For what the 630 is, its an amazing system despite some niggling issues. For an extremely small number of people those problems are very irritating (and generally the majority of problems lie with those who recieved the first 630s although this is not always the case.) but I expect most people are very happy with their systems.

 

Don't put too much into what you read here as this is a support forum and people only come here to voice problems/issues. Happy purchasers don't come here to tell us how amazed they are and if you look at the 630 reviews they are extremely positive, even after taking into consideration the issues. To clear the problems up:

 

1.) Fan problem(s), some people are having trouble adjusting their fan speeds or havign their fans click onto 100% (which is VERY loud, normally they rest as low as 10% of full speed) This is the worst problem and if you get it you can get a replacement system, there are also numerous workarounds and a solution on its way supposedly 'soon', although in our experience dell may want to look up teh definition of soon as I dont think it means what they think it means.

 

2.) HDD light, this isn't really a problem as much as its just a bit stupid. The HDD light flashes A LOT for various reasons probably due to both vista and the machine itself. Its not doing any damage though and a fix may emerge at some point in the future.

 

3.) X-Fi soundcard, on the whole these are fine but every once in a while they can crackle or make a fuzzing noise (only during games usually). For most people there are no issues at all.

 

4.) LightFX2.0 is, and (to the annoyance of many) always was nothing more than a total advertising gimmick. Supposedly now  its a 'concept' not an actual piece of dell software. But the lights on the machine work, they change colour fine for most people. But as far as light shows (e.g. lights changing colour with music/games) it won't happen ever from the looks of things.

 

I wouldn't buy the 420 over the 630 any day despite the issues, while the 420 may be a more 'stable' platform it is only more stable by offering you considerably less power and flexibility. I would say if your capable of building your own PC then that may be the route to follow as an alternative to the 630, if you can't/don't want to build your own machine then the 630 is an amazing machine that will serve you well for a long time, far more than the 420 will which is now quite an old machine. Remember, the machine has a warranty so any issues and you can get the machine replaced/refunded (within a certain amount of time).

lets not forget the deceptive advertising. There is no PCI-X 16, there is no light FX2.  The board is NOT ESA certified. etc =D

Fair review from Kesuke. Just couldn't agree more.

 

There's another issue that makes some people feeling uneasy.  The x16 PCIe slots only have 8 physical lanes routed to each, though x16 add-in cards will work just fine. People expect that if they don't run SLI (single graphic card), the 8 lanes from the unused x16 slot will be routed to the active one and make it a full x16 slot.  Most current graphic cards don't even utilize the 8 lanes bandwidth, so you won't see any performance difference unless you decide to purchase/upgrade to high end cards such as 9800GX2 or GTX 280.  My opinion is if you are willing to spend $400 - $700 for a single graphic card, you may as well spend another $150 - $200 to upgrade the mobo to a 680i or later. 

 

I believe the reason DELL is selling this machine so cheap (comparing to other gaming rigs) is to appeal to mainstream users, who mostly want a decent machine without breaking their banks.  So if you are an extreme gamer who has money to spend and want a superfast system with latest GPU and stuff, this machine is not for you.  If you are someone else who never ever considers buying a $500 GPU like myself, welcome to the club.  You won't be disappointed.

 

   

If Light FX 2.0 is important to you, it is not fixed, and not likely to be functioning on the 630i in the foreseeable future.

 

The almost constantly active HDD led light it still not fixed. It's a minor annoyance for some people.

 

ESA features appear to have been fixed with the latest firmware update on the currently shipping motherboards (the update worked for me). These ESA probably are not  as fancy as advertising has led people to expect. Fan control works, the eye candy lights...blah...but then I don't care about the lights.

 

The PCI-X 16 issue is of no concern to me. It should be of no concern to at least 99% of 630 buyers.

 

I knew about the 630's problems when I ordered it. It did not seem like they would affect the way I wanted to use the computer...and they never have. After three weeks of heavy daily use, I am very satisfied with my 630.

 

 

I looked closely at the 420. I did not choose it because of concerns about the power supply and heat issues given the way I would use it...hours of constant high cpu activity and drive activity on three drives for HDV video editing.

yeah i would think so. Quad Cores are pretty nice.

Thanks for the comments, its is a great help.

 

This will be for use as a software development PC (Visual Studio, SQL Server, Photoshop, Office, etc)  little to no gaming use.  Dual 24" monitors, Vista x64.

 

With the issues and price I had just thought it was worth asking to see how serious it was.

 

As some noted, the PS o nthe 420 worries me, however I can price out a 420 with the Q9450 for about the same price as a 630 with a Q6600 so it made me wonder which might be best.  No Q9450 optios on the Canadian site for the 630.  Would the 630 with the Q6600 still be a better PC overall from the 420?

schooner2000,

    I have a replacement box coming to see if my multitude of problems are just my box. But from my experience so far and Many others, some or all of the following apply. I'm sure someone will chime in to say none of those is a problem to them, but be aware that they could end up being your problems with your 630i.

