Ok, this is my first review, so bear with me. First I'd like to start off by saying I like Dell. I know this will elicit some hoots and hollers, but I thought it would be best to come clean up front.
This is a machine I actually purchased for my oldest child, who is majoring in Software Engineering in college. It is destined to be a dual boot Windows/Linux machine he is using for a project this summer. This leads to my first reason for liking Dell. I ordered the PC on Wednesday May 24th, and it was delivered Tuesday, May 30th. It would have been delivered the 29th, but it was Memorial Day. I ordered online specifying 3-5day shipping.
The first thing I noticed after taking it out of the box, are the ports, or lack there of. The back panel has no PS/2, serial, or parallel ports. 4 USB, 1 network, 3 sound, and 1 video port are located on the back panel of the motherboard. The only other connections are the power cord and modem jacks. This brings me to one of my pet peeve's, Dell does not give you the option of no modem on their home PC's. Or, at least I haven't found it.
Here is the configuration as shipped:
1 GG870 PROCESSOR, 80547, PENTIUM 4 PRESCOTT DT, Pentium 4 Prescott DT, 2.8GHZ, 1 MEGB, 533FSB, LGA, G1
1 J4628 KEYBOARD, 104, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, UNITED STATES, ENTRY, LEAD FREE, LITEON
1 X7636 MOUSE, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, 2BTN, LEAD FREE, ENTRY, LOGITECH, MIDNIGHT GRAY
1 DF965 KIT, SOFTWARE, OVERPACK, WINDOWS XP, MCE05U, DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
2 D6492 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 256, 533, 32X64, 8, 240, 1RX16
1 JF495 MODEM, V.92, DATA FAX, INTERNAL, SON2, LEAD FREE, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION
1 ND504 ASSEMBLY, DVD+/-RW, 16X, IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS), HITACHI LG DATA STORAGE, CHASSIS 2005
1 KD104 ASSEMBLY, Flash Storage Device, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, READER, HALF HEIGHT, TEAC, CHASSIS 2005
1 R6401 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, FLEX-BAY, DIMENSION, MATRIX,SMITH,MINI TOWER
1 XF541 HARD DRIVE, 80G, S2, 7.2K, 9G, 3.5, WD-UNIC
1 CD940 KIT, SOFTWARE, WORDPERFECT, 12, PLUS-TRIAL
1 CC639 DISPLAY, FLAT PANEL DISPLAY, 17, DUAL VOLTAGE, E176FPF, MIDNIGHT GRAY, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION
Setup time for PC's has become much faster as time has progressed. It took about 10 minutes to set it up and get it powered on. It took about another 20-30 minutes to configure Windows. So within 1 hour we were ready to go. Some of the things I haven't figured out are, why it has no TV tuner or speakers, If it's a Media Center PC aren't these required? The hard drive is only 80gig, it seems a bit on the small side to me. There are only 4 USB ports on the back panel, and 2 on the front. I say only, because when you plug in the keyboard and mouse, you only have 2 ports left in back.
The motherboard and case are BTX form factor and have the fan in the front of the case as apposed to the back as in ATX. The heat sink is much larger than I am used to seeing in a factory standard Dell, but I'm guessing this is a part of the BTX standard. The only other fan is in the power supply. The cut outs on either side of the case are the air inlets for the fan. The cables are dressed neatly and held down by tabs molded into the fan shroud and attached to the power supply. The drives are mounted using a no tool design. The external drives are mounted above the CPU area and the internal drives are below. The only expansion card is the PCI modem, leaving 1 PCI and 1 PCIe x1 slot open. There are only 2 memory slots, so any upgrade will require replacing the current RAM sticks.
One of the first things I noticed when I first powered it on, was the lack of noise. It is much quieter then the Dimension 4600 it sits next to. The keyboard is much smaller than the older PS2 style, and the mouse is still the old ball type. Maybe it's just me, but isn't this a little dated?
The case is easy to open, just pull a release on top and the side lifts off. The drives are mounted with tool-less hardware, however, if you are replacing an optical drive, you need a screw driver to remove the studs that align the drive in the bay.
Cable management is good with everything held in place with built in clips.
The monitor is an analog 17" that is adequate for general web browsing and such, but lacks the response time needed for gaming. The on board graphics adapter is also lacking for gaming, although it does prove adequate for video viewing. In general, this is a good entry level machine that will get the job done if your needs are not great. If on the other hand you are looking for a real Media PC, or gaming PC, I would opt for a higher level unit with a plug in Graphics adapter and TV tuner, larger hard drive and at least 1 Gb of ram.
