Homer Simpson's <s> question also in this thread.
Here...I'll copy and paste it below for your convenience.
Homer asked:
I'm just curious, when you say you've upgraded memory. Do you mean
just memory size ? AND memory speed ?
Since on the XPS 420, I notice they have DDR2 at 667 MHZ, and
another option of DDR2 at 800 MHZ. I was pinching pennies and
ordered the 667 MHZ ones. Now, I'm wondering how easy would it
be to "upgrade" to the 800 MHZ set (or if it would even make
any noticeable difference).
Do you know how hard it might be to upgrade the processor chip ?
I had ordered the E6850 Core 2 Duo, running at 3 GHZ with the
4MB L2 cache - my reason behind this was the thinking that not
many apps are written yet to take advantage of all 4 cores. In
hindsight, if i'm going to keep the machine for a few years -
the apps 'should' be out there in the future. Would a new quad
core chip be a matter of just physically pop in the new one ?
(remove air flow baffles, heat sink, flip the socket up, etc)..
OR - due to the Dell motherboard BIOS , am i forever stuck with
the current processor choice ? (ie. cannot upgrade CPU at all).
thanks in advance for any info.
"Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:59E0F2A5BED64354B7C005B506E9FF19@M2010...
> Uh oh, what was Homer's question?
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: DotCom [mailto:nospam4me@nospam.com]
>> Posted At: Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:35 AM
>> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
>> Conversation: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>> Subject: Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>>
>> WOW!
>> Thanks for the reply.
>> Looking forward to your answer to Homer as well.
>> Paula
>>
>> "Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:27664E85C63642A0BAA5DE25FE361EC3@M2010...
>> > This should apply to the 420 too.
>> >
>> > I run the 410/9200 machines 24/7. They are used primarily to record
>> (or
>> > serve) TV content. This means that the tuners are recording content
>> to
>> > the hard drives virtually 24/7 at an enormous rate. If I have
> really
>> go
>> > HD going strong, it can be as much as 50+GB. Per hour. In
> addition,
>> > that 50GB is then compressed to AVI, reducing it to about 12GB per
>> hour.
>> > Up to four concurrent compression jobs (on the quad cores).
>> >
>> > I've run as many as 6 INTERNAL hard drives on the 410. I've
> upgraded
>> > memory. I've swapped numerous video cards. I've used Raid 0. I've
>> > used Raid 1 (both are available through the motherboard).
>> >
>> > On my Windows Home Server machine, I have two internal 1TB drives
> and
>> > one internal 750GB drive. I've added an eSATA card and I have 5
>> external
>> > 750Gb drives.
>> >
>> > All run in a large pool and serve content throughout the house, both
>> > through BTV and Windows Media player (for music). The machine is
>> also
>> > the backup server for the whole house plus the Remote Desktop
> server.
>> > Runs absolutely flawlessly.
>> >
>> > I particularly like the ability to have four internal 3 1/2 drives
>> and
>> > two internal 5 1/4 drives. Mix and match. 6 SATA Ports on the
>> > motherboard. 3 PCI slots plus on PCIe X16 and one PCIe X1 -- all
>> > accessible.
>> >
>> > That's just a start. GREAT machines.
>> >
>> >
>> >
On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:00:25 GMT, "Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com>
wrote:
>> I've gotta ask.
>>
>> What do you do with all that tv content?
>>
>> What do you watch, besides your 410's
>
>Well, up until last week I was retired and bored and had plenty of time
>to watch. Now that I'm a working man again, it is collecting and will
>get watched mostly on airplanes on my iPhone.
>
>Of course with the writers strike, there is less and less to record.
Great. I'm amazed at all the stuff you have for your hobby.
Hmmmm, my boat inhales 23 gallons an hour, so I'm not commenting
on your $$$ worth of tv's and computers.
> I particularly like the ability to have four internal 3 1/2 drives and
> two internal 5 1/4 drives. Mix and match. 6 SATA Ports on the
> motherboard. 3 PCI slots plus on PCIe X16 and one PCIe X1 -- all
> accessible.
Where are you mounting the HDDs beyond the first 2 slots at the bottom
of the case? Are you using both 5.25" bays, plus the floppy & card
reader bays? I have a floppy I'd like to keep but I could free up a
5.25" bay. Machine came with 2 optical drives from the Outlet.
