different architects, the 8400 uses a 775pin vs 478pin, uses ddr2 vs ddr, uses pci express instead of normal agp and pci bus. it has a larger case and psu. if its similar in price, get the 8400.

you can actually look up the specs for the 4700 in the reference section if you want to see whats replacing the 4600.

Thanks, Dan and Rick. I'll have a look @ the specs Dan mentions, but must admit that I don't know the significance of what he mentions above.

Is the idea that, for arguments sake, this year's 4600 is last year's 8200 and this year's 8300 is next year's 4700?

{For the past few months I've been caught in the dilemma over whether to hang on to what I've got [XPS T500, 21 Gb HD, 640 RAM, Win98 (an OS I've had it with)] and add an HD and an XP upgrade or cut bait and get a new machine, keeping te T500 as a second/backup machine "as is."}

I'm running an XPS T 500 / 512mb / 13gb / 64mb video card / 16x CDRW right now with a retail copy of Windows XP Home.

What's not to like :)

That is unless you're gaming or hitting the wall with some other use/application.

no, this yr had the 8300 and 4600 the 8400 replaces the 8300 the 4700 replaces the 4600. intel has introduced new tech, ie, new chipsets, pci express, new socket design among other things. dell is now offering this new tech. the cases are different in size as the 8300/8400 are larger then the 4600/4700.

Yep ... I agree with NVRambo ... it very much depends on why you are thinking of upgrading. I'm working now on an XPS T500, upgraded to 1.4 GHz celeron, etc. (specs below), and it's a grand box of tricks. I've ordered an 8400, but mainly as I do a lot maths at times and some programs take 1 or 2 days at present to complete (one running as I type!) ... if it wasn't for that ... while I play the odd round of golf, and MS Flight Sim 2000 Prof, and have no problems at all. Other than while doing the maths the CPU is rarely flat out, so it is grand for web dev, word processing, internet, and smallish amounts of sound and video editing (can get a bit annoying if doing a lot of video editing, waiting for files to build).

Definitely decide why you actually want to upgrade, and then look at your options ...

Multi Boot: DOS+Win 3.1/Win 2000 Professional(SP4)/Win 98SE
XPS T500 - Upgraded to 1.4GHz Celeron (Powerleap)
BIOS A11
448 Mb
13.6 Gb IBM 371360, 7200rpm
Maxtor UATA card
40Gb Maxtor
80Gb Maxtor
19" FP1901 (17" Dell P790 as a backup)
Plextor PX-708UF external USB 2.0 DVD rewriter
Hitachi DVD 8x
Plexwriter 16/10/40A
SoundBlaster live! 1024
Cinemaster Hardware Decoder
SideWinder ForceFeedback II
GeForce2 GTS (32Mb)
Iomega Zip 250Mb USB
Canon BJC 2100
Trust AMI 250SP Wireless Optical Mouse
Belkin 6 port USB hub
Fuji S602-Zoom
Soligor CR-106 Six in one card reader

CmA and NVRambo:

I was basically under the impression that upgrading a 5-yr-old machine wasn't really worth the $$$.

I've already added RAM, bringing it from 128 to 640, as well as a Linksys NIC so I could go DSL. [This cost about $130 total].

I had also considered:

1)Powerleap upgrade: PL-iP3/T 1.4 GHz Intel Celeron ($120)
2)Promise ATA 133 card [for HDs + zip] ($25)
3)Maxtor 120 Gb HD ($100)
4) XP Home Upgrade ($100)

I don't do any gaming or video editing at all, no heavy music editing other than editing MP3s from time to time. The biggest gas hog I've got are some photo editing programs, such as Canon EZZoom. I work alot in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as well.

I definitely do not want to get a marginal new machine and no matter how I tweak new system specs, I come in @ ~ $1800. Can't see having the cash till next year sometime. Would the add'l ~$350 be well spent till then?

CmA:

Thanks for the truly comprehensive reply.

>> If, however, when you are waiting for the PC to complete a task you can hear lots of disk activity then it could be an I/O bottleneck

Absolutely--I'm always hearing crackling and whirring as it hangs. And sometimes all it does is hang...and hang...abd hang.

>>>You didn't give your full specs but your PC has 2 IDE ports, each of which has two channels.

