[geeks] The new IPC/LX, from Dell?

[Lionel Peterson]

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 4:30 PM, John Francini <francini at mac.com> wrote:
> This product looks very interesting.  It does look like they've targeted
the
> Mac mini indeed.
>
> I wish Dell would go to slot-loading drives -- it's annoying that even on
> their high-end/business/server-class products (Latitude, Optiplex, Dell
> Personal Workstation, PowerEdge) they still use tray-loading drives!  Apple
> has exactly ONE product that uses a tray-loading drive -- the Mac Pro --
and
> it's a fully-motorized tray, not the spring-powered stuff.

Curse you Dell!

They are now offering the base model for $199 for a single-core CPU,
integrated graphics, 2 Gig RAM, 250 Meg HD, DVD-R/W, keyboard & mouse
WITH a $60 "gift card" (presumably good only at Dell.com), making
final price around $140 + S/H if yo have a use for the "gift card"
(buy a monitor, HD, etc. when they are on sale at dell.com after the
system arrives?).

As a reminder, the RAM can go to 8 Gigs (Dell upgrade at $170 is less
than half the price for a Crucial upgrade of $380), discrete 512 Meg
graphics are available for $75-80, and the CPU upgrade to a dual core
Athlon Neo X2 6850e is about $70 (this CPU supports virtualization, as
best as I can tell, so Win7 w/XP mode is supported, as are the various
hypervisors that require HW virtualization support). This machine also
has 4x USB 2.0 ports and two eSATA ports (take that, Mac Mini!), and
of course, a Gigabit Ethernet connection.

Also, the price includes free S/H ($39 value).

I like the idea of the cheapest system available, but I think I'm
going to pull the trigger on a loaded system:

AMD Athlon Neo X2 6850e CPU
8 Gig RAM (the discount over market makes this a real deal)
250 Gig HD (I can upgrade the 3 1/2" SATA drive any time I want)
Discrete graphics (may not need it now, but next year I'll kick myself
for saving the $75 ;^)
Wireless b/g/n card (again, may not need it now, but next year I'll
kick myself for saving teh $40 ;^)
Windows 7 Home Premium (need to buy a 64 bit OS to build system with
greater than 4 Gigs of RAM - adds $30 to build price)

Total before S/H & tax is $593, less $60 promotional gift card (good
only at Dell.com).

Interesting links:

Dell item:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?ACD=10550055&c=us&l=en&oc=
ddpduy1&s=dhs&fb=1

Dell Specifications:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/insp400/en/cs/index.htm
(this is the Zino HD, model 400)

Crucial.com Upgrade link:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Inspiron%20Zino%20HD%20%28I
nspiron%20400%29

Various AMD corp. blog entries:

http://blogs.amd.com/home/2009/11/12/the-dell-inspiron-zinohd/

http://blogs.amd.com/home/tag/tv-tuner/

Finally, link on Dell Promotional Gift Cards:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/gift_card?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=
dhs

Compared to the Mac Mini, this is a very interesting option (the
cheapest config with 2 Gig RAM, a 250 Gig HD, and single core CPU
could make a nice home server, and the two eSATA ports give you some
serious expansion options).

--
Lionel Peterson
lionel4287 at gmail.com