Oh, last year's offer was for the 600SC; Dell's prices on that model
currently seem noticeably higher and aren't available with the 800 MHz
FSB at all. The 400SC
sounds a lot like basically the same
machine in a smaller case, but that definitely isn't true, or at least
it wasn't true last year. The info and pictures in that helpful
Unofficial Dell PowerEdge 400SC FAQ
page make it clear that the c. July 2003 400SC is quite different from
my March 2003 600SC:
My 600SC motherboard appears to have 4 64-bit PCI slots and no AGP
slot, while the 400SC had 4 32-bit PCI slots and an AGP slot. Besides
the obvious case differences, the the fans and heatsinks are also
clearly different: The 400SC is described as usually having only one
92mm 0.68A fan at the back, and a passive heatsink on the CPU. My
600SC has a ~120mm 1.50A fan at the back, ~80mm 0.90A fan in the
front, and a smaller 0.25A blower on the CPU.
At any rate, the
P4 2.4 GHz configuration
is the cheapest CPU with an 800 rather than 533 or 400 MHz front-side
bus; minimum price for that configuration (1 small IDE drive, only 128
MB of Dells' usually-overpriced ECC RAM, etc.) is ($498 - $100 rebate)
= $398.
Going with the cheapest Celeron 2.0 GHz 400 MHz FSB still only brings
the price down to ($399 - $100) = $299, so I don't know where that
advertised $179 price is coming from. Perhaps I missed something in
Dell's configurator, or prices have changed since yesterday when the
techbargains.com info/ad actually went up.
