Dell Dimension 4550 at 2.66GHz w/533MHz /ATI Radeon? 9700 TX Graphics + DVD+RW

[ezland00]

Hot or Not???

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.66GHz w/533MHz front side bus/ 512K L2 Cache
256MB 333MHz DDR SDRAM for the price of 128MB! (mail-in rebate not valid)
New 128mb DDR ATI Radeon? 9700 TX Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI
FREE UPGRADE! 60GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
SAVE $100! New 4x DVD+RW/+R Drive w/CD-RW
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year On-site Service



$858.00
-$40.40(5% off Dell Small Business Coupon)
-$50 (on select Dimension 4550 systems)
---------------------------
$767.60+Tax

 

[DorkBoy]

Wouldn't it be better to get the 128MB DDR and qualify for the $100 MIR ?

It's still -$50 and $100 MIR

I have $858 -$50(IR) -$42.90(5%) = $765.10 + State Tax -$100MIR = $711 Taxed(NC)/Shipped/AR

 

[Davemeister]

probably better off getting the $100 back and pulling out the 128MB stick in favor of some crucial 512MB sticks. that extra 128MB is not worth the $100 you'd miss out on. crucial PC2700 512MB stick going for $82 at the moment.

how's the 9700 TX compared to Pro? any software thingy to convert it to Pro like they were doing with the 9500 (I think it was that model) cards?

 

[steuby]

What is the 9700 Tx, never heard of it

 

[pxc]

Originally posted by: steuby
What is the 9700 Tx, never heard of it

9700 TX is just a 9700 non-pro at a slightly slower clock speed (263/263 vs 275/275). The one Dell includes is built by ATi. I have had one since the beginning of December and it overclocks to 320/295.

 

[sinan]

PCX,

How do you overclock this? Any links to a procedure? I just got into another 4550 / 9700 deal a few weeks ago.

Thanks.

 

[GermyBoy]

Originally posted by: pxc

Originally posted by: steuby What is the 9700 Tx, never heard of it

9700 TX is just a 9700 non-pro at a slightly slower clock speed (263/263 vs 275/275). The one Dell includes is built by ATi. I have had one since the beginning of December and it overclocks to 320/295.

That's really stupid, why would it be slower?

 

[Audiofight]

It is slower because one of the cards in the batch may have had a slow memory chip on it when testing, so they rated the cards slower. Plus, overclocked or highly-clocked cards sometimes have a tendancy to become unstable and generate alot of heat.

Who here has seen a Dell (or Gateway, HP, or Compaq) case that is poorly ventilated

*Everyone raise you hands, that's it......*

and has a processor that is crammed inside and cooked like it was an easy-bake oven?



The slower memory makes for cheaper to produce cards which increases Dell's profits.

edit: I don't mean that out of the box highly-clocked cards are unstable, but in Dell cases they become unstable due to the high temperatures inside the case. With better ventilation and cooler case temps, they would be fine.

 

[rch4001]

nice deal

 

[LouPoir]

Nice deal

 

[blahblah]

Anyone know how long it will take for Dell to ship this baby?

I need to get it to NYC by thursday.

Thanks

 

[dakels]

you wont see shipping soon. I ordered mine yesterday and expect almost a 2 week ship date due to a backorder of the 9700 TX cards

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: blahblah
Anyone know how long it will take for Dell to ship this baby?

I need to get it to NYC by thursday.

Thanks

You'll probably get it in about 2 weeks, by Thursday? No way.

 

[KenK]

Originally posted by: audiofight
It is slower because one of the cards in the batch may have had a slow memory chip on it when testing, so they rated the cards slower. Plus, overclocked or highly-clocked cards sometimes have a tendancy to become unstable and generate alot of heat.

Who here has seen a Dell (or Gateway, HP, or Compaq) case that is poorly ventilated

*Everyone raise you hands, that's it......*

and has a processor that is crammed inside and cooked like it was an easy-bake oven?



The slower memory makes for cheaper to produce cards which increases Dell's profits.

edit: I don't mean that out of the box highly-clocked cards are unstable, but in Dell cases they become unstable due to the high temperatures inside the case. With better ventilation and cooler case temps, they would be fine.

Have you ever thought it's just a marketing strategy to capture some of the slightly lower end business. When companies make products that have different speeds, just because the card tested at the higher speed, doesn't mean it gets sold at the higher speed especially if they have a lot more orders to fill at the lower speed. That is one reason a lot of semiconductor based products are able to be overclocked. Just because a product is spec at a certain speed, doesn't mean it won't go faster. It just means that that is all the company will guarantee.

Tbirdman

 

[steelnewfie]

Also would like to know how to OC.... Bios looks limited... This machine is so nice... I may hardly ever build again... Case, silent, warranty, brand name good on eglay... So how do we crank em up ?

 

[linuxthinker]

You can't overclock these machines.

 

[Pothead]

Originally posted by: linuxthinker
You can't overclock these machines.

they are talking about the video card

 

[ai42]

You can't overclock these machines.

You should be able to overclock the video card easily using the coolbits tweak easily. The CPU however, you are pretty much stuck with you can't overclock that.

 

[yhelothar]

not bad...

p4 2.66GHz - $200
good p4 mobo - $100
radeon 9700 np - $200
case - $60
60gb hdd - $75
256MB PC2700 - $30
winxp home - $89
dvdrw burner - $200

$879 to build yourself...
plus you can tweak and oc... and it's slightly faster...

hmmm after the ram rebate.. it's a pretty good deal..

