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Dell SC420 Server for Photoshop work?

aphex

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
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I currently have a Mac Mini as my main desktop PC and an IBM T41 laptop. While the Mini is great, the more i get into photograhy, the less useful its small design becomes. Its just fairly slow while working with NEF's, even with 1gb ram.

Also, while i love my T41 laptop, its also not the easiest to work on with its 14.1" screen.

My friend offered to sell me his unused Dell Poweredge SC420 server for $230. P4 2.8ghz, 80gb SATA, 256 ram (obviously would need to bump that to 1-2gb). I also have an old XP Pro disc which is no longer installed on any system.

Would the SC420 work well for PS work? I could easily build another system, but i doubt i'll come anything close in price to the deal he's offering.
 
I also have an old XP Pro disc which is no longer installed on any system.
Click to expand...
If it matters to you, be aware that it would have to be a retail WinXP license, not OEM, to re-use it on any computer besides the first one it was installed on. From a licensing standpoint. Microsoft has been liberal about (not) enforcing it, though.

I don't know the answer as to whether the PCI-E x8 slot will work for graphics cards or not... anyone?
 
It would work, but there are some little plastic bridges to prevent you from inserting a full x16 card. I remember seeing a website about how to remove them so a video card will fit a while back though.
 
Originally posted by: mechBgon
I also have an old XP Pro disc which is no longer installed on any system.
Click to expand...
If it matters to you, be aware that it would have to be a retail WinXP license, not OEM, to re-use it on any computer besides the first one it was installed on. From a licensing standpoint. Microsoft has been liberal about (not) enforcing it, though.

I don't know the answer as to whether the PCI-E x8 slot will work for graphics cards or not... anyone?
Click to expand...

Or you would have to reuse the IDE cable they sold you to make your OEM copy 'OEM'😛
 
Originally posted by: mechBgon
I also have an old XP Pro disc which is no longer installed on any system.
Click to expand...
If it matters to you, be aware that it would have to be a retail WinXP license, not OEM, to re-use it on any computer besides the first one it was installed on. From a licensing standpoint. Microsoft has been liberal about (not) enforcing it, though.

I don't know the answer as to whether the PCI-E x8 slot will work for graphics cards or not... anyone?
Click to expand...

Its retail, not OEM. Got it while from Microsoft while working at CC a few years back.

So x8 = x16 with some plastic bridges preventing you from using a x16 card? Seems kinda stupid to me.
 
If you're buying a 199$ PC, from Dell of all people, you'd be lucky to get a Rage 128. I've got an old HP 513n, and it doesn't have ANY AGP/PCI-e slots.
 
Originally posted by: aphex
My friend offered to sell me his unused Dell Poweredge SC420 server for $230. P4 2.8ghz, 80gb SATA, 256 ram (obviously would need to bump that to 1-2gb). I also have an old XP Pro disc which is no longer installed on any system.

Would the SC420 work well for PS work? I could easily build another system, but i doubt i'll come anything close in price to the deal he's offering.
Click to expand...

It should be OK; assuming a stable working system, it's certainly a good price compared to a new system. The premium on DDR2 ECC ram is not enough to cover the difference in price of making another system, and you'll probably be able to re-use that RAM in some future systems. You might be able to get by with the integrated video (assuming it has one -- I think the chipset supports it) on LCD at least -- might be too much flicker on CRT -- or even drop in a PCI video card, assuming that this is not for gaming / other 3D applications.

One negative is that the E7221 chipset doesn't support dual-core CPU's, but it could support faster single-core CPU's.

On the whole, if you keep the expenditures down, I think this would be a good value.
 
Would i be better off just spending some more $$$ though and just building myself? I would hate to blow $230, only to forgo using that money towards something a little better for my needs.
 
You don't need an uber video card anyway for photoshop work. Just use the PCI card or whatever it has.

This system should be fine for what you want to do, and the price is great. You can put Corsair Value select memory in this thing to beef up the ram. For that price, go for it. Don't let the lack of a pci-e x16 video card get you down, you do not need it.

Edit: This thing doesn't work with non-ECC memory? I thought it did. 😕
 
Originally posted by: Larrymon2000
Dell did it so you can't have a 199 dollar home PC and another PCI-Express 16x card put in.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Dell knew folks were doing this with the SC400 and it's 8X AGP slot. They are not stupid, by any means.
 
I own a couple of Dell SC420s. One is used by my mother for email and web browsing, with 512MB of ECC RAM, an 80GB SATA hard drive, and 2.53GHz Celeron. Another is my home's SBS 2003 Small Business Server. The latter has 1GB of ECC RAM and a 160GB RAID 1 array and the same Celeron processor. Both use the factory built-in video.

These are ultra-quiet boxes. And they were often quite inexpensive. I paid around $225 for each of mine (but added extra memory and hard drives to the Server).

The disadvantages of the SC420 include:

1) Very limited number of PCI slots.

2) No AGP slot. And the x8 PCI-E slot is generally not usable with x16 video cards. The slot certainly requires physical modifcation, with knife, grinder, or hot iron. Some folks have been able to modify their slots, some have ruined their slots, and many PCI-E video cards won't work because of unpatched BIOS issues with the SC420. Dell does NOT want purchasers to install PCI-E video cards in these. Dell lost tons of money selling stripped ultra-cheap 400SC servers to people (like me) who bought them instead of identical (but much pricier) Dell high-end computers.

I haven't been following the SC420/SC430 stuff lately, but I recall that Dell kept modifying those x8 PCI-E slots to make them harder and harder to modify. They may also have made other design and circuitry changes in later SC420/SC430 motherboards that make it impossible to use an x16 PCI-E video card.

3) No onboard sound. You have to use one of the precious PCI slots for sound.

4) You can't mix ECC and non-ECC RAM on this computer. On the 400SC, you could mix them. They'd work as non-ECC, but they'd work. Mix RAM on the SC420 and you'll get nothing.

5) The case has extremely limited expandability for extra drives, I/O ports, etc.

My take on the SC420 is this:
It's quiet, cheap, and a great low-end server or office computer. The video is typical Intel onboard stuff. OK for older games and business computer use. If you want high-end video, you'll be limited to using PCI video cards. There're limited expansion options because of the few PCI slots and limited drive and I/O port space.

If you can live with the limitations, then it's a nice PC.

You can find tons of discussion on the SC420 on the PowerEdge Forums.
 
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