Watch Megan Fox Naked
Written: Dec 13 '00 (Updated Jul 19 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: awesome 3d performance; good looks
Cons: not the best overall performer
The Bottom Line: great
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| skyth's Full Review: Dell Dimension 8100 Series |
Skyth's Wet Dream
Where do the million bucks Skyth is making from Epinions going? A new Ferrari? A brownstone in the West Village? A visit to the secret Playboy island of busty dumb blondes? I gave those a long consideration, but than decided upon the new Dimension 8100 by Dell. Costing nearly 2k, 8100 is hardly what one would consider a cheap computer. However, it is in the line of the most powerful PC offered by the company. That is if you go for the THX 3D and sound upgrade as well as get the P4 1.5Gigahertz monster.
Ok, I might be the only techno geek who didn't build his own PC. I spent 1k on my last PC, built it from scratch buying top quality cheap hardware from various unknown companies scattered in Texas (why they all in Texas?). I have had so much trouble with this machine. The cover went out within the first week, and the darn thing never worked sturdy enough for me to put it back on. I have been drooling over the new 1Grtz monsters for a while, but could never build up the courage to spend so much money in one shot. But I knew, from past experience, that my top of the line PC would be from a well known company with excellent technical support. Honestly, I just don't want to deal with it. With 1 year next day and 3 years of parts and support, Dell was my first choice.
Now lets talk about the fruit juice. I didn't get the most powerful P4. Instead I opted for the 1899$ P4 with 1.4Ghrtz. To me a 1.4Grtz machine for 2k sounds quite reasonable. Now consider that it came with a 19inch monitor. That I think is an excellent price. Looking at the same package at Compaq and HP, I had prices nearing 2.4k. Other than the most standard junk that comes with all desktops, the 8100 comes with a 32MB NVIDIA TNT2 Graphics card, a real threat for gamers like me. This is one of the cheap but decent graphics cards in the market. Unfortunately, the only other cards in the package were either top of the line or bottom of the line. I went with bottom of the line. Once the 5gig machines hit the streets, I'll go spend 500 bucks on a super duper graphics card to keep up with games. For now, TNT2 does more than enough. In terms of sound quality, SB LIVE seems to do a fairly good job. I might go for better speakers later though.
There is some talk about P4 chip not being a super duper performer in all areas. That is quite true. My friends P3 1gig seems to run some applications slightly faster. But my PC is superior in almost every 3D game. It looks like the P4 cheap is better in terms of games. Looking at Benchmarks throughout the internet prove this to be true, and also say that MPEG coding on the P4 is much better than anything else. I am a gamer, so I don't care about how fast Word or Strata Studio runs.
The last and the kewlest thing about the 8100 is without doubt the color. I finally have a computer that maches my car -- sleek black with touches of silver. I don't know if its just me, but I care about how my computer looks. In any event, I seriously recommend this Desktop for gaming enthusiasts. Some people say that the same system with a 833 P3 chip costs 1.5k, and the P4 only performs 10% better. Well, consider the 400Mhrtz bus on the P4, as opposed to the 133-200Mhrtz bus on the P3. Cioao.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2100
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
skyth
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: sky lar
Reviews written: 193
Trusted by: 339 members
About Me:
Skyth misses old Epinions -- where men were men and the sheep scared.
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