Your New Xmas Box
Written: Nov 29 '01
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Pros: Affordable, quiet, and clean. A great mate for WinXP. Not bleeding edge.
Cons: Not bleeding edge. Older architecture might be strained in a few years.
The Bottom Line: Anyone who needs a solid PC should take a close look at the 4300 line.
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| BigMonkey's Full Review: Dell Dimension 4300 Series |
Product lines are tricky things for buyers and sellers alike. Mess up--on either end--and you are out a lot of cash. With the 4300, Dell very nearly commits the cardinal sin of stepping all over its flagship, the 8200 line. What buyers have to do, is know how to configure a 4300 in ways that maximize its value and equip it for their needs.
Sounds daunting, but really isn't. Buy the most processor you can, as there is very little price difference in step-ups, maybe $30 a pop. Buy as much memory as you can, even though this will be giving Dell progressively more profit as the 4300 uses older SDRAM modules. Those two steps protect against having a big plastic paperweight in a year.
Now onto the part that might get confusing. Buy the most video card you can, even if it means foregoing some high-end external bit that looks really neat (speakers, scanner, printer)--you can get those after Dec. 25 for a song and won't require complicated installs.
A screaming $300 video card will help make up for--and may even eliminate for many users--the shortcomings of the 4300's SDRAM memory. In a nutshell, the 8200's RDRAM memory is faster and more efficient almost totally accounts for the difference in the two product lines and their prices.
All that fancy hardware in the 8200 line also has other costs in the form of heat, noise, and weight. The hotter chipsets are indeed hotter, meaning more cooling by more fans running more often, fans which add weight and bulk to the 8200 case. I swear Dell opted to "match" the look of the bulked up case by bulking up 8200 series monitors, too. Identical monitors for the 4300 series reside in much sleeker, smaller footprint cases. Go figure.
In short, the 8200 is a Ferrari and the 4300 a Ford Mustang.
But get that pony ready to run, one other aspect needs to be considered. Your PC will be hooked up to SOMETHING for the rest of its life, why not go ahead and buy the most connectivity you can now? That means the most modem and the most network card you can afford. The network card should give you up a leg up on installing broadband--a cable modem or DSL line--to your box.
You can easily get the cash for that by declining the 3-yr. service plan that Dell tries to sell everyone. Go with the no-added cost 1-yr. plan--if it's gonna break, it's gonna do it in the first 30 days anyway. And after two years your "free" service is going to require so much backtracking and downtime that it won't seem like much of a deal.
Dell has been trying to drum up interest in the 4300 by starting it at the sub-$1000 price point. But figure on $1200-1500 to get it with the right mix of stuff you can use for years to come. Even loaded at $1700-1800, that's several hundred less than a stripped 8200.
You can try other makers, but what's the point? Dell is very good at what they do, just don't expect the handholding that they promise and cannot hope to deliver. Documentation is good. Support is fair, the best any rational soul can expect on complex systems.
Running WinXP, the 4300 will be ready to quickly tackle just about anything you throw at it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1700
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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BigMonkey
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Location: Charlotte, NC
Reviews written: 70
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