Have you noticed any performance improvement with the quad processors? I
upgraded the processor in my XPS720 to a Q6600 when I installed the new
motherboard - *big* jump in performance, e.g., video that used to take
10 minutes to render approx 54 mins of video into an AVI file is now 3
mins and rendering 85 mins of video with menus, etc., and burning a DVD
is now 1.25 hours, down from 2.25. It's the kind of jump I was hoping to
see when I moved from the Dim8400 to the XPS700, but didn't.
Just personal opinion, but I don't think the difference between 667 and
800 would be noticeable at all. Perhaps in a benchmark, but not the
real world.
As for the processor, it would be a pretty easy upgrade, but the E6850
is incredibly powerful. I have the E6600 and Q6600 and except for one
situation that uses all the cores, there is NO observable difference.
What application do you believe will need four cores? The next version
of Word
Computers are already faster than anyone other than the most power
hungry user.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DotCom [mailto:nospam4me@nospam.com]
> Posted At: Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:36 PM
> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Conversation: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
> Subject: Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>
> Homer Simpson's <s> question also in this thread.
> Here...I'll copy and paste it below for your convenience.
> Homer asked:
> I'm just curious, when you say you've upgraded memory. Do you mean
> just memory size ? AND memory speed ?
>
> Since on the XPS 420, I notice they have DDR2 at 667 MHZ, and
> another option of DDR2 at 800 MHZ. I was pinching pennies and
> ordered the 667 MHZ ones. Now, I'm wondering how easy would it
> be to "upgrade" to the 800 MHZ set (or if it would even make
> any noticeable difference).
>
> Do you know how hard it might be to upgrade the processor chip ?
> I had ordered the E6850 Core 2 Duo, running at 3 GHZ with the
> 4MB L2 cache - my reason behind this was the thinking that not
> many apps are written yet to take advantage of all 4 cores. In
> hindsight, if i'm going to keep the machine for a few years -
> the apps 'should' be out there in the future. Would a new quad
> core chip be a matter of just physically pop in the new one ?
> (remove air flow baffles, heat sink, flip the socket up, etc)..
>
> OR - due to the Dell motherboard BIOS , am i forever stuck with
> the current processor choice ? (ie. cannot upgrade CPU at all).
>
> thanks in advance for any info.
>
> "Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:59E0F2A5BED64354B7C005B506E9FF19@M2010...
> > Uh oh, what was Homer's question?
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: DotCom [mailto:nospam4me@nospam.com]
> >> Posted At: Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:35 AM
> >> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> >> Conversation: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
> >> Subject: Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
> >>
> >> WOW!
> >> Thanks for the reply.
> >> Looking forward to your answer to Homer as well.
> >> Paula
> >>
> >> "Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com> wrote in message
> >> news:27664E85C63642A0BAA5DE25FE361EC3@M2010...
> >> > This should apply to the 420 too.
> >> >
> >> > I run the 410/9200 machines 24/7. They are used primarily to
> record
> >> (or
> >> > serve) TV content. This means that the tuners are recording
> content
> >> to
> >> > the hard drives virtually 24/7 at an enormous rate. If I have
> > really
> >> go
> >> > HD going strong, it can be as much as 50+GB. Per hour. In
> > addition,
> >> > that 50GB is then compressed to AVI, reducing it to about 12GB
per
> >> hour.
> >> > Up to four concurrent compression jobs (on the quad cores).
> >> >
> >> > I've run as many as 6 INTERNAL hard drives on the 410. I've
> > upgraded
> >> > memory. I've swapped numerous video cards. I've used Raid 0.
> I've
> >> > used Raid 1 (both are available through the motherboard).
> >> >
> >> > On my Windows Home Server machine, I have two internal 1TB drives
> > and
> >> > one internal 750GB drive. I've added an eSATA card and I have 5
> >> external
> >> > 750Gb drives.
> >> >
> >> > All run in a large pool and serve content throughout the house,
> both
> >> > through BTV and Windows Media player (for music). The machine is
> >> also
> >> > the backup server for the whole house plus the Remote Desktop
> > server.
> >> > Runs absolutely flawlessly.
