The x38 chipset is really for a gamer's mobo. But good for traders too... for 4-8 monitors, we don't have go buy x1 or PCI cards... and the x38 chipset is just about the newest, hottest performance thing. Some of the x38 mobos cost $350-$400 alone.
A few months ago I called Dell's tech support and was informed that the warranty on 1 of my machines no longer covered phone support(no big deal). They tranferred me to an India-based phone tech-support vendor whom I would pay $35 for this support. The thing is, I was actually 100% impressed with the professionalism and hard-working manner that this fellow in India demonstrated. It was 4am in India when this guy was assisting with my problem but you wouldn't know it.
Don't mean to thread jump... but I checked Dell Outlet this AM and found a T3400 with E6550 CPU, and 2G RAM for $719... full 1 year warranty. That's a pretty good price for a high power machine. .... ordered new, it's $1,084, but with 3-year warranty. (You didn't hope to find a rocket for $400, did you?)
Gold Tech Support (if it's server level) also entitles you to an on-site visit within hours of your trouble call also. This written by one of those guys who might be on the way! The T3400 is a nice machine with a ton of headroom. Great purchase!
i could out together a machine sporting the E6850 or even a new 45nm E 8500 series, with 2 Gigs RAM, better MB etc ie similar or better specs for less $..either of these proc's smoke the 6550 so why do you think this is a "good price for a high power machine" ??
1. Off the cuff and without my verifying anything, my initial response is "you are exaggerating". 2. The T3400 is a fairly high power machine, for a decent price... you SURE you could put it together for "significantly" less, (or is that $25 less?) People often say, "Oh, you could build it for 1/2 the price and have a better rig in the bargain". Well, I think that's a myth. On many occasions, I've priced out components to see if I could do better.. only to find that I MIGHT save $100. But then I have to get the parts together, assemble it myself, and deal with warranty issues on a part-by-part basis rather than the "whole rig"... no thanks. And this Precision "T" line is a departure for Dell. In the past, their performance machines were well overpriced.
quite funny that they included 667mhz ddr2 ram in there to keep prices low knowing that the x38 chipset natively supports ddr3
Well, DDR3 is expensive still. And is it necessary for trading? If you had it, would you see a benefit? Doubt it. Price a DDR3 machine with an X38 mobo and see how it compares. I haven't done it, but my gut is that the T3400 is in the ball park. (Plus, and in spite of all the "Dell Haters", I've had good luck with them. )
Noob here, so sorry for being uneducated. I customized a T3400 a couple of days ago. I want to run 4 monitors, so I called Dell support to make sure I customized everything correctly. The Dell rep told me to get a differenct system(1000 more). Now, I am confused. What video card do I need to run 4 monitors. Thanks in advance