A update to From a 4100 to an 8100...Differences
Written: Mar 20 '01
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Pros: Fast,exceptional case,330 watt power supply,Dell tech support,Dell policies
Cons: Windows ME and questions about system speed at 1.4 gigs
The Bottom Line: Its a keeper.I have had good service and support from Dell.
The computer is first rate from a first rate company.
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| seagull5's Full Review: Dell Dimension 8100 Series |
I origionally ordered a Dell 4100 P3 1000 with an Nvidia GTS 32 meg DDR video card 196 megs of PC133 ram and a 40 gig ATA 100 hard drive.The computer was great but I took a
good hard look and decided to reorder a Dell 8100 P4 1.4 with 256 megs of PC800 ram.The Nvidia card was an expensive upgrade on the 4100 so configureing the 8100 with the Ge force MX 32 meg was $118 dollars more.The computer arrived after 6 days and the 4100 was returned for credit.You have 30 days to reorder or up or downgrade parts to make the computer what you want it to be. I did not order a monitor.
I have been running several benchmarks just to see what the system can do and compare it to the computer I returned.
A P3 1000 to a P4 1.4.
I have formated both computers back to windows 98se as I do not like Windows ME.It is a SLOW operating system with very few tweaks that I can make to make it preform optimally.
After running Sisoft Sandra,Passmark Performance Test,Norton 4.0 benchmarks and a new program available for download called Dacus benchmarks. They all reach simular but
somewhat different conclusions.
The P4 shines in memory intensive applications.Its marks are way up there.I cannot go into alot of numbers but with the 400 bus and the Rambus memory should make a cad cam designer very happy.In alot of areas such as business apps its pretty slow.Multimedia ratings are high.Hard disk read/writes and physical benchmarks were extremely high.
Passmak rating of the Alathon 1000 was higher than the P4.
Nortons benchmark of my two pc`s rated the P3 1000 at 521.
It rated the P1.4 at 476.
I have been doing alot of reading about the P4.It seems like
it NEEDS the software optimized for the cpu and its instructions.Then the P4 will shine.Trouble is its not here yet but with Intel`s power will be shortly.
Do I regret sending back a P3 1000 for a P4.Not at all.I buy a computer for the future.I keep a computer for three years.I try to buy the most technology I can afford.Am I dissapointed in the benchmarks.Not at all.Fast is fast.
The 8100 case is extremely well designed.Its power supply at 330 watts should handle any upgrade with no problem.It is extremely easy to open and darn good looking (my wife says it looks like a stereo).Everything swings out for easy access.
I would recommed orderig the PC800 ram with this system.Its faster than the PC600 that normally ships with it.If you have a CDRW that you want to put in the 8100 you will need to order rails from Dell spare parts as the CD or DVD are on rails to make them easy to remove.There are no screw holes for monting them.The ehernet card is built into the motherboard as is an ATA 100 controller to make the hard drive fly.
I have had no major issues.It seems a very solid computer.
Am I happy...one word yes.Its a pleasure to own and has been a pleasure to deal with Dell.
This is an update after a month with the 8100.First a second harddrive install.After I set up the drives both to cable select as Dell motherboards support this...windows did not find the drive.It was listed in device manager but not in MY Computer.Changing the jumper settings from Master /slave the drive was still not recognized in My computer.
You will have to go into the setup(F2) on bootup and reset the drive to auto.Not the pulg and play I expected.
A hassle with tech support,a tech did not want to even talk to me about the hard drive question since I had Windows ME on the system.I told him this is a hardware issue NOT a software issue.Why I asked him do you send a restore disk with drivers for ME,98 and 2000?He still would
not help.Second tech said since I only ordered one hard drive on my system he also would not help since it came with one hard drive.Irrating. I quess Dell is getting pretty picky about support.I hope this is not setting a new trend.I ended figureing it myself.
Dell customer service has been great.I am changing a few things such as the soundcard and speakers and there is absolutely no problem to have this done.
I like this system more daily.I can give it a great rating.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1366
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
seagull5
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Member: Harry Goodman
Location: Bradenton,Fl.
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 28 members
About Me:
I live in Bradenton,FL and have spent many years an IT troubleshooter for facilities.
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