for free. Back in 05 or 06, Dell took a massive write-off for these capacitor problems. If you look at your caps and they are marked with an "X" on the top, they should be the new type and okay.

If alll else fails, go on eBay and buy a new mobo for like $35.00.

 

[RebateMonger]

I actually created the first 400SC bulged capacitor thread on the Dell Forums. At the time, Dell was refusing to do anything with out-of-warranty boards. They'd offer a replacement motherboard for $130 or so. Later on, I heard that they were offering free replacement.

I have two right now with bulged caps, but I never got around to doing anything about them. I guess I have too many PCs laying around.

 

[pradeep1]

So you were the one who put that bad caps post on the old aaltonen forums (now called poweredgeforums.com)? Yeah, I read that thread about 20-30 posts down and called Dell and got them to replace my mobo. I was actually trying to organize a letter of protest and cause Dell trouble, but they seemed to back down and offered replacements to everyone.

Here the full thread in detail:

http://poweredgeforums.com/showthread.php?t=2236&highlight=capacitors

 

[RebateMonger]

Actually, I was referring the the postings on the DELL (company) Forums. I saw the first posting on the Aaltonen Forum, checked out my own 400SCs (and found several of them with bulged caps), and opened a thread on Dell's site. But, yeah, I've got quite a few posts on the Aaltonen forum thread, too.

The 400SC was a GREAT PC and there were some amazing bargains on them at various times. I still use one for my company's SBS 2003 main server, and several friends still use them as their desktop PC. I bought my mother a Dell 420SC and also use one as my home's SBS 2003 Server. But all the versions after the 400SC had (intentional) card slot handicaps that made them poor gaming computers.