What is difference between two Dells at Costco?

There's no way to enable PAT on the 4600.   There are some motherboard manufactuers that emulate PAT with an 865 chipset, but that's not supported by Intel, and Dell uses Intel motherboards.

I beleive the 8300 and 4600 use the same power supply.  I'm not positive on that, though.  The 8300 should provide better cooling with its larger case, however I don't think you'll have a cooling problem with the 4600, either.

So the only difference in performance between a 4600 and 8300 is PAT? Would there be a way to enable PAT in a 4600? Does the 8300 case allow better airflow of have a better power supply than the 4600?

The 8300 has a much nicer case than the 4600.  It also uses a motherboard based on the Intel 875 chipset - the 4600 use one based on the 865.  The 875 will provide a bit faster memory throughput utilizing the "Performance Acceleration Technology".  http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/pat.htm

Is that worth $300?  I don't know.  The performance difference between the two will be small, but there will be a difference.  The nicer case of the 8300 would be a plus if you're looking for maximum expandibility, or tend to change out components quite a bit.

Message Edited by TechniKal on 01-25-2004 08:12 PM

Thanks TechniKal, I'm learning something here.  I notice that the Costo 4600 has 800MHz Front Side Bus, is that available with the 865 chipset or could that be a misprint?  Costco prides itself with offering products that have been slightly "altered" and are therefore are not available elsewhere, could they possibly have had Dell sink a 8300 motherboard into the 4600 or does the 865 chipset also offer 800 Side Bus?  Thanks again.

AHoward121-

See my specs, below. I'm running a 3.2GHz P4 in my 4600 with no problems whatsoever. It's a lovely machine.

Karn3ra writes:

"as far as i know, the 4600 has a lot more known problems than the 8300..."

And these known problems would be what, exactly?

The 865 chipset supports the 800mhz FSB just fine.  You can configure a 4600 with an 800mhz FSB HT P4 processor at Dell.com, so Costco's not doing anything funky to the machine.  In fact, I'm typing on a 4600 with an 800mhz FSB right now.

I picked the 4600 over the 8300 because of price.  The slight increase in memory bandwidth wasn't worth the extra cost to me.  I also didn't need any expandability beyond what the 4600 offered.

I'm not impressed with the case of the 4600.  It's a far cry from the solid, tool-less, easily accesible 4 year old Optiplex box of mine it replaced.  The 8300's case will be much more 'user friendly' for upgrades, etc.  I don't upgrade my home pc that often, so I can live with it - but if I did, the extra cost of the 8300 may be worth it.

So basically, the 8300 will offer a slight bit more performance and a better designed, more easily accessable case.  If those things are worth $300, go with the 8300.  Otherwise, spend the $300 on something else and get the 4600.

 

 

Anandtech has a review showing the performance differences between the 865 and 875 chipset. The last page has a chart detailing how PAT effects performance in various applications.

http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1823

The price difference between the 4xxx and 8xxx series tends to vary with time and purchase location. Generally speaking, if the difference is small go with the 8300. This is what I'd call a large difference. Also someone was reporting a $600 difference on the Dell Home & Home Office website. OTOH, it's only a $50 difference on the Dell Small Business website, making the 8300 the best deal.

AHoward, thank you for that link, very interesting (but it's going to take me a while to understand all of what I'm reading.)