27 November 2005 12:17 pm
For the last few weeks we have been playing around with a range of different hardware including the recently improved Dell Dimension 9100. Fully kitted out with most of the additional crap (we wouldn't do it any other way ;), while you can get Dells for hideously cheap budget prices, we decided, if something was worth getting, it was worth getting upgraded.
The hardware itself is fast. The processor, memory and graphics card combined can handle some serious stuff. I've been playing around with huge amounts of video, encoding it, playing it with, not had any problems. Stuff that the kind of machines we were checking out this time last year just couldn't handle.
The hardware itself is pretty neat inside the case. Sticking an additional hard drive in was pretty easy as there was a spare bay so it was just a matter of connecting the Serial-ATA lead and the power supply which was already in the case and I was away. That said, it was hard to get the screws out and even when I did and screwed it in place, the drive could actually still slide back and forward a bit.
The mouse and keyboard which come with it are USB but there are extra ports on the back so your not down there. The PCI expandability options aren't great but exist if you need them. There are frontside USB ports and if you got the upgrade a firewire port too and by the look of them you could probably get a USB stick in and have enough room to fit a regular cable in by the side of it too, something which you can't do if the ports are right next ot each other.
The monitor we got was a 17" value flat panel. It's bright enough though and runs the big resolutions nicely. The best part of the system however is probably the 5.1 surround sound system. They are pretty powerful speakers and play anything with a lot of basss in it and you will really feel the subwoofer - Smashing Pumpkins sound absolutely ace.
We went for the Windows XP Pro upgrade which comes ready installed but you will probably want to take some time stripping all the crap that you don't actually want off the system. Also the other software related problem is that you don't get many disks for things - you don't get a disk for XP or most of the bundled software, instead there is a Dell restoration thing which is annoying. Still, if you have the XP licence I believe you can just copy a CD legally. Check first though.
Overall it's a good system so far. There have been no real problems and if you do get some, support isn't that hard to reach although if you do need support, phone them rather than e-mail as their response time for e-mail isn't great. Or better still, shell out for the 3 year on-site warrenty, you cannot go wrong with that.
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