- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.5 stars
"An excellent PC with minor flaws"
Pros: Powerful, reliable and fairly quiet system with a great audio setup
Cons: Limited upgrade options, case may start vibrating
Summary: I've had this PC for over two years, using it rather intensely, and I must admit that I had one serious problem with it (XP commited suicide), but was able to solve it without data loss. Other than that, this machine ran smoothly all the time, especially after I reinstalled Windows with my own preferences. It boots really fast (under 40secs), programs respond quickly, games ran smoothly after upgrading the videocard. What I really liked was the fact that the harddrives were uncoupled from the case through rubber parts between the drive mounts and the screws holding it, as was the main system/CPU fan. The machine may get a bit louder under load, but is by no means annoying. While never letting me down during all its usegae, there are some annoying drawbacks, such as the downward facing USB ports/headphone jack, and the fact that you can't install standard ATX power supplies, meaning that more powerful graphics solutions can't be used with this case unless you cut extra holes in the back. Apart from that, the combination of an internal aluminium and external plastic enclosure give the case rather bad vibration properties. Though the fan the the hdds are uncoupled from it, the case often made annoying vibrating and clattering sounds, that may be solved with by occasionally slapping it, but could be avoided by DELL.
All in all, a really kickass PC that has never missed a beat and even had a 5.1 speaker system included to rock the house!
