Precision Workstation 380 User's Guide in English?

Hi

All I can find is the setup guide:

www.dell.com/.../manuals

and the spec sheet:

www.dell.com/.../precn_380_en.pdf

If you're looking for specific information, let me know and I'll do what I can.

Hi Alasdair and Speed, thank y'all for responding.

I know that this is an older machine and am fastly realizing that it may be hard to track down a user guide for it, but I figure after Googling for days, and only coming up with some foriegn Language ones, that I would ask to see if some one just so happen to have an English one stowed away somewhere.

Anyway I have found the two 2 page spec pdfs and the 46 page quick reference/set up guide, all official Dell stuff, but neither have the information that I am looking for.

I just got this machine and am trying to get it upgraded as best as possible. And I would like to add a SATA III controller PCIe card and a USB 3.0 PCIe card, as well as fill in all three of the PCI slots. So one of my main concerns is the PCIe and PCI slot configurations, as it is kinda hard to shop for add in cards when one knows nothing about their PCI slots at hand. And I am at a loss when it comes to why Dell did the PCIe slots the way they did.

Such as what happens, as far as x-lane detraction, to which PCIe slots when multiple cards are added. I know that they say that the x16 slot turns into a x8 slot once a second PCIe card is added and am assuming that the x1 slot stays as a x1slot (even though what I had read said that the PCIe slots dropped from x16 - x4 - x1 to x16 - x4 - x4. But just how the x1 slot got three more lanes added is far beyond my understanding for sure being that it is only hard wired as a x1 slot in the first place (right)? And they claimed that the x8 slot to start with was already only hard wired with x4 lanes to (even though there are physical wires [x8] from one end to the other). So I am wondering just where do the x8 lanes from the x16 slot going to as there is no where to go (right)? I mean as they say that there is only x16 PCIe lanes in the first place, and if the x16 lane gets cut in half and the x8 lane gets x4 of the lanes, and there is only a x1slot left to recieve but only x1lane, where do the other x3 lanes go. Why did they not make the x1 lane a x4 lane so as to not waste any pressious resources (right)?

And I really have no idea what goes on with the PCI slots, as do they drop lanes when more than one PCI card is added, and if so which slots are the priority slots and which ones are secondary. This is where the AMD Threadripper with 60 PCIe lanes would come in right handy, as all the slots stay the same [full] no matter how many cards are added. But I could not afford one and this Precision 380 was given to me, so Precision 380 it is (for now).

Then there is the BIOS! Yes the all dreaded do not mess up in here if you ever want to use this machine ever again type thing! So I really would like to know just what I am doing before I fiddle around with any settings in it.

I am pretty sure that I watched every Precision 380 Youtube video ever done and read the affore mentioned Dell literature, not to mention a many of forums, but none have addressed the issues I need to know in order to set this machine up rightly with confidence.

So any help in these areas would be very helpful.

The information you are looking for is not available and wont be.

SATA III controller PCIe card

USB 3.0 PCIe card

You wont get anywhere near the speed you are looking for for either of these.  The Ram is Slow DDR2 and the PCI bus is limited to UDMA 133.

The 380 is over 12 years old and as such is not really upgrade-able or worth upgrading.

Minimum machine I would recommend is the T3500.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/232434622468

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/precn/en/q2wk6_dell_precision_t3500_spec_sheet.pdf

SpeedStep, I can agree that things get dated pretty fast in the Computing world, and 2.5 SATA SSDs in my opinion are definately on their way out already since the intrduction of the PCIe Gen 3 NVME M.2 (gumstick) SSDs. Yet I also know that being I still have at least 7years to go on my Samsung 850 Pro SSD 10 year warranty I have no plans of tossing it to the side and running out and buying the newer Samsung 960 PCIe Gen 3 NVME M.2 (gumstick) SSD any time soon unless I win the lottery or rob a bank per say. and just because stuff got passed up does not mean that it needs to go in the trash. Yet I do agree if one is going to pay good money for a machine then yes go at least 64bit, quad core, with 32GB DDR4 RAM, and of coarse add in 4 or more of them Samsung 960 PCIe Gen 3 NVME M.2 (gumstick) SSDs to top it off with.

anyway, I call bare minimum - 64bit Dual Core @ 3.0GHz, 8GB RAM DDR2, SATA II, and if you can not get an SSD then at least a WD Velocity Raptor or something.

Anyway, I have an HP Pavilion right now with the same basic set up as the 380 except that it only has a 64bit 2.8GHz Dual Core CPU, and 8GB DDR2, SATA II, with a WD Velocity Raptor. And I know that it is slow under heavy task but does fairly well still on light to regular duty stuff.

Both of these machines where given to me so having a computer beats not being able to afford one at all. I am just looking to spruce 'em up a little is all.

I had bought a Dell Precision M6300 portable work station (i.e. - an 8 pound laptop) years back and finally the power pack shorted and fried the motherboard. But it too as a dual core @ 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM DDR2, and SATA II was not all that bad once I put a Samsung 850 Pro SSD in it even at SATA II speeds. And I plan on putting a Samsung 850 Pro SSDs in this Dell Precision 380 as well. Yet with this 380 I can put a SATA III controller in it and speed things up even more so. And I know that the RAM can not be upgraded from DDR2, but really I am not a gamer, and the very first laptop I had was a Dell Latitude C610 with a 32bit 1.0GHz CPU and 1GB RAM. And the first desktop was a Dell Deminsion 460 with a 32bit 2.8 GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and both these had old 2.5 HHDs. So I know what slow is like and what I never want to go back to. And being I have not gone quad core yet, and have no idea what I am missing, I can be content with the rigs I got for now, even with thier limitations.  

And who knows perhaps the next machine that is given me will be quad core or higher. Or perhaps one day perhaps possibly I can built a custom machine with at least 64GB DDR4 RAM, 4 of PCIe Gen3(/4/or 5)x4 NVME M.2 Samsung Pro 960 [gumstick] SSDs, with at least SATA III, and a 16 core AMD Threadripper 1950X @ 3.4-4.0GHz (with 64 lanes so I will not have to worry about whether the PCIe slots are sutible for any particular Add in Crad or not. Keep in mind though that that will not only be faster but also cost big $!

So I still ask for now if anyone happens to have a Precision 380 USER MANUAL pdf they can share, or perhaps scan an actual paper copy  of the parts I need please do. Would be much appreciated.

SpeedStep, I got to reading in the 390 Manual and think I found what I was wanting to know as far as the PCIe and PCI slots go.

Will keep reading to see if I can learn about the BIOS stuff.

Thanks again for all your help!