The Black Wonder (Dell Dimension 4300)

Member Name: aljones

Product:	Dell Dimension 4300
Date:	20/12/01 (2255 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent case design, Very quiet

Disadvantages: None

The Dell Dimension 4300 is a great computer. No ifs, no buts. It's just great. Its one of the very sleek new black models, as have been advertised on TV recently. But what do you actually get under the dark exterior, and how does it perform.

Well really, that's up to you. All Dell PCs are individual configured. While they do sell 'stock' set-ups (i.e. the most popular), they try to accommodate everyone by allowing you to configure your own PC, either via the website or the phone. So really I'm only going to describe what I've got, though the quality and other aspects will, I'm sure, be present on all machines.

So, mine has got an Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor. So it's fast. From the moment you switch it on (which isn't that long after you take it out of the box), you'll notice that's it really does speed along with everything you decide to use it for. Mine has 256Mb of RAM, though as standard they can anywhere between 128 and 1024Mb!

Set up of the machine is easy. You get all the cables in the box, which are all colour coded, so it's simply a matter of match the colours on the plugs with colours on the unit. Everything is pre-installed, so it's just plug-in, switch on, and go for it. If you've got the monitor switched off though, you'll barely notice its even running. It is whisper quiet under normal operation, and its only when you really start to hammer the processor at 100% usage for extended periods of time that you'll hear any sound coming out of the box.

As far as other sounds go, well it depends on your set up. I've only got on-board sound, as it's the computer I use at work, but even that produces decent enough sounds for most things (CD audio and basic games). Speakers are sadly lacking from my set-up, but they do come with the system. You get a sub and two satellites, again in a very nice black. You also get a DVD-ROM drive, with software decodi
ng. I haven't played a movie on it, but it's certainly fast (16x max DVD, 40x max CD).

And Dell has certainly considered its user when designing the case. Not only does it have 2 USB ports on the back, along with all the other regular ports, it also has 2 on the front, along with a headphone socket, neatly hidden away under a very sturdy, well-designed flap. As standard you get a 17" monitor, though mine came with a Sony 19" Flat screen Trinitron monitor, yet again coloured black. The keyboard (standard PS/2 connector) is, again, jet black, and comes with 4 additional keys - a sleep key, and three hot keys for mail, home page, and search. They are handy, though I rarely use them, as I've never had additional keys on any previous keyboards. The mouse (guess what colour) is a standard Microsoft Intellimouse affair, which I certainly can't complain about.

Graphics come poring out at a rate of knots, via a 64Mb Nvidia GeForce 3 graphics card, which certainly does the trick. Combined with my monitor, you can choose almost any resolution your heart desires, and get crisp, smooth graphics all the time. The hard disk on mine is 36Gb in size, and at the moment is less that 15% full, even with Windows 2000, Office 2000, MS Visual C++, TogetherJ and many other software tools installed. So it's plenty big enough.

Though I didn't have anything to do with the purchase, I'm told they are a very reliable company to use. The support is excellent, with a range of warranties to suit your needs. None of the equipment I've ever used of theirs has any problems, so they are as reliable as you can get in my view. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Dell, especially this PC, to anyone. They aren't as expensive as they used to be, and give you a huge range of customisable options when buying so you aren't paying for things you don't want, like digital cameras that produces very poor images or bargain basement p
rinters. You get the set-up you want in a very high quality package.

Summary: