Dell Poweredge Server €149 exVAT

Basq

I'm quite a lengthy story about my server.

Monday: Ordered it through the EPP link for €188 about 2.30PM and got my Internet Acknowledgement e-mail. The IR reference and e-mail address showed no order record on the website. Said I'd give it 24 hours for it to appear.

Tuesday: At about 3PM, it still wasn't on the site. Rang them about it and got through to a sound bloke who said sometimes orders on the Net tend to disappear (how reassuring!) and that if i give him the details of the server, he'll put through the order again. Now i didn't really want to do this because I knew if he put it through with the details i gave him, I wouldn't be getting the EPP discount. So i said i was away from my desk and forget the exact details so I'd send him on the Internet Acknowledgement e-mail with the details (and €188 price tag)! So I sent it on and he never got back to me but around 8PM that night, i got an e-mail from another Dell agent telling me she put through the order and attached a PDF of it with the €188 price tag and all. I was all in the clear!

Wednesday: Got a call from the guy who i was talking to on the phone originally saying he didn't get a chance to put through my order yesterday and that it was an incorrect price and cannot be honoured. I then said to him i got an order confirmation from one of your colleages who put it in at that price so i'm not believing this misprice thing if your colleague successfully honoured it for me. He said he's gonna look into it and talk to his manager about it. And that he'd ring me in the afternoon. Got no call!

Today: At about 11.45AM, i got a phone-call from him saying sorry he's only getting back to me now and that i will get the server at that price. And for any other sales enquiries i have to phone him directly.

So whether i'll get it or not now - have had no order confirmation but the €188 is still reserved on my card!

syboit

basquille wrote: »

I'm quite a lengthy story about my server.

Monday: Ordered it through the EPP link for €188 about 2.30PM and got my Internet Acknowledgement e-mail. The IR reference and e-mail address showed no order record on the website. Said I'd give it 24 hours for it to appear.

Tuesday: At about 3PM, it still wasn't on the site. Rang them about it and got through to a sound bloke who said sometimes orders on the Net tend to disappear (how reassuring!) and that if i give him the details of the server, he'll put through the order again. Now i didn't really want to do this because I knew if he put it through with the details i gave him, I wouldn't be getting the EPP discount. So i said i was away from my desk and forget the exact details so I'd send him on the Internet Acknowledgement e-mail with the details (and €188 price tag)! So I sent it on and he never got back to me but around 8PM that night, i got an e-mail from another Dell agent telling me she put through the order and attached a PDF of it with the €188 price tag and all. I was all in the clear!

Wednesday: Got a call from the guy who i was talking to on the phone originally saying he didn't get a chance to put through my order yesterday and that it was an incorrect price and cannot be honoured. I then said to him i got an order confirmation from one of your colleages who put it in at that price so i'm not believing this misprice thing if your colleague successfully honoured it for me. He said he's gonna look into it and talk to his manager about it. And that he'd ring me in the afternoon. Got no call!

Today: At about 11.45AM, i got a phone-call from him saying sorry he's only getting back to me now and that i will get the server at that price. And for any other sales enquiries i have to phone him directly.

So whether i'll get it or not now - have had no order confirmation but the €188 is still reserved on my card!

sounds like dell were caught on the hop, with the extra EPP discount. Seems they tried to cancel as many as possible but some sales rep's still put them through at that price. Great all the same

_Kaiser_

Update posted in the Tweaking/Modding thread... short version - it's working with a 7300 LE

magicbastarder

there's possibly some company out there who have lost their EPP scheme with dell...

Basq

magicbastarder wrote: »

there's possibly some company out there who have lost their EPP scheme with dell...

How'd you work that out?

zod

right, built one with XP last night with the integrated video card and the cheap komplett sound card, perfect for browser / office user / home user.

eoinoc333

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Update posted in the Tweaking/Modding thread... short version - it's working with a 7300 LE

So you filed notches into your graphics card?

I'm considering cutting off the notches of the PCIe x8 slot in my machine instead. But that would void warranty though.

My graphics card is a 3-year old PCIe x16 ATI Radeon X800 SE, from my old Dimension PC.

Any advice?

(
Modding PCIe slot on SC440:
http://www.davtar.org/blog/?p=24

Related info, modding older SC420:
http://www.poweredgeforums.com/showthread.php?t=1899
http://www.tkdan.com/SC420/
)

forbairt

eoinoc333 wrote: »

So you filed notches into your graphics card?

I'm considering cutting off the notches of the PCIe x8 slot in my machine instead. But that would void warranty though.

My graphics card is a 3-year old PCIe x16 ATI Radeon X800 SE, from my old Dimension PC.

Any advice?

)

From the forums it would appear you'll only get x1 from your 8x slot ... whereas you'll get 4x from your 4x slot ... This is based on what I read so I could be wrong.

Esel

zod wrote: »

right, built one with XP last night with the integrated video card and the cheap komplett sound card, perfect for browser / office user / home user.

Bog-standard XP install process? Someone mentioned using 'slipstream' earlier in the thread to do do this. Is 'slipstream' necessary (and if so, what is it?!).

