Random Ramblings

I recently purchased a new desktop.  My old one was 3 years old, just coming out of lease and is getting a bit slow and weary.  I have always been a big fan of Dell.  Their service is excellent and their products are just as good as the rest of them, if not a little better.  So off I went to the Dell website.  I almost had one picked and purchased when I saw the new release Studio XPS Desktop and reading through the specs, I decided that it’s the one that I want.

It’s interesting that Dell have joined the Studio and XPS range in this unit.  The XPS range are usually aimed at the high end, gamers and people who want the best performing PCs.  The Studio range are targeted for those who want a media centre PC.  So with this release they have tried to bridge the two sectors of customers together and for the most part it seems like a good combination.

Now for the part that really matters (at least to me), the specs. Dell have chosen the new Core i7 range from Intel to power this machine.  Those of you (like me) who haven’t been paying attention for the past 6 or more months may not know there’s a new processor in town.  And not just new, it’s an entirely different CPU: Quad-core WITH Hyper-threading, built-in DDR 3 tri-channel memory controller and 8Mb of L3 cache (there is L2 cache for each core with the L3 cache shared between all cores).  It’s one of the first (that I’ve seen) Dell consumer PCs to also include Vista 64 bit edition as the only option.  No choice between the two. It’s 64 or no PC for you.  I guess it makes sense, the consumers of this desktop are likely to want more than 3Gb RAM and 64 bit is the only way to get this.  Be careful though, tri-channel means to get the best performance, memory size must be a multiple of 3.  I made this mistake and have purchased 4, but will upgrade this to 6 in the near future.  The base model video card is an ATI Radeon HD 4850 with 512Mb RAM.

With the desktop, I purchased 2 x 23″ SP2309W widescreen monitors which I will use one of for each of the desktops, along with a 19″ standard LCD.  I’ll talk about the 23″ monitors in a moment.

The machine flies.  I haven’t used a computer this fast and responsive ever, even using XP.  Of course, having the 4Gb memory is probably responsible for this.  Reviews I’ve read have put the i7 at the top of the performance charts, even beating most (if not all) of the Core 2 Quad CPUs, and definately most of the AMD Phenom 2′s.

Dell have really taken to the piano glossy black, instead of the silver and black or even the glossy white my last desktop had.  They have hidden the drives behind flip down panels, and the memory card reader, front USB, firewire and audio ports are hidden by a slide up/down panel.  They also seem to favour white LED’s, using one for both of the power and HDD indicators.  The keyboard is very flat and sleek, the keys are similar in style to that of a notebook.  It has taken me a little while to get used to the keys, especially considering the Home/Insert/End/Delete/Page Up/Page Down keys aren’t set out like a regular keyboard.  The mouse is a laser mouse with a left and right side button as well as a button to control the speed of the mouse pointer, also in glossy black, and is relatively comfortable.

The one odd thing is that the motherboard and case are of an ATX design.  Dell were one of the pioneers of the BTX form factor, however for some strange reason they have reverted back to ATX.  Why I’m not sure but I guess they have their reasons.  The fan is variable speed, and in my use, even the slightest hint of CPU load will have it spin up which you can hear quite clearly.  But since my current CPU load averages at 1%, that doesn’t happen all too often.

On to the monitor.  Again, it’s the glossy black style with white LED’s.  Max resolution is 2048 x 1152 which is higher than Full HD.  Obviously they are marketing them as a TV replacement along with the Studio desktops, given that along with the VGA and DVI connector there is an HDMI connector.  I haven’t tested HD content yet, but I hope to shortly.  The power and menu buttons aren’t really buttons.  They seem to be touch sensitive regions on the side of the monitor, mounted vertically.  Using another object in the region does not make the ‘button’ react.  The LED’s that point to the different regions also fade when not in use.  The bottom most menu lights up when an object is about 1cm away so that you know where it is.  There is also a high pitched beep whenever a button is pressed, but thankfully that can be turned off.  A webcam is also included in the top of the monitor and there are 4 USB ports (2 underneath and 2 on the left side).

Overall, I’m suitably impressed.  The performance seems to be available when needed and if I ever do decide to play a game or two, the video card will help me out. Although I went a little over budget, I think the extra expense will be worth it in the long run.  My only beef with the whole purchase is that one of the speaker options is a UK product code (and last time I checked it still is).  It just so happens that these speakers were included as part of the package when I ordered, but I have contacted Dell and they are fixing that for me.