Thoughts on Dell 8400

[BCC]

Ive been waiting to get a Dell 8400 with the X800 XT card. But since it
seems to be a mystery to the world when or if this machine will ship with
this card again Ive been contemplating just getting the thing with either
the X300 or the X800 SE.

In particular, I want to play painkiller, farcry, and doom3 (none of which I
have played yet).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I guess Im just wondering if those cards
can handle the high graphics settings without burning up. I cant decide if
it is better to wait for Dell to give me the system I want, or just buy the
system I want (with a lower card) and wait for ATI (or nvidia for that
matter) to ship a PCIe card that I can upgrade to.

Who know, maybe I wont even want to upgrade if either one of these cards
will give me the performance I want.

Any thoughts?

P.S. Im going for a dell because it is actually cheaper than buying the
parts myself and building the thing! Thats bulk sales for ya.

 

[Augustus]

Ive been waiting to get a Dell 8400 with the X800 XT card. But since it
seems to be a mystery to the world when or if this machine will ship with
this card again Ive been contemplating just getting the thing with either
the X300 or the X800 SE.

If you want to play the games the games you listed, avoid the X300SE. It's
basically a 64bit PCIe version of a 9200SE which is total crap for any 3D
work. Web browsing and productivity are the only thing it's good for. An
128bit X800SE is about the same as a 128bit 9800 Atlantis. Expect about
9600XT level performance from it.

 

[David Casey]

Ive been waiting to get a Dell 8400 with the X800 XT card. But since it
seems to be a mystery to the world when or if this machine will ship with
this card again Ive been contemplating just getting the thing with either
the X300 or the X800 SE.

In particular, I want to play painkiller, farcry, and doom3 (none of which I
have played yet).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I guess Im just wondering if those cards
can handle the high graphics settings without burning up. I cant decide if
it is better to wait for Dell to give me the system I want, or just buy the
system I want (with a lower card) and wait for ATI (or nvidia for that
matter) to ship a PCIe card that I can upgrade to.

Who know, maybe I wont even want to upgrade if either one of these cards
will give me the performance I want.

Any thoughts?

P.S. Im going for a dell because it is actually cheaper than buying the
parts myself and building the thing! Thats bulk sales for ya.

I've had my 8400 with x800 XT for a number of weeks now and it's performed
flawlessly once I got the lockup problems taken care of. I installed and
played with Doom3 for a few hours and it ran fine as well, but I didn't get
a fps rate or anything before I got bored with it and uninstalled it. But
it ran fine while it was on my machine.

Before this Dell, I had built my own machine but I grew tired of chasing
around the dB level of the fans all the time trying to get it more and more
quiet yet still hearing the computer in the other room. When I first
powered up the Dell, I knew that the extra few dollars I spent on it rather
than upgrading the CPU and motherboard in my old desktop was well spent.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

 

[Marilyn and Bob]

If you want to play the games the games you listed, avoid the X300SE. It's
basically a 64bit PCIe version of a 9200SE which is total crap for any 3D
work. Web browsing and productivity are the only thing it's good for. An
128bit X800SE is about the same as a 128bit 9800 Atlantis. Expect about
9600XT level performance from it.

I don't do gaming, so I can't be of help there, but I am struggling with my
8400 with the X300 card. I seem to have a conflict between the ATI drivers
and MSPaint. I can't open MSPaint unless I remove the ATI drivers (Safe
Mode or VGA mode). It's driving me nuts.

And another struggle that more people are having is dealing with the SATA
hard drive. In a reinstall the drivers for the HD have to be installed from
a floppy (the 8400 comes with a FD only as an optional $30 add-on and many
people did not get it) and there are no instructions anywhere (except from
peers on the Dell forum) on how to do this even if you have an FD.
Frankly, I think the 8400 is not ready for prime time yet. I'd wait a while
before purchasing. With any luck they might even have the card you want as
an option by then.

 

[neopolaris]

I've had my 8400 with x800 XT for a number of weeks now and it's
performed flawlessly once I got the lockup problems taken care of. I
installed and played with Doom3 for a few hours and it ran fine as
well, but I didn't get a fps rate or anything before I got bored with
it and uninstalled it. But it ran fine while it was on my machine.

Before this Dell, I had built my own machine but I grew tired of
chasing around the dB level of the fans all the time trying to get it
more and more quiet yet still hearing the computer in the other room.
When I first powered up the Dell, I knew that the extra few dollars I
spent on it rather than upgrading the CPU and motherboard in my old
desktop was well spent.

Dave

Might as well pick yourself up an extra hard drive because that quiet Dell
will cook the one in there now.

 

[David Casey]

Might as well pick yourself up an extra hard drive because that quiet Dell
will cook the one in there now.

Working fine so far. I'll keep that in mind if I start having troubles
though.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

 

[JasonB]

Ive been waiting to get a Dell 8400 with the X800 XT card. But since it
seems to be a mystery to the world when or if this machine will ship with
this card again Ive been contemplating just getting the thing with either
the X300 or the X800 SE.

In particular, I want to play painkiller, farcry, and doom3 (none of which I
have played yet).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I guess Im just wondering if those cards
can handle the high graphics settings without burning up. I cant decide if
it is better to wait for Dell to give me the system I want, or just buy the
system I want (with a lower card) and wait for ATI (or nvidia for that
matter) to ship a PCIe card that I can upgrade to.

Who know, maybe I wont even want to upgrade if either one of these cards
will give me the performance I want.

Any thoughts?

P.S. Im going for a dell because it is actually cheaper than buying the
parts myself and building the thing! Thats bulk sales for ya.

Personally I wouldn't buy a Dell PC to play games on, not if you're
going to stick a ATI X800 graphics card in it. An X800 card will
generate a fair amount of heat and Dell power supplies are never
particularly high rated.

On top of that while they have reasonable cooling for moderate use, as a
gamer you'll be pushing the CPU and graphics to the limit which in turn
will generate more heat then perhaps the case & fan can deal with.

While this won't necessarily cause your machine to cease functioning, it
may well shorten the life span of some of the components.

I would rather spend the money on a custom built PC (either a local
supplier or DIY) where you have more choice over what components are put
in and where standard, i.e. cooling methods are used instead of
proprietary cooling methods.