No Room for a Second Hard Drive
Written: Mar 05 '03
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Pros: Great value.
Cons: Unpublished system limitations.
The Bottom Line: This system is a great value, just don't plan on upgrades without buying a new case and motherboard first.
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| robertrs's Full Review: Dell Dimension 2350 (D235RL) PC Desktop |
I purchased a Dimension 2350 for a friend looking to upgrade an older system. Her requirements for a new system were fairly modest. The Dimension 2350 came with a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4, 17" monitor, 128 MB RAM (buying extra RAM through Dell is very expensive) and a 30 GB hard drive. As part of the promotion it also included an additional CD-RW drive and free shipping. My friend had recently purchased a 40 GB hard drive for her older system and we planned to move that drive to her new system when it arrived.
When the Dell arrived I opened the case to look for available bays where I could mount the hard drive from the older system. To my surprise there was no bay for mounting an additional hard drive. The IDE cable used was for a single device too. All of the exterior bays had been used by the CD-ROM drive and the CD-RW drive so putting the hard drive in a bracket for an exterior bay and mounting it in an exterior bay was out of the question.
There was a location in the case identified as a mounting location for a second drive but no bracket for mounting the drive was included. I called Dell to order a bracket that would fit in that marked location and was told that they did not sell a bracket to fit this case in the specified location. I was also told that Dell did not configure this system to have a second drive.
I have bought a few PCs so I understand that buying from a manufacturer like Dell limits your expansion options more than purchasing a system from a local computer store that assembles their own, but I've never seen a system that had only one internal bay for hard drives. This seems like something they should have made more clear on the web site when the order is placed.
When I asked about returning the system I was told that I would probably have to pay for the return shipping. Dell promises "Total Satisfaction," as long as you pay for the shipping. Paying to have a system sent back because of limitations Dell didn't let us know about up front doesn't exactly live up to "Total Satisfaction" in my vocabulary.
Also the motherboard looks to be a Micro ATX form factor and only has a couple of PCI expansion slots. This system is definitely not intended for upgrades, which is OK, but one internal hard drive bay is extreme.
On the positive side, the Dell cases are still great to work with. No tools required and the case comes apart so easily. It's too bad the systems are built so that you would never have a reason to pop open the case.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $600
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
robertrs
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Location: Bellevue, WA
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 1 member
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