 

1) If overclocking, as this system was billed to be capable, is important to you. wait to buy. Many of the everflowing "fixes" make my OCing unstable and I must take back to stock.

2) There is no current ability to use the primary GPU PCIeX16 at more than X8 mode. Dell has not stated as to whether this ability in the 650i SLI chipset will ever be made available in a FIX. If you are going to only use one GPU card, the newer cards that are coming out will be a waste of money as they will never be able to be used at their full potential because of this MOBO hardwire limitation.

3) In SLI mode, the GPU PCIeX16 slots are capped at X8 mode. Hence, you will have the same problem with future GPU cards as in 2) above.

4) If flashy lightshows is important to you (LightFX2) Dell has already stated that Full ESA support is not possible with the 630i hardware. without that the lights are simply annoying and thus far I can't shut them off.

5) The fixes that are coming out have little explanation, so if you've got a problem the solutions can cause quite a bit of anxiety.

6) My experience with Tech Support has been harrowing at best, so hope for a problem-free system.

7) There can be a problem with Nvidea Performance portion of their control panel that could leave you with an unstable optical devices and virtual drives. I'm going to work with Dell when my new box arrives to see if we can isolate the cause. This problem seems to affect the fewest owners. But If you are one, you will have your choice between adequate CPU cooling and stable Game playing.

 

    Many think that the tradeoff of what they got verses what Dell advertised is sufficient. I may as well if I can get one that can perform to its maximum designed ability. In my opinion, Dell has cost engineered any future proofing out of this system. Sure you can put shiny new cards in slots, but you'll not get their full potential. IMHO what you receive will be about the best you'll ever get for this system as designed.

 

Hope this helps.

Sean

Several advantages of 630 over 420:

- 750W vs 375W

- ATX vs BTX: 630 uses generic ATX mobo, so you can buy off-the-shelf mobo and replace the current one a couple years down the road. 420 uses DELL proprietary BTX mobo, so you are pretty much stuck with it.

- SLI vs. non-SLI: 420 can't do SLI (only has 3 PCIe slots: x16, x8, x1), but the x16 slot has full 16 lanes. 630 can do SLIm but each x16 slot only have 8 lanes. Anyway, if you don't game, this is probably irrelevant to you.

- Overclockability vs no OC: 630 allows you to overclock you CPU, boosting your system performance to almost 25% for free (most people is able to boost their E8400 from 3GHz to 3.8GHz, or Q6600 from 2.4GHz to 3.2GHz). 420 can't OC.  If you want performance, the 630 has the upper hand.

- Storage: 4HDD bay vs 2 HDD bay.  630 has more storage capability, but 420 has an eSATA connection, so it's pretty much 4 SATA vs 3 SATA.

- USB: 6 (2 front) vs 8 (2 front). 420 has the edge here.

- ESA: 630 has ESA capability. Even though there is an issue now, but it's being fixed so potentially a fully working ESA. 420 has no ESA at all.

- LightFX2.0: again, a promised feature on 630 vs. none at all on 420. For now, you don't have the software to program your lights to dance to your music, but you can change the lights color. That's better than no lights at all on 420.  

 

That pretty much covers the difference between the 2.  The 2 issues that people are most vocal about are ESA and LightFX2.0, which are mainly nice-to-have features and not performance related.  However, fixes are coming.  The other issue dealing with performance is the PCIe x16 slot but this is probably relevant only when you use latest graphic cards, which is not your case. The 630 has some hiccups at its early life (which is expected for any new system). The 420 does have its own problems, but it has been around for quite some time so these problems are resolved.  However, the 630 is a better all around system, and is upgradable.  If you don't want to take (a little) risk , you may want to wait a bit until these 630 features issues are resolved.

 

Thanks all for the comments so far.  Still confused on what to do.  Seems the 630 is more not as advertised than having critical issues, but still worries me to some degree.  630 seems to be a better platform, but 420 seems to be more proven...

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@schooner2000 wrote:
 Seems the 630 is more not as advertised than having critical issues, but still worries me to some degree.  630 seems to be a better platform, but 420 seems to be more proven...

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This is an accurate summary.

 

If you purchase a 630 and are concerned, simply uninstall the Nvidia performance software when you receive it.  When a final fix is released install the fix.

 

The only problem that really matters in day to day use of the machine is the instability of optical drives that the Nvidia performance software can cause. I have tracked this down to the process ntuneservice.exe, part of the performance software.  This problem appears to be relatively uncommon in any event.