Dell P4 1.5 plus Free Palm M100 and Free Shipping - $529

[Pocky]

Thanks to Bob61 at AT:

Hot deal on a Pentium 4 1.5ghz system w/128MB RAM and 20GB HD. Go to SMALL BUSINESS section on Dell. There's $100 off, free shipping and a free Palm M100 included!

Select Dimension 4300 and configure as follows:

*1.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
*Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition with FREE WinXP Home Upgrade Coupon
*Microsoft Works Suite 2001
*Integrated Sound Option
*1 Year Ltd. Warranty, 1 Year On-Site, 1 Year 24x7 Phone Support


Review configuration and then be sure to select option for free Palm M100 (they have it deselected by default - stupid, eh?)

System Configured:

Dell Dimension 4300 Series: Dimension® 4300 Series, Pentium® 4 Processor at 1.5 GHz
Memory: 128MB SDRAM
Keyboard: Dell® Enhanced Quiet Key Keyboard
Monitor: Video Ready w/o Monitor
Video Card: 16MB ATI Rage Ultra 4X AGP Graphics Card
Hard Drive: 20GB Value Hard Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5 in Floppy Drive
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows Millennium w/WinXP Home Upg Coupon¹²
Mouse: Dell® 2 Button Mouse
Network Card: No Network Card Requested
Modem: No Modem Requested
DVD ROM or CD-ROM Drive: 48x Max Variable CD ROM
Sound Card: Integrated Audio with Soundblaster Pro 16 Compatibility
Speakers: No Speaker Option
Bundled Software: Microsoft® Works Suite 2001 with Money 2001 Standard
Norton Antivirus® at no additional charge: Norton Antivirus® 2001, Introductory Offer
Digital Imaging Software: Image Expert® 2000, Dell Edition ($0)
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 1 Year Ltd. Warranty, 1 Year Onsite Service, 1 Year 24x7 Phone Support
Internet Access Service: 6 Months AOL,Featuring the Netbusiness Service for Small Business (add $0)
Business Web Tools Folder: Business Web Tools for website creation
Special Offer with PDA: Get a Palm m100 PDA on Dell!

Total is $539.

Visit the Dell site by linking through ****** to save another 2%. Makes this $528 before any taxes.

[dealsdyker]

Great deal. Any idea what the speed difference between SDRAM and RDRAM is on these P4 systems?

[flshadow]

133mhz SDRAM 200mhz Rambus I Believe

[Twilight]

If you don't want the Palm, and don't want a Dell, I just received a P4/1.5 from this company for $534 and it's running great. Or, get a P4/1.7 for $614, or P4/2G with WinME for $1076. Shipping via UPS ground is $30. http://www.computerbuys2000.com/baspisys.html
Difference from what's above - this one has: 40G HD instead of 20G, 56K modem and network card included, speakers included, 52X instead of 48X CDROM, 32 MEG AGP Video instead of 16MB ATI Rage Ultra 4X AGP, no software included (I got WinME for no charge when I ordered mine). The case mine came in has one side removable at a time, and there's tons of room inside.

[sbp]

Originally posted by dealsdyker
Great deal. Any idea what the speed difference between SDRAM and RDRAM is on these P4 systems? Yeah the sdram chokes the performance of the system somewhat.

[alyosha]

Nope - SDRAM chokes memory bandwidth, but it will only show up on the memory benchmarks, which Intel can shove... It pretty much doesn't affect perfomance.

[sbp]

Will SDRAM and a Pentium 4 perform okay for most people? Yes it will. But its like having a cool car and having a mediocre engine. :o

To say the performance difference will only show up on memory benchmarks is incorrect. :nono: To prove what I say please refer to the following links.

Anandtech's VIA's P4X266: The Pentium 4 gets DDR review: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1518&p=11 and http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1518&p=13

Hardocp's VIA' s Pentium4 DDR Chipset Preview: http://hardocp.com/reviews/mainboards/ref/viap4x/index2.html


VR-Zone's Intel 845 Chipset Review: http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Intel/D845HV/page5.htm

http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Intel/D845HV/page8.htm Conclusion
"On the whole, i850 with RDRAM outperforms the i845 with SDRAM in almost all aspects. There are some aspects like office applications, video and rendering that the i845 still performs reasonably well so i presume the performance improvements such as 12 levels IOQ and 24 simultaneous open pages play a part in some ways. However the performance gap widens between the i850 and i845 when the applications become more memory intensive especially in the graphics, gaming and content creation aspects. The Pentium 4 is really limit by the bandwidth of the SDRAM and in many cases unable to realise the true performance of the P4. That is why Intel wish to stick with RDRAM in the first place as it is still best suit for their P4 processors."


Toms Hardware First Look At Brookdale - Intel's Upcoming 845 Chipset article: http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q3/010702/pentium4-09.html

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q3/010702/pentium4-15.html Conclusion
"There we are. The first look at Intel's initial version of 'Brookdale' the 'value' Pentium 4 chipset i845. The question now is, who will be interested in it? It is true that it will make Pentium 4 much more affordable due to its PC133 SDRAM support, but its lackluster memory performance impacts Pentium 4 so badly, that it makes AMD's Athlon an even more attractive solution than it already is. I also don't expect board prices to be that low, since Intel has a long high-price history for its chipsets, even when they are carrying the 'value'-tag.