> >> >
> >> > I particularly like the ability to have four internal 3 1/2
drives
> >> and
> >> > two internal 5 1/4 drives. Mix and match. 6 SATA Ports on the
> >> > motherboard. 3 PCI slots plus on PCIe X16 and one PCIe X1 -- all
> >> > accessible.
> >> >
> >> > That's just a start. GREAT machines.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tony Harding [mailto:ToHard@nowhere.org]
> Posted At: Friday, January 18, 2008 1:41 AM
> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Conversation: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
> Subject: Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>
> Tom Scales wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > I particularly like the ability to have four internal 3 1/2 drives
> and
> > two internal 5 1/4 drives. Mix and match. 6 SATA Ports on the
> > motherboard. 3 PCI slots plus on PCIe X16 and one PCIe X1 -- all
> > accessible.
>
> Where are you mounting the HDDs beyond the first 2 slots at the bottom
> of the case? Are you using both 5.25" bays, plus the floppy & card
> reader bays? I have a floppy I'd like to keep but I could free up a
> 5.25" bay. Machine came with 2 optical drives from the Outlet.
>
> Have you noticed any performance improvement with the quad processors?
> I
> upgraded the processor in my XPS720 to a Q6600 when I installed the
new
> motherboard - *big* jump in performance, e.g., video that used to take
> 10 minutes to render approx 54 mins of video into an AVI file is now 3
> mins and rendering 85 mins of video with menus, etc., and burning a
DVD
> is now 1.25 hours, down from 2.25. It's the kind of jump I was hoping
> to
> see when I moved from the Dim8400 to the XPS700, but didn't.
I put the drives in every available spot, so no floppy, no optical.
I've backed off a little to keep the optical. I have a USB floppy for
the rare times I needed it.
I'm shocked you're seeing that much performance increase. I'm guessing
something was wrong with the original configuration. I'm seeing
virtually no speed increase in rendering from an E6600 to a Q6600 -- I
can just do four at once instead of two.
"DotCom" <nospam4me@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:SYOdnUUI1rZ9pw3anZ2dnUVZ_u-unZ2d@giganews.com...
> Homer Simpson's <s> question also in this thread.
> Here...I'll copy and paste it below for your convenience.
> Homer asked:
> I'm just curious, when you say you've upgraded memory. Do you mean
> just memory size ? AND memory speed ?
>
> Since on the XPS 420, I notice they have DDR2 at 667 MHZ, and
> another option of DDR2 at 800 MHZ. I was pinching pennies and
> ordered the 667 MHZ ones. Now, I'm wondering how easy would it
> be to "upgrade" to the 800 MHZ set (or if it would even make
> any noticeable difference).
With some setups, the 800 MHz can be slower then the 667 MHz.
You have to match the FSB of the CPU to a multiple of memory speed
for optimal results.
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:37:21 GMT, "Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: me@privacy.net [mailto:me@privacy.net]
>> Posted At: Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:31 AM
>> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
>> Conversation: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>> Subject: Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>>
>> "Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >This should apply to the 420 too.
>> >
>> >I run the 410/9200 machines 24/7.
>>
>> Question...would the 420 be a good choice for CAD work
>> and solids modeling as well?
>
>Seems like it would be a great choice with the right high-end video
>card.
Not sure this applies still but years ago, many CAD operators
preferred CRT monitors. I think it had to do with refresh rates but
I forgot now.
Anyone know if this is still true (about the monitors) ? The thing is
it might be hard now to buy a CRT monitor so that makes me think this
might not be true now????
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:55:39 -0500, WaIIy <WaIIy@(nft).invalid> wrote:
>On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:00:25 GMT, "Tom Scales" <tjscales@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>> I've gotta ask.
>>>
>>> What do you do with all that tv content?
>>>
>>> What do you watch, besides your 410's
>>
>>Well, up until last week I was retired and bored and had plenty of time
>>to watch. Now that I'm a working man again, it is collecting and will
>>get watched mostly on airplanes on my iPhone.
>>
>>Of course with the writers strike, there is less and less to record.
>
>Great. I'm amazed at all the stuff you have for your hobby.
>
>Hmmmm, my boat inhales 23 gallons an hour, so I'm not commenting
>on your $$$ worth of tv's and computers.
