WTF? Question about a Dell......

alexbrowne40 · 02-07-2003 7:07pm #1

I rang dell today and ordered a dimension 2400. 3PCI slots. The fool on the phone said you cant add a graphics card(not even a pci one) or a sound card...........!How could that be????Surely the integrated sonund and graphics could be disabled........

wb please

maxheadroom · 02-07-2003 7:30pm

I used to work for them, in sales.

The information sales are given is that the graphics and sound are not upgradeable. There is also no option on the system configurator to upgrade them.

I suppose you could add a PCI graphics or sound card, but AFAIK, there is no option to disable the onboard stuff. You'd be hard pushed to find a PCI graphics card that'll perform better than the onboard methinks...

Why not go for a 4600? The 4550s were great machines back when I was working there...

alexbrowne40 · 02-07-2003 7:32pm

Why cant you disable onboard stuff? you can on all other pc's.....

Creamy Goodness · 02-07-2003 7:40pm

in all fairness youre talking about dell a company that says if you open your case your waranty (sp.) is void.

and tbh if you want to upgrade a computer that you just bought why not build your own??

tman · 02-07-2003 7:45pm

radeon 9000 tbh...
you shouldn't have a problem with disabling the onboard.
do it in device manager & then shut down & slap in the new card

alexbrowne40 · 02-07-2003 7:50pm

Parents are paying 4 some of the pc and wouldnt let me build my own as its "to risky"

I couldnt see how there could be a problem....(with disabling it in device manager)

Where do i find that in XP as i have 98 now.........???

maxheadroom · 02-07-2003 7:51pm

Dell don't say that if you open the case your warranty is void - who told you that Cr3m0?

AFAIK there's no jumper you can set or BIOS flag to disable the onboard, if you're happy doing it in windows and possibly not having a video signal till windows starts, that's cool.

But, I read something about windows having some issue with giving priority to AGP cards instead of PCI cards, and this causes a problem when adding a PCI card to to a sys with onboard only as the onboard is tied into the AGP bus.

Tbh, if you want upgradeability, don't buy a Dell Dimension 2XXX - that should have been made clear at point of sale...

Col_Loki · 02-07-2003 8:47pm

If your looking for a system where you can specify what you want try Elara , they will build you the PC you want and they are good on price.

jesus_thats_gre · 02-07-2003 9:02pm

What the heck did u buy the lowest of the low for? Of course its gonna be bog basic, if you want something decent get the 8300 series at least.. At least this series has all the leading edge technologies as oppossed to the bog basic crap.

LFCFan · 02-07-2003 9:08pm

Dell make it very hard to do decent upgrades without going back to them. They use their own spec Motherboards etc so 3rd party components hardly every work correctly, especially RAM. I built my own PC a year ago and it still out performs the latest Dell machines.

uch · 02-07-2003 9:19pm

onboard cards can be disabled in Bios of all Dell's I've worked on in the last 4 years, so I dont see why this one should be different.

Raskolnikov · 02-07-2003 9:58pm

Originally posted by maxheadroom
I used to work for them, in sales.

Hey, weren't you the guy that told me that more RAM would make my internet connection go faster!

Seriously though, if you want a decent gaming machine and don't want to build it yourself then go to http://www.elara.ie/evolutiona.asp You'll get far more bang for your buck.

maxheadroom · 02-07-2003 10:12pm

naah - I was the one who said you needed a pentium 4 3.06 with hyperthreading for email and solitaire

Seriously tho, I worked on UK sales, not Irish.

tman · 03-07-2003 12:54am

Originally posted by alexbrowne40
I couldnt see how there could be a problem....(with disabling it in device manager)

Where do i find that in XP as i have 98 now.........???

right click on my computer/properties
click on the 'hardware' tab & then device manager.

open display adapters & right click on the onboard one & choose disable

tman · 03-07-2003 12:55am

i stuck a crappy pci card in a 2200 the other day btw, it worked perfectly.

Col_Loki · 03-07-2003 1:32am

Raskolnikov

Seriously though, if you want a decent gaming machine and don't want to build it yourself then go to http://www.elara.ie/evolutiona.asp You'll get far more bang for your buck.

Seriously , try out elara there prices are very good & there pc's are aimed for gaming. You get top quality stuff, and there very efficient ( even have a chat board ) .

Occidental · 03-07-2003 9:17am

Alex,

Tried it this morning with a PCI ATI card in a new 2400 running XP. PC boots fine and Windows runs fine. Never believe people in sales or marketing.

maxheadroom · 03-07-2003 10:22am

Hey - don't shoot the messenger - just passing along the information I was given...

alexbrowne40 · 03-07-2003 5:00pm

Originally posted by Occidental
Alex,

Tried it this morning with a PCI ATI card in a new 2400 running XP. PC boots fine and Windows runs fine. Never believe people in sales or marketing.

Thanks very much!!!!!!ur the best...!

ozt9vdujny3srf · 05-07-2003 10:58am

There seems to be a lot of bs flying around about dell machines.

1) I am nearly positive openong the case deoes not void your warranty, otherwise how am i supposed to upgrade?

2) The boards DELL give you with pc's are usually intel motherboards , so they are completely standard. In very few cases the mobo and psu is different but afaik this is on a limited number of models.

3) My dimension 8200 has 2 nic cards, and isdn card and a gfx card that were all bought independantly of dell. THey all work absolutely perfect;y.

So stop the waffle ffs.

(The fact remains DELL's are ridiculously expensive though

)

maxheadroom · 05-07-2003 11:23am

1) I am nearly positive openong the case deoes not void your warranty, otherwise how am i supposed to upgrade?

Correct. You can open the case and upgrade as much as you like, but igf you want support, they may ask you to remove your upgrades as obviously they won't be supported

2) The boards DELL give you with pc's are usually intel motherboards , so they are completely standard. In very few cases the mobo and psu is different but afaik this is on a limited number of models.

Dell makes all of their own motherboards (or they are contracted out, but they are designed exclusively for dell). They always use Intel chipsets. I don't know anything about the PSUs but a bit of googling should sort you out.

3) My dimension 8200 has 2 nic cards, and isdn card and a gfx card that were all bought independantly of dell. THey all work absolutely perfecty.

The dimension 8200 was designed for the "enthusiast/power user" market, and designed for upgradeability. The 2XXX series was specifically designed to make upgrading a pain in the neck, to try and get you to buy a 4XXX or an 8XXX.

alexbrowne40 · 05-07-2003 11:59am

Originally posted by maxheadroom
Correct. You can open the case and upgrade as much as you like, but igf you want support, they may ask you to remove your upgrades as obviously they won't be supported

Dell makes all of their own motherboards (or they are contracted out, but they are designed exclusively for dell). They always use Intel chipsets. I don't know anything about the PSUs but a bit of googling should sort you out.

The dimension 8200 was designed for the "enthusiast/power user" market, and designed for upgradeability. The 2XXX series was specifically designed to make upgrading a pain in the neck, to try and get you to buy a 4XXX or an 8XXX.

But you still can upgrade the 2xxx series right?

maxheadroom · 05-07-2003 12:06pm

Yep - you've got 3 PCI slots, you can do whatever you like with them

WTF? Question about a Dell......

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