Entered CNET Catalog: 10/15/2004
SKU: DIM47CMIN
Manufacturer: Dell, Inc.
Manufacturer description
The new Dimension 4700C powered by Intel Pentium 4 processors with HT Technology (500 Sequence) handle multiple productivity and multimedia applications simultaneously. Two front USB 2.0 ports and a headphone jack encourage plug and play, and an additional 5 USB 2.0 and serial port in back welcomes an assortment of peripherals.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2
User Rating: 
8/10
nice look, slim design, still working great today
Pros: small box, nice component upgrades, lots of usb ports, powerful for size
Cons: bad heat sink, gets hot and fan is very loud, no upgrade room, half-height limits new components
Review:
They don't sell this anymore today but Dell does have some new small-form factor boxes out for Inspiron and the XPS so some of this advice will still apply. My biggest complaint is the poor heat dissipation. You can't really put this in a desk cabinet since it needs a lot of room to breathe. The plastic case (instead of aluminum which it really should have) offers no heat release and thus the fan always ramps up to almost airplane level noise. This is no joke.
I think they have solved for this in the new machines though but you'll have to see those reviews.
The system has very few slots to add upgrade cards to which is the point of the small design but I really think they could have at least fit in one more pci slot for firewire cards or other. The pci xpress is too hard to find components for. The plus side is it has about seven usb ports and a dvi port for digital monitors.
The half-height design though makes it impossible to find new cards. I can't for the life of me find a new half-height video card. I may have to go through Dell for a much greater expense.
The upgrades options at purchase were nice however, I got a 3.2 ghz processor which still competes with systems today and 1gb or ram which at the time was a lot. It is expandable to up to 4gb so that is a nice plus although there are only two ram slots so the old sticks will need to be shelved. Kind of a waste. The X300 64mb video card has been up to par for a lot of games like neverwinter nights and many first-person shooters from about 2 years ago. It ran Oblivion decently but only after shutting down all my non-essential processes and background programs.
All in all, this would be a 9 of 10 if the heat problem was fixed and upgrade options were easier. I've had it for about 3 years now and it is still a nice system. I will probably keep it and try to upgrade the video and click some more ram in and it should be good for another 2 years or so.
I think they have solved for this in the new machines though but you'll have to see those reviews.
The system has very few slots to add upgrade cards to which is the point of the small design but I really think they could have at least fit in one more pci slot for firewire cards or other. The pci xpress is too hard to find components for. The plus side is it has about seven usb ports and a dvi port for digital monitors.
The half-height design though makes it impossible to find new cards. I can't for the life of me find a new half-height video card. I may have to go through Dell for a much greater expense.
The upgrades options at purchase were nice however, I got a 3.2 ghz processor which still competes with systems today and 1gb or ram which at the time was a lot. It is expandable to up to 4gb so that is a nice plus although there are only two ram slots so the old sticks will need to be shelved. Kind of a waste. The X300 64mb video card has been up to par for a lot of games like neverwinter nights and many first-person shooters from about 2 years ago. It ran Oblivion decently but only after shutting down all my non-essential processes and background programs.
All in all, this would be a 9 of 10 if the heat problem was fixed and upgrade options were easier. I've had it for about 3 years now and it is still a nice system. I will probably keep it and try to upgrade the video and click some more ram in and it should be good for another 2 years or so.
User Rating: 
9/10
nice compact design for smaller areas
Pros: design, speed, ability to upgrade most items
Cons: lack of half heighth pci express cards available for upgrading
Review:
