It's the end of an era. This system marks the end of Dell's Intel-only approach to CPUs with its first-ever use of an AMD processor in a consumer PC. You're only getting an Athlon 64 3800, but it does signify Dell's recognition that it has to give the end user some real choice.
Another good thing is the case, which is both slim and stylish, with a silver and white colour scheme. The vertically mounted 16x speed Samsung DVD writer is joined by four handy memory card slots, too.
However, there are signs of major cost-cutting in the hard drive department, because you only get a miserly 160GB. The situation was made even worse on our test PC: it was partitioned into two drives, and there's no space to add another drive in the slimline chassis either.
Your graphics needs are handled by a 256MB ATI X1300 PRO. While being nothing special, it still delivered 2,518 in 3DMark 05. It means you can expect to play intensive games such as Far Cry or Call of Duty at reasonable frame rates (20 fps), as long as you opt for low resolutions and quality settings.
The 19-inch monitor benefits from a very thin bezel design, taking up less space than the competition and although its colour accuracy wasn't always the best, good contrast and response times help to compensate.
You won't be seeing the best of Vista on the monitor, though, because this PC only provides the Home Basic Edition. The one-year 'customer carry in' warranty didn't impress, either: even at this price, most companies do better.
The combination of looks, graphics speed and near-silent running mean this is still a capable home budget PC, but it's not quite good enough to be a class-leader.
