[DEAD]XPS 420 Desktop Quadcore,3GB Ram,Vista Prem,4 yr. wrnty

[cyberia]

Originally posted by: linuxwannabe

Originally posted by: cyberia
Does anyone know about the Xcelerator feature?

It seems you can only get it bundled with a TV tuner. But you can also get a TV tuner without it. So, is it like a separate PCI card or something with a hardware encode/decode chip on it?

I klik the "help me choose" link and read the Video Xcelerator tab and read the footnote at the bottom and I see "Comparing conversion time and CPU utilization for a 10 minute HD MPEG-2 video file to MPEG-4 format on Intel® E4400 processor based XPS 420 systems with and without a Dell Xcelerator? card."

Maybe it's a card?

Very often, the Help Me Choose information is incomplete and even inaccurate. I was wondering if anyone has a hands-on experience with it and can comment on whether it is worth it and/or can be found from a third-party seller.

 

[Katana]

According to Engadget it is a coprocessor for transcoding video to MPEG4.

Dell Xcelerator - dedicated media coprocessor for transcoding video streams to MPEG-4 formats. Can cut encode time on a 2 hour HD movie in half and use far fewer CPU cycles.

You can find the specifications for it here.

 

[cyberia]

Originally posted by: Katana
According to Engadget it is a coprocessor for transcoding video to MPEG4.

Dell Xcelerator - dedicated media coprocessor for transcoding video streams to MPEG-4 formats. Can cut encode time on a 2 hour HD movie in half and use far fewer CPU cycles.

You can find the specifications for it here.

Thank you fro the link to the manual. It appears to have very limited software support:

The Dell Xcelerator is supported by the following software:

Sonic Creator v.10
Dell Xcelerator for Portable Devices v1.0

 

[Yo2]

Picked it up this PM - first impressions are: basically uses the "old" Dell BX style case, introduced a couple of years ago with the Dimension 9100/XPS400, but a few mods to front bezel , and a small LCD display for "windoze sideshow"at the top front make it look very nice. Operation is the same lackluster vista performance, although this one is rated at a 5.4 performance index (slow point is the 667MHz RAM (5.4), all other parts, processor (5.9), hdd (5.8), graphics card (ATI 2600 - 5.6) are actually rated higher. The (2GB) network card seems to have a pr0blem with my gb switches -it has to be set to "10MBps half duplex" to detect the internet, then can be set to autodetect (probably the driver). Trendmicro also does not seethe internet, and thus does not register nor update.Lots of small gimmicks, including a leather binder for Cds and with system documentation (even outlines how to retroactively introduce raid... This is definitely very nicely put together, just have to make sense of the vista issues, may be I'll just dual boot it.

 

[wb182]

I just got mine delivered this morning. Quick question....would it be "safe" to go ahead and switch out the crappy ATI 2600 for my 8800 GT *now* before I first plug it in, OR should I fire it up first and uninstall whatever ATI drivers that Dell included?

Thanks!

 

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: wb182
I just got mine delivered this morning. Quick question....would it be "safe" to go ahead and switch out the crappy ATI 2600 for my 8800 GT *now* before I first plug it in, OR should I fire it up first and uninstall whatever ATI drivers that Dell included?

Thanks!

I'd boot up and uninstall the drivers first

 

[Lanyap]

Originally posted by: wb182
I just got mine delivered this morning. Quick question....would it be "safe" to go ahead and switch out the crappy ATI 2600 for my 8800 GT *now* before I first plug it in, OR should I fire it up first and uninstall whatever ATI drivers that Dell included?

Thanks!

Dell recommends that you do the first boot before you make any hardware changes. I believe they have already configured windows and what we see when we do the first boot is the tail end of the install process. I experienced this first hand with a dell at work when I reloaded with the original restore image and forgot that I had a second video card installed. It would never see the second video card after the reinstall. I had to take it out and reload again then add the second video card later. And like dajeepster said, you should uninstall the ATI drivers before you install the nVidia drivers. I always let a new PC run for 15-20 minutes after first boot to let new software initialize before I make any changes or reboot.

 

[fhaber]

In case I get fed up with Vista while waiting for SP1, are there XP drivers for the 420 for all|most of the components. (I realize I won't be using the tuner, etc. under XP.)

I presume I'll need one of my XP licenses merged custom with the SATA and Intel Accel stuff to even install, yes? (Want to be legit).

 

[w0ss]

in for one. Added the 4 year complete care for only 69$ not a bad deal.

 

[linuxwannabe]

those who got theirs:

does it come with all the connectivity stuff on the front?

thanx

 

[Yo2]

Originally posted by: linuxwannabe
those who got theirs:

does it come with all the connectivity stuff on the front?

thanx

2 usb ports, 1 firewire, headphone and microphone inputs, Miniview screen (2.5" on top of the bezel)

Is that what you were looking for?

 

[linuxwannabe]

Originally posted by: Yo2

Originally posted by: linuxwannabe
those who got theirs:

does it come with all the connectivity stuff on the front?

thanx

2 usb ports, 1 firewire, headphone and microphone inputs, Miniview screen (2.5" on top of the bezel)

Is that what you were looking for?

yep, thanks

 

[Havoc13]

Link is dead...