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Dell PowerEdge SC420 Server $229 after coupon

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thanks kerry -
also what i'm looking for is how this would be as a server for a small biz vs. say a used compq 5500 - 4 cpu 500 mhz machine. It seems for 5 clients the faster cpu is more important than 4 old cpus?
 
Looks like this is dead (for now). I tried a number of different configurations and all were marked "unavailable" under the delivery date.
 
I got one of these at the beginning of December...paid about $400 for mine, after tax. I got the free memory upgrade, and paid $100 for the processor upgrade to a 2.8G HT P4.

This thing is amazing...much nicer than the 400SC, in my opinion. I'm buying this as a very long-term keeper, so DDR memory and SATA hard drive are both big pluses, and make my upgrade path a year down the line so much simpler. Also, I expect PCIe video to be very, very affordable in 6 months - 1 year, so I plan to pick one up and do the slot mod at that point. For now, this system's running 2 21 inch monitors and one 17 incher just fine with one crappy video card + one 128mb PCI Radeon. A 128mb PCIe card later will give me 4 21 inch CRT's on two dual head cards this summer, and a possibly broken desk (there's an aquarium on it, too).

I'm running XP Pro, no driver headaches or install issues yet. Performance is rock solid stable (with half a G of ram) and 3D work in lightwave is great.

I would recommend a double memory deal over a processor upgrade deal for this one, since ECC DDR2 is still very steep. If I was going to upgrade to 1G of RAM, I would probably do it by getting another double memory deal on one of these for $234, with the hard drive upgrade to 80G, so say about $250 with taxes. Then I'd try to sell the box, celery processory, motherboard, PS, etc for $200 (is this reasonable?) and spend about $50 net for a half G of ram and another 80 G drive. Or maybe outfit the leftovers with older hard drives, DDR ram, etc, and sell it for more...I don't know.

-D.

 
I would recommend a double memory deal over a processor upgrade deal for this one, since ECC DDR2 is still very steep. If I was going to upgrade to 1G of RAM, I would probably do it by getting another double memory deal on one of these for $234, with the hard drive upgrade to 80G, so say about $250 with taxes. Then I'd try to sell the box, celery processory, motherboard, PS, etc for $200 (is this reasonable?) and spend about $50 net for a half G of ram and another 80 G drive. Or maybe outfit the leftovers with older hard drives, DDR ram, etc, and sell it for more...I don't know.
Click to expand...

This sounds good until you realize that you could not use regular DDR memory in this server. It only accepts DDR2 (and non-ECC DDR2 modules are just as expensive as the ECC version). This will significantly reduce your sellability (is that a word?) of this system without memory.

I bought two of these SC420s. The first was bought during the free P4 2.8Ghz upgrade + 160GB for $10 more deal. However, this deal came with only 256MB of memory for roughly $280. The second system was bought a week ago with the Celery, 512MB and 80GB HD for $235. I called into Dell and complained about the price drop and asking for somekind of pricematch for my first system. They shipped me another 256MB module free of charge AND a $30 credit back to my account! So, naturally, I sold the Celeron system with 512MB to my cousin cuz I no longer need to take 256MB out of it for use with my first system.
 
The double memory deal for 1GB total (512x2) ends up being almost the same price as buying two sticks at Crucial.

$333 for the system with 1GB or $280 for 1GB from Crucial.com (no system, obviously).

For the hard drive alone (worth $60 or so) that is worth it.
 
Ordered mine yesterday. Went with the P4 2.8, 1GB 400MHz DDR2, and 80GB HD. Including tax the total was $462.25!! What a sweet deal 🙂
 
I guess the original deal with a price around $260 shipped is over? Wish I would have saw this sooner, but oh well.
 
Deal is back $224 shipped

Link to page

Intel® Celeron® processor, 325J, 2.53GHz, 256KB Cache, 533MHz FSB
Processor

No Operating System, Microsoft

FREE UPGRADE to 512MB DDR2, 400MHz, 2X256 Single Ranked
Memory

40GB1, Serial ATA, 1 inch, 7.2K RPM, Hard Drive
Primary Hard Drive

48X, Compact Disk Drive, 680M I, Half Height, Black, for PowerEdge SC
CD/DVD Drive

Onboard NIC
Network Card

1 Year Basic Plan
 
It looks to me like the deal is still dead. As per my 12/31 post above, the delivery date is still marked "unavailable." Has anyone been successful in ordering one since 12/31?
 
got the flier today -
they will start new deal - 329 (with free pent4 2.8ht upgrade) -
so if you can still save 99 with the celeron - maybe the same deal...
 