Ghost Train

esel wrote: »

Bog-standard XP install process? Someone mentioned using 'slipstream' earlier in the thread to do do this. Is 'slipstream' necessary (and if so, what is it?!).

slipstreaming is making a custom xp install cd using a program like n-lite... not sure why its necessary, maybe it needs sata/raid driver to be loaded before the xp setup. Usually this can be done by pressing f6 at the beginning of a normal xp install, and loading these driver files from a floppy disc

eoinoc333

forbairt wrote: »

From the forums it would appear you'll only get x1 from your 8x slot ... whereas you'll get 4x from your 4x slot ... This is based on what I read so I could be wrong.

Thanks. I chipped and chisled away the end of the x4 slot. Just about got my card in, it was difficult to cut away enough plastic with the "hobby" knives I have (scalpels). Tried to heat blades with a candle. Working fine now!

Saruman

eolhc wrote: »

slipstreaming is making a custom xp install cd using a program like n-lite... not sure why its necessary, maybe it needs sata/raid driver to be loaded before the xp setup. Usually this can be done by pressing f6 at the beginning of a normal xp install, and loading these driver files from a floppy disc

The reason it might be needed is, as you said.. you load from floppy.. however... there is no such thing as floppies any more.. well there are but you do not get them in PC's/servers any more.
And there is no other way of loading the drivers as xp setup only looks on a floppy drive.

deRanged

eolhc wrote: »

maybe it needs sata/raid driver to be loaded before the xp setup.

yup, you need to slipstream service pack two so it has SATA drivers before it will install. Otherwise it will fail during the installation saying that there's no drive in the machine.

Ghost Train

thought i saw a floppy listed in the server spec, but just checked and your correct

microsoft released a version of xp sp3 two days ago btw, so might be worth integrating that into the install, only tested it quicky but integrates and installs fine (on old pc).

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-XP-SP3-RC1-Build-3244-Download-Here-73554.shtml

Esel

Thanks for that info, guys.

[edit] btw, could I copy an existing IDE boot drive to an external SATA drive and pop this in? Retiring XP from the existing IDE drive of course.

Saruman

Either put your ide on the IDE channel on the motherboard, or put it in an IDE USB caddy.
Then if its just files you want, copy them.. or you can use a clone tool like norton ghost etc. You could just clone the drive to keep the os, then run windows repair to get it working and installing the drivers for the motherboard (otherwise it will not boot).

Esel

Thanks for that, Saruman.

zod

esel wrote: »

Bog-standard XP install process? Someone mentioned using 'slipstream' earlier in the thread to do do this. Is 'slipstream' necessary (and if so, what is it?!).

I had an regular install disk with SP2 included already.. t'was easy

TakeTheVeil

anyone get drivers for the ethernet connection? the drivers on the dell site require windows 2000 or windows server 2003.

Drivers for the onboard graphics worked a treat thou

ShevY

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R151336&SystemID=XPS_M1330&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=13802&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=5&fileid=201425

http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtreme_desktop.php

TakeTheVeil

cheers, they worked grand

Basq

Mine arrived this morning!

Thanks again to the OP.

Zilog

Mine also arrived this morning!

Mucho gracias to all for the heads up on this deal!

TakeTheVeil

That must mean that pretty much everyone who has theres by now. Time for some modding. I'm hoping to get a decent sound and graphics card with a slight ram upgrade and keep it all under €300 total.

LawnMower Man

Got my pair of servers today as well!

Might have a stab at getting xp going on it later on.

Do you have to cut a bit out of the slot or the graphics card to make it fit?

Which slot is it you use?

_Kaiser_

LawnMower Man wrote: »

Got my pair of servers today as well!

Might have a stab at getting xp going on it later on.

Do you have to cut a bit out of the slot or the graphics card to make it fit?

Which slot is it you use?

X4 slot. I did it last night and it's working fine.

Check out my post in the thread in Tweaking and Modding.

Do-more

I wanted to put XP on my machine but it just won't work! It goes through the full install (about 30mins) and then when it gets to start XP it just hangs when the "knight-rider" lights come on!!! It will start in safe mode OK but can't get XP working fully. After 3 attempts we gave up and installed Vista instead, which is working fine. I rather have it running XP instead though. Anyone have any ideas? I should add that I tried two different copies of XP both with SP2 with no joy.

forbairt

Do-more wrote: »

I wanted to put XP on my machine but it just won't work! It goes through the full install (about 30mins) and then when it gets to start XP it just hangs when the "knight-rider" lights come on!!! It will start in safe mode OK but can't get XP working fully. After 3 attempts we gave up and installed Vista instead, which is working fine. I rather have it running XP instead though. Anyone have any ideas? I should add that I tried two different copies of XP both with SP2 with no joy.

To the best of my knowledge windows install with xp sp2 doesn't have the SATA drivers installed ...

You'll want to check out slipstreaming Windows XP SP2

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html

Do-more

forbairt wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge windows install with xp sp2 doesn't have the SATA drivers installed ...

You'll want to check out slipstreaming Windows XP SP2

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html

Don't think that's the prob as it is seeing the hard drives OK.....

forbairt

Do-more wrote: »

Don't think that's the prob as it is seeing the hard drives OK.....

sorry I should have read your full post instead of jumping to conclusions ... tired