Dell Precision T5400 question?

[Charsiu]

Hey guys, I am about to order a T5400 workstation from Dell.
But I have some newbie question hope you guys wouldn't mind to give me a little help...

- If I buy the computer now with 2.33ghz (E5410), is it hard to upgrade to Nehalem processor later? (Do i have to change the motherboard, etc?...)
I don't want to wait until the T5500 come out, but I'd like to upgrade later when their price drop

- If I want to add another processor (E5410) later, is it a plug and play for the T5400 model? or Do i need another motherboard?...

- When choosing RAM, they have "2GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (2 DIMMS)" and "2GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS)"... what does the 2-Dimms and 4-Dimms actually means? Does it mean 2x1GB=2GB total and 4x512mb=2GB total, or actually mean 2GBx2dimms=4GB total and 2GBx4dimms=8GB total?....

- I will mainly use my computer for 3D modeling (Maya), should I consider Dual Quad Core (2x2.33ghz) or just Single Quad Core (2.66ghz) will works fine?

Thank you very much, sorry for some total n00b question as I have no knowledge to hardware stuff at all ...

[Sprint]

-Core 2 Duos and i7 uses diffrent sockets, so you need a new motherboard.

-You can change the CPU to another Core 2 Duo/Quad with the same motherboard

-2 GB (2DIMMs) means 2x1GB and 2GB(4DIMMs) means 4x512MB

-Can you choose dual socket PCs (2 physical CPUs)? Or do you mean a dual core?

[Charsiu]

thank you for your reply

what I meant was can I add a 2nd processor later with the same motherboard they provided? Since they allowed me to choose a second processor as an option for extra money, but I am not sure if they actually need to add something in order to add another processor ??

And also, they use "DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC" for their RAM, but they cost quite a lot upgrade to 4GB ...
If I want to change the RAM later myself, do I have to get the exact same spec as the original? Or are they any better and faster ram out there I can choose from?...

(yes, I think they mean dual socket (2 CPU))

here is the link for the PC:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...=bwcwhtz&s=bsd

[Charsiu]

and btw.... does Nehalem = i7 XD??....
sorry for the n00bness

[J.R. Nelson]

thank you for your reply

what I meant was can I add a 2nd processor later with the same motherboard they provided? Since they allowed me to choose a second processor as an option for extra money, but I am not sure if they actually need to add something in order to add another processor ??

And also, they use "DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC" for their RAM, but they cost quite a lot upgrade to 4GB ...
If I want to change the RAM later myself, do I have to get the exact same spec as the original? Or are they any better and faster ram out there I can choose from?...

(yes, I think they mean dual socket (2 CPU))

here is the link for the PC:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...=bwcwhtz&s=bsd

and btw.... does Nehalem = i7 XD??....
sorry for the n00bness

Hi Charsiu. No need to apologize for having a question; it's what we're here for. They are talking about dual socket motherboards, there, so yes, you could get a board with eight physical cores on it. You won't be able to buy one CPU now and upgrade to a second one later, since the computer they send you will only have one socket if you order a single-processor system.

The memory for this system is very expensive because it requires server, or ECC RAM. ECC RAM is different from regular memory in that computers with ECC memory have the ability to detect and correct errors in data transmission and storage in RAM that regular RAM does not. The lack of this ability isn't an issue in consumer or business PCs, but it can be for servers that stay on for weeks and months on end. You can upgrade the RAM yourself later, for cheaper, but you'll still need to buy ECC RAM to do it, which is going to have a price premium over traditional memory.

Yes, Nehalem-based chips are sold under Intel's Core i7 brand.