Wouldnt this be a cheap way to get a SATA and DDR2 for the intel promo mobo/cpu? Looking everywhere it's so expensive for DDR2. A gig of DDR2 is about the same price as this whole package WITH 1 gig ddr2...isn't it?
 
Originally posted by: nguyendot1
Wouldnt this be a cheap way to get a SATA and DDR2 for the intel promo mobo/cpu? Looking everywhere it's so expensive for DDR2. A gig of DDR2 is about the same price as this whole package WITH 1 gig ddr2...isn't it?
Click to expand...

Yes..just read the posts above. This has been mentioned at least 2X in this thread.

I personally bought 2x512 ECC DDR2 sticks from Crucial for $280+tax...returned them once this system was available with 2x512 for 1x512 price.

It was $280+tax for Crucial 1GB or $333+tax for an entire Dell system with 1GB.
 
Originally posted by: nguyendot1
Wouldnt this be a cheap way to get a SATA and DDR2 for the intel promo mobo/cpu? Looking everywhere it's so expensive for DDR2. A gig of DDR2 is about the same price as this whole package WITH 1 gig ddr2...isn't it?
Click to expand...

yea- i did that too, after pricing crucial -
note the 400 is not 533 and may not bench as fast - for a small server - who cares

benchmarks
 
Deal looks like its good- i got as far as check out and its shipping free. Too bad I just spent my cash on a cpu/mobo combo that's gonna wind up costing me more than this system total.
 
Originally posted by: nguyendot1
Wouldnt this be a cheap way to get a SATA and DDR2 for the intel promo mobo/cpu? Looking everywhere it's so expensive for DDR2. A gig of DDR2 is about the same price as this whole package WITH 1 gig ddr2...isn't it?
Click to expand...

Not as cheap as this memory. Not gonna burn up any benchmarks, but it runs stable on my Intel combo and is a good price for a gig of RAM.
 
I broke down and got one. $252 after tax, free shipping, with the 80GB HD, free 512MB, and free keyboard/mouse. Estimated ship date is the 10th. It only seemed to show as "unavailable" for the ship date on the first page.

Gaidin
 
Is it certain that regular DDR won't run on this system? I think it's pretty definite, but just wanting to make sure...anyone tried it? Is it even the same kind of slot?

Yes, ebaying this without memory would be hard, but another alternative is to ebay it with a 256 chip and sell it as a super-cheap desktop...it's still cheap enough that you can sell a working system and pull the memory.

Or if you're going to buy the memory from crucial anyway, as has been mentioned before, just grab a second computer, and leave it in a closet for 6 months till DDR2 becomes mainstream and prices drop some more. Or sell it for whatever you can get, since anything's still going to be better than buying the RAM retail, right?

-D.
 
Originally posted by: Thump553
It looks to me like the deal is still dead. As per my 12/31 post above, the delivery date is still marked "unavailable." Has anyone been successful in ordering one since 12/31?
Click to expand...

I ordered one yesterday. The delivery dats showed up as unavilable that is true - I guess that means they don't have a delivery date, but the product can be ordered. It now shows up as
> Estimated Ship Date: Monday, January 10, 2005.

$254.61 inc. tax and $10 upgrade to 80GB disk.
 
Argh I was going to order one today when I got home from work and the price went from $224 to $274 with free shipping. How often do these go down to $224 with 512MB and free shipping?
 
Dell seems to alternate the double memory with the processor upgrade deal, so if you don't need the added processing power, just wait for the double memory to come around again. If you can afford it, going 1G and 2.8G processor would probably be the best combination, and still be an insane deal.

-D.
 
Originally posted by: dchakrab
Is it certain that regular DDR won't run on this system? I think it's pretty definite, but just wanting to make sure...anyone tried it? Is it even the same kind of slot?

Yes, ebaying this without memory would be hard, but another alternative is to ebay it with a 256 chip and sell it as a super-cheap desktop...it's still cheap enough that you can sell a working system and pull the memory.

Or if you're going to buy the memory from crucial anyway, as has been mentioned before, just grab a second computer, and leave it in a closet for 6 months till DDR2 becomes mainstream and prices drop some more. Or sell it for whatever you can get, since anything's still going to be better than buying the RAM retail, right?

-D.
Click to expand...

Yes...DDR2 ECC or non-ECC works just fine. It has been tried by quite a few people.

Just go here:
http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=4
 
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