[geeks] Apple/Intel another (pre | per )ceptive article

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 @ 17:15 -0500, Bill Bradford said:

> On Wed, Jun 22, 2005 at 12:32:11AM +0300, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> > Someone on a local mailing list is trying to sell a Dell 2x500mHz PIII
> > computer for over $300. It's not very well equiped, it has a 9 gig Ultra
> > SCSI drive and a 40 gig slow IDE drive. It dosen't even have a DVD reader
> > or a high end video card (why would it, it was designed to be a server?).
> 
> You can get a brand-new Dell SC420 for $299 that's in the 2.xGhz range.

Are they any good?

If anyone has one, I'd like to know the nitty gritty details about it.
Dell doesn't have much for usable specifications, at least I didn't see
it on their website.

I found this interesting:

    "Note: For server use only; CANNOT BE USED AS A DESKTOP.  Dell does
    not support the use of a graphics card on the SC420."

What does that mean?  It will run headless?  

I also notice they charge $9-10 extra for documentation in English on
several parts.  

I've called Dell many times to get information, and they act *very*
wierd every time.  Quite often I get put on hold and no one ever picks
up the phone.

Anyway, if the guts of this machine are any good, it would make a nice
starter system.

I just am a little leery about the term "server".

Does it really have "PC server" components, or is it just a stripped
desktop unit?


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["It's a damn poor mind that can only think
of one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Jackson]