Purchasing Dell Precision 670 Workstation

Thanks, so how quiet is your machine with the dual cpu's you have etc?

 

i would suggest the 3.8 ghz processor and get two of them. the 670's support dual processors. i can't imagine who you spoke with that said otherwise.

I'm looking at the 256MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 3450 graphics card, at the moment my Dimension 8200 is very quiet the card I have in there now has just a heatsink

 

hi clayton,

i think the whole precision line, at least the 670 and 380 systems, are very quiet. this compared to older dimension 8100 models we had here. in my 670, i hear the fan from my graphic card when it is at 100% when the system starts, but it powers back once windows loads. i have an after market card.

i really love these systems. very solid and stable, and my 670 is extremely powerful. honestly, i can get more work done so fast i find myself with all this extra free time for other stuff i never had in the past while always waiting on my system to catch up with me.

that is an excellent card and very quiet. i suggest the fastest cpu's you can afford now to ensure a long life for your work.

"Would there be any benifit using a 146GB SCSI drive as the boot drive c:\ and using a 500GB SATA drive as a storage drive for backups etc?
I noticed the SCSI drive runs at 15000RPM, what brand are these drives? Dell says they do not tell people what brand they will be getting.
Is the MB limited to only SATA150? instead of the new SATA 300 II"

yes, there is definately a benefit to this. having your boot drive and os on the fastest drive such as a raptor is ideal, then data and storage on your other. i used to run a system like that. i have 2 sata II drives, these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003

western digital makes the raptor drives. you might want to check their site for more info:

http://www.wdc.com/en/index.asp?Language=en

seagate makes a 15K drive also. i prefer their hard drives.

if you're looking for a great deal, visit dell's outlet. i have purchased 7 systems there and never had a spot of trouble. they stack up them same as new machines from dell. they have same standards and warranty too. i know some people are gun shy or feel "embarrassed" to buy there, but check it out too if you wish.

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb

good luck!

Message Edited by kerriritter on 03-30-2006 03:29 PM

yes - XP Pro 32 bit or 64 bit. i have extra ram for this system if you want to pm me.

congratulations! great system you're getting. pls do let us know how it works out.

Do you get strange noises from your CPU fans? I was speaking to someone with a P670 and he says that there is strange noises coming from his CPU fans.

Seems the cpu fans are running high when they don't need to be and make all sorts of annoying noises

 

hats off to getting that "way pricy" scsi drive. i want one badly but don't want to take a second mortgage out, lol.

my system has all Delta fans, ultra quiet. i have replaced case fans though with ultra high speed fans and a fan controller.

your friend may have a fan going out - starts making a whining noise. they should sound like very faint white noise. if they are winding up and down, there may be a problem with the VRM (try reseating it) or a cpu. the fans plug into the motherboard and based on temps they spin at more RPM's as required by the processors/system, always louder at boot then stabilizing after post. they increase the rpms as necessary to keep the cpu's cool though mine do not sound loud, more of a constant speed. my system is on 24/7.

the cpu's have throttling. so for example they idle at 2796.22 MHz and throttle 3566.92 MHz increasing as needed to process and balance the load. the fan speed will increase if needed to maintain the cpu temps.

For the fan noise, if you press on your case, or move it a little, the noise disappears. I think the case is not rigid enough, and it warp a little, which cause the fan to some noise. Because if you press then slightly on the side of the case, it comes quite again. So just be sure it is on a stable and flat ground to avoid deformation of the case.
That was my 2 cents contribution...Otherwise it is quite a good machine (have dual processor Xeon 3.4 GHz scsi and sata disk, 4 Gig of RAM)