To move or not to move away from Dell-ville?

[Patenter]

I have a fairly new perfectly stable (so far) Dell Precision Workstation 340 (P4/256MB 2GHz w/ 1GB of RDRAM 800) that I've set up to do NLE video and Photoshop type hobbies. I've used all of the available bays now and would like to add at least two and maybe four additional SCSI drives to the system. I am also starting to think about all of the heat in that black clam shell Dell case.

In a previous posting I was told that the Dell mobo and power supply/connectors were not standard and it would therefore be difficult to move everything to a new case that has more room.

Questions:

1. Do you think that I should move to a new mobo & larger case (full tower) or should I just add a separate case for the pending SCSI HDD expansion?
(Is there something special on the "workstation" mobo worth keeping besides the Dell onsite warrenty that I wouldn't get with a DIY mobo?)

2. If I do move the P4, RDRAM, etc., to a new mobo, then which mobo would you recommend considering that I've never built before (although I was once a EE) and I might at times want to try to OC just for the pure fun/frustration of doing so? (Should I hold off for the new 533MHz fsb like others are?)

3. I would like to also hear any advise as to whether/when I should think about upgrading the P4?

Money is usually no object, except to my wife.

Thanks!

 

[Buz2b]

First off, yes, the Dell MB and case are proprietary. Also, the Dell cases almost uniformly suck as far as ventillation goes. You could try to add some additional cooling though.

1) I would think that a larger case would be best in this situation. 1b) Nothing special but 3 years is 3 years. You are probably still early in that timeframe so you will be giving up quite a bit of protection. Of course, the Dell MB does not allow for any overclocking and is extremely limited in upgrade options.
2) I wouldn't "hold off" mainly because there is no guarantee of a timeframe for the release of the faster MB; could be a long wait. And of course, there is always something faster on the horizon. I am not a big fan or knowledgable of the Intel MB/chipsets so I do not have a recommendation either. I'm sure there will be some others that can do so though.
3) No, too early for you. No appreciable gain would be forthcoming.

One persons ideas.....................................YMMV.

 

[o1die]

Dell recently had a P4 2.0 with rdram for only $799, with everything but the monitor. I don't know if they will repeat this type of deal, but unless you find something like this, I would consider building a dual athlon. My p4 1.6a runs very stable at 133 fsb (2.13 gigs with memory at 166 fsb). The prices of the p4 will drop 25-50% in the next 6 weeks or so to make room for the 533 cpus. I would wait and get more info before changing systems.