I've got my CD burner [primary] and CD-ROM [slave] on one IDE [as per instrux that came with the burner] and just my HD on the other IDE. My zip is not connected.

>>>You could get a fast HD and put it in place of your current system disk, but probably not worth the hassle overall due to bus speeds in the XPS T.

This was what I read widely I *should* do [rather than have the larger HD as a data disk only].

>>>Try to judge the benefit of investing now, and how long that will last you, compared with investing more and how long that might last.

Think it's time to cut bait and not invest any more in this machine. This upgrade is sounding like a bit more than I can handle, DIY-wise, for what it would yield.

Thanks.

dg

I'm not a techie, so consider opinions expressed within that context ...

>1)Powerleap upgrade: PL-iP3/T 1.4 GHz Intel Celeron ($120)
Going from 500MHz to 1.4GHz is a decent improvement, and worth $120 ... IMO. You will still have the XPS T FSB speed of 100 MHz as some limitation, compared to the 400 or 800 FSB on the newer PC's, and upcoming 1066. But if the current T500 is broadly working OK, but is just flat out on CPU at times then this upgrade will certainly help, and I'd expect you will notice a difference. If, however, when you are waiting for the PC to complete a task you can hear lots of disk activity then it could be an I/O bottleneck and changing the CPU will have little effect on that specific problem, but your app's will start faster, and allow faster manipulation of images, for example.

>2)Promise ATA 133 card [for HDs + zip] ($25)
Unless you specifically want ATA 133 for some reason, and don't have free ports then I don't know if I'd bother ... I have the Maxtor UATA-100 card (which is in fact the Promise card rebadged as far as I know) and it gave me more IDE ports but no gains in speed ... Handy enough if you want to keep one primary device per cable, which is alledged to improve things if you have a lot of IO going on on multiple devices at the same time, eg burning a CD from data on a disk ... I wouldn't have both these devices on the same port if possible. You didn't give your full specs but your PC has 2 IDE ports, each of which has two channels. Whether you have any free will depend on how many CD/DVD/HDs you have upgraded to. I saw no performance gain from the UATA-100 card over and above the XPS T's 66 interface ... which could be down to the speed of the PCI bus ... not sure ... beyond my knowledge.

Depending on amount of image manipulation, and type of images involved, you might see an improvement with a better graphics card, but with static images this is a very long shot ... but thought I'd mention it. No idea what to recommend, but if you got the GeForce 256 then there are fair cheap cards out there that are better than this ... but it is a long shot.

>3)Maxtor 120 Gb HD ($100)
If you need the storage then grand ... You could get a fast HD and put it in place of your current system disk, but probably not worth the hassle overall due to bus speeds in the XPS T. Probably best used as a data storage disk, which is probably what you have planned. If you get a decent HD you *may* see some improvement in save/open times. Disks are up to two times faster now-a-days then when the T's were produced I've heard (I only read that yesterday!), so this could go you some performance boost, but it may not be that noticeable.

>4) XP Home Upgrade ($100)
I'd only bother if a) you want more stability ... if you are moving from 98 or 98SE you won't believe how few reboots, freezes and hangs you will avoid with XP (I have 2000 Pro, but am assuming XP Home is as good or better), and/or b) you want to use programs that will only work with XP Home (ie won't work with your existing setup). If you buy a PC in a year or two you'll get the latest op sys with it, so I'd leave this out unless really needed.

Hope that helps in some way ... but I know from making similar decisions for myself that it is very hard to know in advance what you will get from any upgrade, and it often doesn't live up to expectations. When I went from 500 MHz to 1GHz, there was hardly anything that I noticed at all!!! The move to 1.4 strangely enough, did show up with faster app starts, and more CPU bandwidth for multiple program operation. Try to judge the benefit of investing now, and how long that will last you, comapred with investing more and how long that might last. For you specified requirements, if it was me, I'd only upgrade my existing system. The downside is that you are then committing to an older technology for a while, and that latest version of Photoshop (or whatever) just might not run, or might run poorly.

You could try the CPU only upgrade, and then if that doesn't show significant improvement at least you have only thrown $120 at it. If that works then look at other additions.

Message Edited by CmA on 07-07-2004 02:15 PM