Dell's Dimension 8100 features the Pentium 4 running at a fair 1.5 gigahertz clock speed.

Dell focused on Intel's 850 chipset to bring out the capabilities of the Pentium 4. 4X AGP, dual-channel RDRAM support and a 400-MHz front side bus provide most of the graphic and computational needs of today's gamer / web surfer.

The main reason for the great graphics capability is the included Nvidia GeForce Ultra card and it's 64MB of superfast DDR memory. This is an excellent graphics card, representing the big push in graphics support technology (something not typically required for a Motorola based system).

Of course, back when I was a tech we had a saying; "RAM is good - more RAM is more good". This Dell 8100 came with 128MB of PC800 RDRAM (which I immediately bumped up to 512 meg). Couple that with what is fast becoming a small hard drive (40GB Western Digital Caviar) and you have a decent enough computer as compared to the warp speed monsters now available.

While this set up is excellent for gamers, it runs at a disappointing speeds utilizing today's applications. I often wonder if I would be better off with a Pentium 3 or Athlon based system.

The Dell supplied operating system seems to cause business applications to run slower under Windows Me than with Windows 98 on my 900 Mhz Athlon. I intend to upgrade operating systems to Windows 2000 in hopes of boosting apps speeds.

While the Dell is great for games / surfers, it is not a practical machine for office uses. Especially when compared to slower (900 Mhz - 1.3 Ghz) P-3 or Athlon systems which cost far less.

The 8100 comes in a (cool looking as my kids says) eye appealing silver and black case. The system included 19-inch Trinitron monitor which also had pleasing effects on the eye (reducing strain).

A 12X DVD-ROM drive and a 12X/10X/32X CD-RW drive allows movie viewing as well as the necessary cd burning needs for today's teenagers.

Since the 8100 is THX-certified, we hooked it to our extra surround sound stereo input. This provided excellent movie sound as well as cd listening capabilities.

Now for the tech side. I was impressed with the quality and ease of access that the 8100 provides. The power supply swings out and allows access to the system's four RIMM slots motherboard connectors. Like all the other Dell's, the interior is well organized with clean views of, and easy to access the system's slots and bays.

The system has four diagnostic lights on the back panel next to the external ports. The pattern of these lights will provide you an indication of the problem if a fault prevents booting.

The 8100 has two free 5.25 inch externally accessible drive bays. This will require you to use mounting brackets if you want to add an internal Zip or other 3.5-inch drive. There was three of the five PCI slots available for expansion.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 1450
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40