As deadly as it looks...
Written: Oct 09 '01 (Updated Oct 30 '01)
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Pros: Extremely fast, case design, thoughtful touches
Cons: Won't run Visual Studio without crashing, case design
The Bottom Line: Sexy case and incredible all-around speed make this worthwhile, unless you're a Visual Studio programmer.
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| dmatsumo's Full Review: Dell Dimension 8200 Series |
Our office just got the latest Dell Dimension 8200 in last week, and right now I've been given the chance to tinker around with it. =)
With every new CPU that Intel releases, the prices just keep dropping for the "older" processors. We capitalized on this by purchasing the 1.7GHz model, rather than the 2GHz one. For that 18% increase in speed (which doesn't ever correspond to the actual system performance increase), it wasn't worth the extra few hundred dollars.
My initial experience with this new Dell was exhilirating! I couldn't believe how quickly Win2K loaded, even with the lowly 7200rpm IDE drive (I usually get 10k-15k Ultra160 drives in our other computers). Programs load quickly, and for the most part, our software enjoys speedy compilation.
For the most part? Well, basically, Visual Studio 6.0 (specifically VC++ 6.0) doesn't like Dells. This is the programmer's THIRD Dell system in 2 years, and it constantly crashes during compilation. Sometimes he's lucky, sometimes he's not. We think it has something to do with the disk subsystem, and I'll revise this epinion when the problem is resolved. At this very moment, I'm installing Win2K on a SCSI hard disk with an Adaptec 2940UW controller. We'll see what happens! In addition, there's an Intel-specific IDE driver that might help out. Stay tuned.
Our system didn't have a monitor, so I can't talk much about that (though the Dell monitors are fantastic!). I can comment, however, on the keyboard and interesting case design.
The keyboard will take up very little valuable desk space. Unlike the Logitech and Microsoft keyboards, which are cluttered with (mostly) useless buttons, the Dell keyboard opts for a small frame and only 3 extended function keys. One of them launches email, another launches your web browser, and the other puts the machine into sleep mode. These are the only keys I've ever really used on my Microsoft keyboard, with the exception of the Mute button. Key travel is perfect, and not mushy like the cheap keyboards you can pick up at the local computer shop. I also like the round Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock LEDs. Don't ask me why this makes a difference, I just like them. =)
The case design is by far the most radical I've seen from Dell. In the past, their cases have had a fairly aggressive face, but opening them was a nightmare. Back in the mid 90s, you had to press tabs in on the top and bottom of the left panel, and push *really* hard to get the panel off. Things got better with the Dimension L series, which had a single latch on the top of the machine that you just had to push, and the left panel literally came off. However, with this system, you had to remove the power cord first, which made system debugging a pain if you needed to get into the computer while it was on.
The user can open up the Dimension 8200 by pressing a button on the top and bottom of the case. After this, one side of the case swings open 90 degrees relative to the other side. One one side resides the motherboard, and on the other side are the various drives.
Cabling was beautiful! They were routed nicely from one side to the other, which aids in valuable airflow through the case. The CPU also has a gorgeous duct that connects it directly to an external case fan. I really appreciated these nice touches.
Even though the swinging case design is nice, it could pose an inconvenience for those of you that like to open up the system periodically while the power is on. Well, if you don't have room to put the computer on its side, that is. If you can't put the system on its side, it's a pain to press the button on the bottom of the case and then pry the two halves apart. Trust me.
Oh, and games fly on this system! The geForce MX 32MB card is absolutely fantastic. We've only played Unreal Tournament on it thus far (but will test out Rogue Spear: Black Thorn today when it comes out), and the frame rate is unbelievable. Of course, this is more of the graphics card working than the CPU.
So all in all, I'm pretty impressed with this machine. It boots quickly, loads Win2K quickly, runs programs quickly. Yup, it does *everything* quickly! You'll only want to be careful if you plan to do a lot of Visual C++ programming. I'm working on the problem at this very moment, and I'll add an update when I figure out how to fix the problem!
*** Updated 10/30/01
Sorry for the late update on this... I couldn't find the "Update" link on this page. Boy, am I blind!
Anyhow, I loaded the new Intel IDE chipset driver for Win2K, and the system is STILL crashing under Visual Studio 6.0. And it only happens on Dell computers. We're going to switch to SCSI for a while and see how much it crashes (if at all).
Stay tuned...
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1400
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
dmatsumo
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Location: San Jose, CA
Reviews written: 81
Trusted by: 19 members
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