Tom Scales wrote:
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Tony Harding [mailto:ToHard@nowhere.org]
>> Posted At: Friday, January 18, 2008 1:41 AM
>> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
>> Conversation: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>> Subject: Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>>
>> Tom Scales wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> I particularly like the ability to have four internal 3 1/2 drives
>> and
>>> two internal 5 1/4 drives. Mix and match. 6 SATA Ports on the
>>> motherboard. 3 PCI slots plus on PCIe X16 and one PCIe X1 -- all
>>> accessible.
>> Where are you mounting the HDDs beyond the first 2 slots at the bottom
>> of the case? Are you using both 5.25" bays, plus the floppy & card
>> reader bays? I have a floppy I'd like to keep but I could free up a
>> 5.25" bay. Machine came with 2 optical drives from the Outlet.
>>
>> Have you noticed any performance improvement with the quad processors?
>> I
>> upgraded the processor in my XPS720 to a Q6600 when I installed the
> new
>> motherboard - *big* jump in performance, e.g., video that used to take
>> 10 minutes to render approx 54 mins of video into an AVI file is now 3
>> mins and rendering 85 mins of video with menus, etc., and burning a
> DVD
>> is now 1.25 hours, down from 2.25. It's the kind of jump I was hoping
>> to
>> see when I moved from the Dim8400 to the XPS700, but didn't.
>
> I put the drives in every available spot, so no floppy, no optical.
Thanks, that's what I was guessing.
> I've backed off a little to keep the optical. I have a USB floppy for
> the rare times I needed it.
>
> I'm shocked you're seeing that much performance increase. I'm guessing
> something was wrong with the original configuration. I'm seeing
> virtually no speed increase in rendering from an E6600 to a Q6600 -- I
> can just do four at once instead of two.
Hm, that sounds odd. Maybe the nVidia chipset is a factor here? The
improvements are consistent from the time of the mobo upgrade & the
Q6600 processor (8 Sept 2007). Both machines are XP Pro & have 4GB or RAM.
Tom Scales wrote:
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Tony Harding [mailto:ToHard@nowhere.org]
>> Posted At: Friday, January 18, 2008 1:41 AM
>> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
>> Conversation: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>> Subject: Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530?
>>
>> Tom Scales wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> I particularly like the ability to have four internal 3 1/2 drives
>> and
>>> two internal 5 1/4 drives. Mix and match. 6 SATA Ports on the
>>> motherboard. 3 PCI slots plus on PCIe X16 and one PCIe X1 -- all
>>> accessible.
>> Where are you mounting the HDDs beyond the first 2 slots at the bottom
>> of the case? Are you using both 5.25" bays, plus the floppy & card
>> reader bays? I have a floppy I'd like to keep but I could free up a
>> 5.25" bay. Machine came with 2 optical drives from the Outlet.
>>
>> Have you noticed any performance improvement with the quad processors?
>> I
>> upgraded the processor in my XPS720 to a Q6600 when I installed the
> new
>> motherboard - *big* jump in performance, e.g., video that used to take
>> 10 minutes to render approx 54 mins of video into an AVI file is now 3
>> mins and rendering 85 mins of video with menus, etc., and burning a
> DVD
>> is now 1.25 hours, down from 2.25. It's the kind of jump I was hoping
>> to
>> see when I moved from the Dim8400 to the XPS700, but didn't.
>
>
> I put the drives in every available spot, so no floppy, no optical.
> I've backed off a little to keep the optical. I have a USB floppy for
> the rare times I needed it.
>
> I'm shocked you're seeing that much performance increase. I'm guessing
> something was wrong with the original configuration. I'm seeing
> virtually no speed increase in rendering from an E6600 to a Q6600 -- I
> can just do four at once instead of two.
Hm, that sounds odd. Maybe the nVidia chipset is a factor here? The
improvements are consistent from the time of the mobo upgrade & the
Q6600 processor (8 Sept 2007). Both machines are XP Pro & have 4GB of
RAM (1066MHz on the 720 & 800MHz on the 410). XP Pro on the 720 is a
retail version (I ordered the "build it yourself" XPS700 which did not
include a copy of any flavor of Windows). I'm not suggesting this is
significant, BTW, just thinking about the differences between the 2 systems.
Re: XPS 420 or Inspiron 530? 
Linear Mode
