Just Bought a Dell 400SC

Bigsby · Post by **Bigsby** » Tue May 29, 2007 10:29 am

It's in really great shape, has a 2.4 ghz P4 in it, 1 gig of RAM, and cost me $120.

The 40 gig hard drive on it has a fresh fedora linux install. I'm thinking I'd like to add a second drive as a completely seperate WinXP environment for my DAW, and just boot from either one depending on what I wanted to use it for.

I've never set up a computer like this before, with two seperate drives to boot from. Has anyone done it, and can anyone point me to some reading on the web to get me primed?

Thanks!

Phiz · Post by **Phiz** » Tue May 29, 2007 2:32 pm

You really want one drive for your OS/programs and one drive for your audio data. You can have more than one OS installed on a single drive. You need to make multiple partitions to do this. I'd recommend getting an SATA drive for your audio data.

I'd recommend killing the current linux install, repartition, install WinXP, re-install linux. An easy way to do the repartitioning is to use a Knoppix live CD. Your linux distribution of choice should have some documents on how to setup a dual-boot system with WinXP. There are other ways to go about this, but in my experience, this way has less pitfalls.

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:13 pm

I'm also a 400sc'er and have used mine for several years now. got it new when they were selling for $249! (with a lot less RAM). To add SATA drives to that system you will need the special power harness and SATA cables, or you could install another controller in the PCI slots. If you use ATA drive, you might be able to go into the BIOS and just enable one at a time (if you put them on different controllers--there are two). or do like Phiz said and make the dual-boot scenario.

Personally I don't mix my internet and DAW because the anti-virus won't always play nice and I don't want to lose my work. maybe I'm just being too careful but thats the way I like it.

Mike

Bigsby · Post by **Bigsby** » Thu May 31, 2007 3:18 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:To add SATA drives to that system you will need the special power harness and SATA cables

do you mean something like these?
http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=SATA_power
http://www.usb-ware.com/sata-cables.htm

Just want to be clear before I start ordering stuff.

Phiz · Post by **Phiz** » Thu May 31, 2007 3:51 pm

Those cables should do.

linus · Post by **linus** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:39 pm

You got a great machine. I have two 400SC machines. One with Nuendo that I use for tracking and another with all my soft synths on it that I use as a sampler and playing instruments. Both have been rock solid and quiet as a tomb. They never flinch. I don't have ANY internet connectivity to mine either. I just figure it's better to keep them free of virus'.

If they acted up at all I'd look at getting one more as a back up but they have been so solid I haven't worried about it a bit.

brainfreezebob · Post by **brainfreezebob** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:51 pm

I've had one for four years now. Never had a problem....

Does anyone happen to know what flavor of ram this machine takes? I was in there for the first time in months the other day, thinking I could install some extra memory from a newer computer I had laying around, but the 400sc takes something older....

idylldon · Post by **idylldon** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:14 am

I have two 400SCs and they have both worked flawlessly since new. Here is some good info on them:

http://www.poweredgeforums.com/showthread.php?t=8

Cheers,
--
Don

Bigsby · Post by **Bigsby** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:06 pm

Setting this thing up has been a breeze. All I have left to do is find data and power adaptor cables for the two "like new" 160MB SATA drives I scored for $25 each. I went to five different computer stores yesterday, and nobody has the power adaptors, so I'll be mail ordering.

The 400SC runs dead quiet. I'm really looking forward to having a dedicated, clean DAW as I've been using my general workhorse laptop otherwise. It's ending up being very cheap to put together with the stuff I already have (Echo Layla24, Tracktion, Reason, monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc.). I'm only out $175 at this point for a machine that runs really well. I ran some fairly dense Tracktion mixes, with a bunch of SIR reverbs, and it didn't hiccup. cool!

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 7:59 am

I ran the "DAVEC" test (see duc.digidesign.com) on my 400sc and got up to 32 tracks of audio (with many plugins as described in the DAVEC test) and several aux channels. Pretty much maxed out Pro Tools LE and it never flinched. can't ask for much more. I never have disk contention issues and only rarely run out of cpu power (I have a single 3.2GHz) when running several reverbs or other cpu hungry plugs.

Bigsby · Post by **Bigsby** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:06 am

I saw over on the poweredge forums that cpu swapping is fairly common for the 400sc. cpu names like "northwood", "prescott" and "extreme edition" pop up when searching. I may eventually look in to upgrading from my 2.4mhz to something quicker. Anyone done this?

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:13 am

Anybody know off-hand what is the highest chip one can put on that mobo? 3.0Ghz? The new 3.4GHz?

Phiz · Post by **Phiz** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:47 am

Some 400SCs were sold with 3.0GHz chips. However, a louder fan was included in the 3.0GHz model. Thus the 2.8GHz model was most popular for recording as it was the fastest model with the quieter fan.

So be careful with your cooling if you move up to a faster processor....

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:08 pm

Good to know, thanks. I'm thinking of snatching one for a buddy. My computer rocks my socks, but he has a limited budget and if these bad boys are out there for around $150, then that will fit his needs perfectly.

Bigsby · Post by **Bigsby** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:08 pm

I'm having my first problem. For some reason, a while after installing a SATA drive as the non-primary, non-boot drive, the bios tries to boot from it. The bios is set to boot from the "Hard-Disk Drive C:", but it tries to boot from the SATA drive, which is F:

I can successfully boot to windows if I hit F12 at startup, go to the boot menu, and select "Primary Master Drive." It boots from my C: drive fine. If I select "Hard-Disk Drive C:," it tries to unsuccessfully boot from F:

I've tried both the 0 and 1 SATA ports on the mother board. It was working fine for a while. At least I can go to the boot menu and get to windows, but if anyone knows the fix for this, please let me know.

Message Board

Just Bought a Dell 400SC

Just Bought a Dell 400SC

cheap 'n easy

aargh.

Who is online