Well, I finally decided to upgrade a bit. The old PIII-600 w/Win98 was
getting a mite sluggish, and Betty's machine was beating the pants off me.
I started to build another one, but since I'm a bit behind the times I
decided to just buy one - a Dell Precision 650.
I could have used dual 2.4G processors instead of the 2.8G for another
couple hundred bucks, but made the decision to go this way. If I ever have
a reason for the dual processors I can always add another I suppose.
Intel® Xeon™ Processor, 2.80GHz, 533 FSB, 512K L2 Cache
E7505 Chipset with 533MHz FSB
2GB Dual Channel, ECC, DDR266MHz SDRAM Memory (4 DIMMS)
Integrated ATA/100 EIDE controller
Integrated U320 SCSI controller featuring high-performance RAID 0
nVidia, Quadro4 900XGL, 128MB, VGA/DVI (dual monitor capable)
80GB ATA-100 IDE, 1 inch (7200 rpm)
80GB ATA-100 IDE, 1 inch (7200 rpm)
??X CD-RW
16X DVD-ROM and 48X/24X/48X CD-RW with Decode Solution, PWS
Enhanced Performance Keyboard, USB (8 Hot Keys)
Logitech, 2 button OPTICAL Mouse w/scroll, USB
56K, v.92 data/fax modem, PCI
HarmonKardon, HK395, High-End Speakers, 2.0, w/subwoofer
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, SP1, using NTFS
Hyper-Threading feature set to "ON."
I already have two 21" monitors to use with this rig. The nVidia card
lacks many features that the Matrox cards have that I've been using,
though.
Oh, yeah. This thing has a 460W power supply *under* the computer, with
two fans. It also has two processor fans in the rear and a card fan in the
front. It has an 8X AGP slot, 2-32-bit 33MHz slots, and 3-64-bit 100MHz
slots. For ports it has the usual keyboard and mouse, a 10/100/1000 NIC, 1
par, 2 ser, 6 USB 2.0 (2 front & 4 rear) 2 IEEE 1394a (1 front & 1 rear),
and the 3 rear audio ports plus a mic and earphone ports on the front.
The case doesn't *come* apart - it *swings* apart with the drives mounted
in the door. Too bad they didn't make the cables long enough to open the
door fully without unplugging something. Also, they connected both CD
drives to one channel and both HD's to the other channel. Looks like I
need to replace some cables. I'm gonna miss the SCSI drives, too. I could
boot from either drive with the old one.
Unaware that this thing included two CD drives, I also ordered a Sony
DRU-500a (on backorder). I think I'll cancel it though as I don't
currently have anything that will use DVD. Of course $305 wasn't a bad
price for it.
One last note: BeLarc Advisor ain't so smart. It says I have two
processors installed. Perhaps it sensed the hyperthreading.
Since the only thing I use it for beyond the usual stuff is plain vanilla
AutoCAD, it should make a good "home" system, don't you think?
--
Dave D (drop the dash to reply)
May you always find Peace, Love, and Happiness in all that you do!
![Autodesk Design & Make Report](https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/1350519iCB55845EBFC43016/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999" "Autodesk Design & Make Report")