Excellent and Affordable
Written: Aug 19 '00
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Pros: Good Price + Good System
Cons: none
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| mrmustrd's Full Review: Dell Dimension L667 |
It used to be that if you were purchasing a computer under $1000 you were usually relegated to purchasing a considerably limited or refurbished setup. Hence, my justification to my wife for spending the kind of money i did in the past was simple .. " lets not buy something that may be antiquated by the time we opened the box". Well we recently had the need to purchase a second computer for our kids. I did my usual borderline neurosis type product re-search with my number one goal being to break the $1000 threshold. Not only was I pleasantly surprised by the number of options I had, I was impressed by who was offering me these options. Dell, in my past opinion, was always one of the the most highly regarded computer manufacturers, but I had previously believed them to be just a tad higher priced than the rest. Hence, my take had always been - "yeah, you get the DELL name, but is it really worth the extra X dollars" ?
Thus my surprise when I saw an ad for their new Dimension "L" based systems. In my comparisons I could not find another manufacturer "name brand" or not, that offered as much as this system for the price. I looked at Micron(who I love), Quantex (who always delivers a good deal) and Gateway (who I hate but figured Id humor myself) and simply speaking DELL delivered the best overall deal. Here are some of the specs : Pentium III 677 Mhz, 64 MB SDRAM, 7.5 Gig hard Drive, 15" .26 monitor, 48X CD-Rom, decent soundcard and speakers.
I dont care what the "puter snobs" think of this setup, the fact is that a) the Pentium III processor is still faster than anything I could afford a year ago, b) the 64 MB SDRAM might be a tad light but adequate for my kids usage, c) the 7.5 Gig is absolutely FINE, I challenge any one of your kids to fill up 7 Gigs .. and if they do (the little space hogs) , you could always just buy an IOMEGA ZIP drive for $100 for additional space. The 15" screen was a personal decision .. we do not have a lot of space for this second computer and as such the kids would be about 1 foot away from the monitor ..thus a 17" screen (usually the standard for gaming) was not really an option. But, if you've got the space, then buy up to the 17" screen for the extra cost. Not including the ancillary devices such as the sound card , cd-rom (which is VITAL for kids), v90 modem, and speakers .. it was obvious that this system was well fitted.
I ordered the system and it arrived when DELL said it would (in about 8 days). It came well packaged and full of product guides and easy to read instructions. I hooked it up in about 10 minutes. Dell uses color coded connectors,perfect for those of us less familiar with things like .. uh .. wires and junk ..
The system worked right out of the box .. but why would you expect less ? But, all of the sudden my monitor developed a black line across the top. "Ugh", I emoted. I immediately called their tech support. After about 5 or 6 minutes, I connected with a tech rep. He quickly had me run some tests (including unplugging the monitor from the PC) which determined that the monitor was defective. He didn't hesitate to inform me that he would ship me a new monitor. I had it the next day ! Now thats impressive. Im impressed. Darn, I was very impressed. Impressed enough to write this exhaustive review. This is a good company and my confidence level in their product and support has increased accordingly (unlike my opinion of those less-than-impressive folks at Gateway).
I would encourage anyone in this market to seriously consider this product. You get an extra $25 off your purchase if you mention my name (that provision may be subject to change, but give it a shot all the same) .. as I understand it, all you have to say is " yes, my good friend and all around great guy, Frank Tosto, referred me" . It is important to remember the part about "all around great guy" .. I understand that this is some sort of special code or something.
This is a great system, for a great price from a great company .. but hey .. that's just my opinion.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 899
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 601-700
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 7-9
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Epinions.com ID:
mrmustrd
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Member: Frank Tosto
Location: New York
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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