Pre-Sales Question

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@anothermike wrote:

Please help! 

I was ready to push the purchase button when viewing my cart and had a few tech questions to be sure if I needed anything else.  The Sales dept. on the phone forwarded me to Tech Support.  Without a Service Tag number I couldn't get much help.  The responses to my (I thought easy) questions were "I don't know" and "it should work".  These are not great responses when you're about to spend $1000's on a machine that isn't what you were expecting!  I was directed to the website but without the Service Tag number, I couldn't get any online help either.  Can someone please help me???

Thank you!

Here are my questions for the Dimension 4550 Desktop machine in my cart:

1.)  Is there an open bay for another hard drive?  I'd like to take the hard drive out of my current machine and make it the secondary drive on the Dell.  Is there room, what do I need (install kit), and is there a restriction on what type of drive (IDE EIDE SCSI) drive that can be installed as the secondary hard drive?

The 4550 has two hard drive slots, which is already occupied by the one hd, so you will have one left to use for a second hard drive.  There are no restrictions as to what type of hd you can use (ide, eide, scsi), other than may need to get a controller card, such as for the scsi)

2.)  How many slots are there for memory?  I have PC2100 DDR memory in my current machine that I would like to add to the new machine.  The Dell site only says DDR and not the PC type.  If I order 256 from Dell how many slots do I have left to install the memory I already have?  And, if the Dell memory isn't PC2100 DDR, can I mix my PC2100 DDR with what Dell provides?

There are two memory banks in the 4550.  Which can occupy two modules of 512mb (for a system max of 1gb)  Depending on what processor you get, will determine what memory speed you will get..  If you get a 533fsb based system, pc2700 memory will be installed.  If you get a 400fsb based system, pc2100 will be installed...  However, you can still use either memory in either fsb systems.  But, if you decide to mix the pc2100 in with the pc2700 memory in the 533fsb based system, the pc2700 memory will slow down to pc2100 speeds, which will slow down the overall speed of your computer....  I suggest keeping pc2700 memory in that system for the most optimal speed which you have paid for.

3.) Can XP that comes with the machine be replaced with Win2000 Pro?  I'd like to reformat the machine and put in Win2000 Pro.  Are all the necessary drivers in Win2000 already or are there downloads on Dell's or Microsoft's site?  Are there any issues with Win2000 Pro I need to know about?

Windows  2000 pro can be installed onto your computer, however, the Dell home systems, you only have choices of Windows XP Home, or XP Pro.  If you call dell up, and ask for Windows 2000, they may install it.....But I do know for a fact that Windows 2000 pro is an option for the Dell business 4550 systems.  So if dell doesn't allow you to use W2k in Dell Home, then you may need to go to Dell business to get the computer, or you will have to buy the Operating system seperately elsewhere.

4.) I ordered the DVD+RW drive in the machine.  Is this compatible with Win2000?  Who is the manufacturer of the DVD+RW drive so drivers can be downloaded from them if available?

The manufactorer of the DVDRW will vary.  Im guessing it can be Sony, Liteon, and few others.  The dvdrw should be compatible, but you may need to check back at microsofts website to ensure w2k will accecpt dvdrw...which i believe it will be compatible...  http://www.windows2000.com

Thank you!

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Hi anothermike

 LQQk here for some spec's information and etc. on the Dell dim 4550 dt.

rustymt

Dell Dimension 4100 (incase upgrade) AsusP4PEgl / Intel(R) P4 2.4
Intel(R) App Acc Win's XP oem home/ 2000pro IE 6.0
Bios:Award Medallion v6.0 1gig ddr pc2700
MaX30gig,MaX80gig,Wd20gig Generic Floppy dr SamSung DVD rom
CyberDrv CD-R/RW IDE Intel(R) 8201 Ultra ATA Controller
IDE Intel(R) 8201 Ultra ATA Controller Raid IDE ATA/133/Serial ATA
Trios II Drive selector Video:NVIDA gf4 Ti4200
Audio: SoundMax ADIAD(1980 6chan audio CODEC) AOpen 56k v.92 Fax
Dell E770s [Monitor] Logitech QuickCam Express Lexmark Z22-Z32 Series Microsoft Keyboard Microsoft Mouse (IntelliPoint)

Addressing questions 3&4, the DVD+RW drive currently being shipped is an OEM NEC drive. However they could substitute another drive that meets their advertised specs at any time. Dell does not support the Dimension 4550 with Win2K, but they do for the Precision Workstation 340/350 which probably use the same drivers. If you haven't tried Windows XP Pro you should look at it first before going with Win2K. I used Win2K since it came out and have found XP Pro superior in almost every respect. XP has much better driver support and plug-and-play finally seems to be working. If you really need Win2K and want Dell's support you should consider a Precision Workstation 340 or Optiplex GX260.

Thanks all for the input!  Some new questions (of course)...

If you get a 533fsb based system, pc2700 memory will be installed.  If you get a 400fsb based system, pc2100 will be installed... 

>> How do I know which one I get? I don't see this info anywhere in the specs.

I have Win2000 Pro so I wouldn't need Dell to have it pre-installed.  I configured the identical machine in the Business section and the machine was $100's more than the identical home machine.  So, I'd rather get the home machine and do the final configurations myself.  I haven't played much with XP Pro but I'm huge fan of 2000 Pro.  I guess I should take a peek at XP Pro since that's obviously where the future is going.  Afterall, it's 2003, not 2000!

Thanks again!

 

Anothermike:

I just finished answering this question for you on the Pre-Sales forum.  In the future, please don't double-post, it just takes up time from the volunteers that spend their time answering your question only to find it's already been answered. 

Give us the system spec which you will be ordering, and we can determine if your getting pc2700 or pc2100.

Just finished ordering the machine since everyone here was so helpful...  thanks again.

The machine is 4550 P4 @ 2.4GHz with 533MHz bus 512K L2 Cache.  128MB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz (the number on the right is 128M3 [311-2074].   Is this enough info?

I also got the machine with XP Home and plan on giving Win 2000 Pro a shot.  If it doesn't work I can always reformat and try something else.  Nothing like having free time to reformat machines...