 

[daoooo]

http://www.3dchipset.com/index.php

flash the video card bios. you can't overclock unless you flash the bios, it's locked. use the ati bios edit to get the frequency you want. tx comes with 3.6ns memory chip(which is rated at 270Mhz.), mine can only do 310 core 303 memory. only 3% different from the pro. not a bad investment for 140 dollars extra.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: audiofight
It is slower because one of the cards in the batch may have had a slow memory chip on it when testing, so they rated the cards slower. Plus, overclocked or highly-clocked cards sometimes have a tendancy to become unstable and generate alot of heat.

Who here has seen a Dell (or Gateway, HP, or Compaq) case that is poorly ventilated

*Everyone raise you hands, that's it......*

and has a processor that is crammed inside and cooked like it was an easy-bake oven?



The slower memory makes for cheaper to produce cards which increases Dell's profits.

edit: I don't mean that out of the box highly-clocked cards are unstable, but in Dell cases they become unstable due to the high temperatures inside the case. With better ventilation and cooler case temps, they would be fine.

have you even seen the current dell cases? poorly ventilated my ass. stop spreading FUD.

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: audiofight
It is slower because one of the cards in the batch may have had a slow memory chip on it when testing, so they rated the cards slower. Plus, overclocked or highly-clocked cards sometimes have a tendancy to become unstable and generate alot of heat.

Who here has seen a Dell (or Gateway, HP, or Compaq) case that is poorly ventilated

*Everyone raise you hands, that's it......*

and has a processor that is crammed inside and cooked like it was an easy-bake oven?



The slower memory makes for cheaper to produce cards which increases Dell's profits.

edit: I don't mean that out of the box highly-clocked cards are unstable, but in Dell cases they become unstable due to the high temperatures inside the case. With better ventilation and cooler case temps, they would be fine.

have you even seen the current dell cases? poorly ventilated my ass. stop spreading FUD.

I was going to chime in with the same thing. My Dell case that just came has a 120mm fan in the back, and an 80mm fan on the front. Also has a fan on the CPU. It's really damn quiet for what it is and stays nice and cool.

 

[ImSeeker]

Is this deal dead? can't configure it at that price. Best I can get is 989...

 

[AbsolutDealage]

Have you ever thought it's just a marketing strategy to capture some of the slightly lower end business. When companies make products that have different speeds, just because the card tested at the higher speed, doesn't mean it gets sold at the higher speed especially if they have a lot more orders to fill at the lower speed.

No, in actuality, the "underbinning" of processors/memory happens rarely (if ever). The TX chips fall off of the minimum requirements they have for the 9700Pro, and are then placed in the TX bin. A company would not (in essence) throw away the extra money they would be making from selling the chip as a TX instead of a Pro, that would be bad business. The availability of the TX chip is based upon how many processors fall into its respective "bin", not on market demand. Obviously they have tested the chip extensively (far more than you or I could) and they have come to the conclusion that it is not up to par.

That is one reason a lot of semiconductor based products are able to be overclocked.

This is not a common reason that chips can be overclocked.

Just because a product is spec at a certain speed, doesn't mean it won't go faster.

True, it may "go faster", but at the cost of decreased stability, increased voltage, increased heat, etc. Ati has obviously tested these dies and has come to the conclusion that at the stock voltage and stock cooling, they do not meet thier standards for stability.

It just means that that is all the company will guarantee.

Amen to that.

Don't get me wrong here, I overclock just as much as the next guy. I just hate to see people assuming that they are going to get a chip that performs exactly like a 9700pro chip at the TX price. They are not going to be the same performance level. If you want to be guaranteed 9700pro speeds, go get yourself a 9700 pro. If you want to gamble and maybe sacrifice some stability to reach near-9700pro speeds with your 9700TX... then more power to you. Just don't be assuming that they are downbinning a 9700pro just because of market demands.

 

[dakels]

good call elfinix,
I just got my 2.66ghz Dim 4550 last week and was really impressed by the case. It pushes a good amount of air very quietly. Too bad the DVD-RW drive sounds like a NASCAR event otherwise it would be almost silent to me. My place has some major heating issues which can make ambient temps kill any computer. In a 6 hour burn-in with Sandra, IIRC I never went over 48ºC in a 80ºF ambient temp. My athlon 1600 in that craptacular HP case goes to 60ºC+.
I really like how the case opens. Screwless with 2 quick releases. The case splits like a clam shell for easy access. I'll have to say its easier to access the guts then my Mac G4 case and I'd never thought a PC case was this easy to access. Especially a prebuilt.

My only beef was the motherboard design (but that's not really Dell's fault). The DDR DIMM banks are too close to the AGP slot. Since the Radeon 9700 is such a long card, the RAM clips don't have enough room to open up. I had to remove the video card to install RAM. The AGP card lock is not too cool either but I like the screwless PCI card holders. No more looking for PCI card screws or dropping them behind the motherboard

I'm quite happy with the case right now. I wanted to get a nice case for it but unless I go with Vapochill, I don't feel a need to replace the Dim case with another standard case. It's pretty nice. Even looks decent. Muted style without going into some bright orange neon light geekfest.