8400 vs 4700

So I discovered that for decent gaming and all around fast operation I am
going to buy either of the systems in the subject line. I was going to keep
the cost down a bit with the 4700 but for a slight cost difference the 8400
looks like more of the power system. Now by gaming I mean the occasional
Doom 3 or similar game and with system requirements being stiffer with new
games it looks like power is the way to go. Can anyone offer first hand
experience with the 4700 vs 8400 operation? Thanks!

For the record, I was looking at the 8400 with 1 GB RAM and the 6800 video
card.


Regards,
John O.

Had the same dilemma when looking and decided you get a lot more bang for
just a little more money with the 8400, better yet I was able top grab a
8400 3.2 with 1gig of ram, dual DVD burners, ATI vid card and other goodies
at the Dell Outlet for around $450 and that was a month ago, you can
probably do better now...



"JJO" wrote in message
.. .
So I discovered that for decent gaming and all around fast operation I am
going to buy either of the systems in the subject line. I was going to
keep the cost down a bit with the 4700 but for a slight cost difference
the 8400 looks like more of the power system. Now by gaming I mean the
occasional Doom 3 or similar game and with system requirements being
stiffer with new games it looks like power is the way to go. Can anyone
offer first hand experience with the 4700 vs 8400 operation? Thanks!

For the record, I was looking at the 8400 with 1 GB RAM and the 6800 video
card.


Regards,
John O.

"JJO" wrote in message
.. .
So I discovered that for decent gaming and all around fast operation I am
going to buy either of the systems in the subject line. I was going to
keep the cost down a bit with the 4700 but for a slight cost difference
the 8400 looks like more of the power system. Now by gaming I mean the
occasional Doom 3 or similar game and with system requirements being
stiffer with new games it looks like power is the way to go. Can anyone
offer first hand experience with the 4700 vs 8400 operation? Thanks!

For the record, I was looking at the 8400 with 1 GB RAM and the 6800 video
card.


Regards,
John O.



Even if you're only going to occasionally need those types of requirements,
get the 8400. The games you'll occasionally want to play in the future will
likely be even more system extensive.


Stew

On Wed, 4 May 2005 07:57:29 -0400, "JJO" wrote:

So I discovered that for decent gaming and all around fast operation I am
going to buy either of the systems in the subject line. I was going to keep
the cost down a bit with the 4700 but for a slight cost difference the 8400
looks like more of the power system. Now by gaming I mean the occasional
Doom 3 or similar game and with system requirements being stiffer with new
games it looks like power is the way to go. Can anyone offer first hand
experience with the 4700 vs 8400 operation? Thanks!

For the record, I was looking at the 8400 with 1 GB RAM and the 6800 video
card.


Regards,
John O.


John, I got a refurbished 8400 about a month ago and love it. I am an
avid gamer (D3, HL2, Q3, UT2004) and get top notch performance out of
my system. I got the GeForce 6800 GTO video card and I can play D3 at
1024X768, 4XAA, with Shadows On, and still get 60 FPS (the max you can
get on D3). HL2 is much easier on the system so looks great also.
I'd get the 8400 if I were you :-)

Mike

Thanks for all of the replies. I guess the gamer in me finally got to the
point where I am looking for decent performance. The 8400 it is...besides I
finally have my wife convinced on the "need" for a speed system.

Regards,
John O.


"JJO" wrote in message
.. .
So I discovered that for decent gaming and all around fast operation I am
going to buy either of the systems in the subject line. I was going to
keep the cost down a bit with the 4700 but for a slight cost difference
the 8400 looks like more of the power system. Now by gaming I mean the
occasional Doom 3 or similar game and with system requirements being
stiffer with new games it looks like power is the way to go. Can anyone
offer first hand experience with the 4700 vs 8400 operation? Thanks!

For the record, I was looking at the 8400 with 1 GB RAM and the 6800 video
card.


Regards,
John O.

JJO wrote:

Thanks for all of the replies. I guess the gamer in me finally got to the
point where I am looking for decent performance. The 8400 it is...besides I
finally have my wife convinced on the "need" for a speed system.

Back in high school (1968), I convinced my mother that *she* needed
a Pontiac GTO... A day, to this day, that she'll always regret! g

Notan

On Wed, 04 May 2005 20:39:35 -0600, Notan wrote:

JJO wrote:

Thanks for all of the replies. I guess the gamer in me finally got to the
point where I am looking for decent performance. The 8400 it is...besides I
finally have my wife convinced on the "need" for a speed system.

Back in high school (1968), I convinced my mother that *she* needed
a Pontiac GTO... A day, to this day, that she'll always regret! g

Notan

LOL! But I bet that was a sweet ride!

Mike

It's possible that the imminent introduction of dual-core CPUs, which will
cover Dell's top of the line and eventually the entire line, will push the
single-core CPUs of the current high-end Dells onto the discount rack.

The dual-core CPUs run at a slightly lower clock than the corresponding
single-core CPUs. For the most part, the step to dual-core will be a win,
but when the focus is on a single thread (such as in current popular games),
the winner may be the faster single-core. (Not to mention a powerful
graphics processor.)

Of course, in this business, whatever you buy will shortly be obsolete, and
there's not a thing to be done about it. But it's useful to keep your eyes
open, so as to be aware of when the significant changes are coming down the
pipes.

Aren't the Power Edge SC420's the same as the 8400's?

You can get one of those quit a bit cheaper last time I checked

"Bababooey" wrote in message
m...
Aren't the Power Edge SC420's the same as the 8400's?

You can get one of those quit a bit cheaper last time I checked



I've not been able to verify that the PowerEdge SC420 has a PCIexpress
graphics slot to this point. If someone here has a 420, it would be nice to
know.

The PE 400SC was nearly identical to the Dimension 8300, all the way down to
the 8x AGP slot.


Stew