I personally would consider everyone as close to crazy if he should choose Pentium 4 plus i845 and PC133 SDRAM. Intel will try to use the blue men and the rest of its marketing machine to capitalize on the Pentium 4 nametag for i845-systems. However, this sad performing solution is just another sign that Intel is running out of ideas. I have to say that I am more than tired of half-baked solutions that are sold as new products.

Why does nobody at Intel have the guts to come out with the obviously functional i845 for DDR? Pentium 4 sales are far from great right now and I don't see how i845 with PC133 is supposed to change that. Intel will continue making a fool out of itself if it continues to hold on to the sinking Rambus ship instead of showing some guts and release i845 with DDR-SDRAM. Dear Pam Pollace, please spare us with even more 'Blue Men' commercials that try to sell i845 to the poor uninformed masses, and tell your bosses that they should try coming up with reasonable products instead.

The i845 is not a bad chipset. Once it is teamed up with DDR-SDRAM it will most likely be what most Taiwanese motherboard makers call it: the new 'BX'. However, as long as Intel keeps the DDR-version from us, I wouldn't even touch an i845 motherboard." :poke:

[dealsdyker]

Well, I ordered a Dell 8100 last month with (summary):
512MB RDRAM
40 GIG
nvidia 32MB
16x CDRW
10/100 network
Win ME

for $939 plus tax/shipping. So with shipping it would have cost me $1034. But I called and haggled for free shipping (most people wouldn't have). So call the price $939 or $1034. Whatever makes you feel good.

I used the machine for 2 weeks and never got so many blue GPF screens in my life. Everything I read said "WIN ME stinks!" and people warned me of that before I bought, and I can confirm it now. I'm doing digital photos and DTP on it and I could simply start Windows PictureIt (came installed on machine) and close the program and it would give me a GPF in the kernel.

So I've ordered this 4300 system with same config except it has Windows 2000/Pro. Costing me $818. Then separately I ordered 512MB for $40 shipped so the real cost is $858. So Physically, I'm saving $81. But let's do more math. I'm getting 2000/Pro (add $100 more savings). I got a Palm Pilot I can ebay (add $75 more savings). So I am now physically up to $256 savings over 2 weeks ago. Maybe I can also ebay the memory in it that I'm replacing... maybe not. I know a few people who could use the memory anyway.

So I'm saving ! 27% ! over 2 weeks ago. This machine will need to be less than 27% slower for me to have justified the swap (besides the fact that WinMe blue-screening all over makes the justification). I hope, based on these stats, that I am not disappointed. I hope it is at least faster than a P3 similarly configured (does anyone have stats on that??).

Factor in that I got free shipping 2 weeks ago when most wouldn't have, and the % savings are even higher! And I thought I got a blazing deal 2 weeks ago!

Any comments? I have yet to get the order/customer number email from Dell.

(edit), oh, and I like the case is better too with 2 USB in the front (and 2 in the back).

[dealsdyker]

Sheesh, now that I've read all the links provided by sbp, I'm wondering if (again) I should just cancel this newest order and keep my Win98 Celeron 450 for a few months more until DDR comes out. Agggggg! How much more expensive with that DDR chipset and associated memory cost??

[ChrisMG187]

Umm, you can get DDR... AMD is great.

[dealsdyker]

AMD is tempting. I want to stay less than $850 and everything, and I want:
nvidia 32 MB,
40 gig,
16x cdrw,
512MB
Win 2000 Professional/XP

Gateway just dropped AMD processors from their product lineup today. Also AMD just closed two plants (laying off a bunch of people, restructuring stuff). AMD's immediate future doesn't look promising after today but I'd still go with them for the right price. I challenged anyone to build me an AMD system for $850 here before and nobody could do it.

[dealsdyker]

Article reviewing this system: http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,62263,00.asp

NOTE: They agree that the gaming performance is average, however they say that the use of SDRAM vs. RDRAM only impacts performance something like 3 to 5%... testing 256MB.

I wonder if the amount of memory you put on makes a dramatic difference. Like if they tested 128mb on SDRAM VS. RDRAM would the difference be much more obvious than a comparison of SDRAM&RDRAM with 256MB (or 512MB). Probably, since you would be swapping in/out of memory much more often.

[sbp]

3-5%? It depends on what PCWorld used to benchmark.
As I said before a Pentium 4 system using sdram will be okay for most folks.

[Dzan]

This reaffirms what I've always said, "Unless free tech support is an issue for you, don't buy a factory computer, build your own." It's assured that a factory computer will have at least one feature you don't like. I don't advocate piracy ;) but I'm sure your friends might have a certain OS on disk they could let you use to save money. Bottom line, home built systems are cheaper and always configured EXACTLY how you want them.