From...

March 5, 1999
Web posted at: 8:08 p.m. EST (0108 GMT)

by Rex Farrance

(IDG) -- Most of the Dell Dimension XPS systems I've seen remind me of a Buick LeSabre. They provide a comfortable, safe, and reliable ride, with better-than-average performance. And their value is undeniable -- they consistently earn Best Buys in PC World's monthly ratings of power, budget, and home PCs. But like the comfy LeSabre, they don't provide much excitement.

But what if you could sit down and design your dream PC, combining Cadillac comfort and features with Corvette performance? Would that accelerate your pulse? I decided to find out. The Dell Dimension XPS 500T reviewed here is the decidedly exciting result.

When price is no object

For this review, I was determined that price be secondary. So I bravely ticked off my wish list, starting with a Pentium III-500 processor, 512KB of level 2 cache, 128MB of PC 100 SDRAM, and a 22GB 7200-rpm IBM hard drive. Great video is critical, so I combined an outstanding 19-inch Dell UltraScan P990 (a PC World Best Buy in February) with a 16MB STB TNT graphics board. Excellent sound was also high on my list, so I asked for the Turtle Beach Montego II full-duplex sound card and an Altec Lansing ADA880 four-speaker set with a big subwoofer.

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Then I took a deep breath and added in some home extras: a 4.8X Toshiba DVD-ROM drive, a hardware MPEG decoder with a TV-out, and a TV/FM tuner card. Just to make sure I was covered, I added an Iomega Zip drive to the standard 1.44MB floppy drive -- and since my cable modem doesn't handle faxing, I requested a V.90 fax modem. Oh yeah, I also had the company throw in a copy of Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition.

Only after I'd finished my order did I ask for the price. For what I got, I found the tally astoundingly low: $3199. I spent about that much a year and a half ago when I bought my Dell Pentium II-300.

A visit to the Test Center

When the new system arrived, my first job was rating its performance. No surprises here: Its PC WorldBench score of 228 was roughly comparable to the average posted by the 14 PIII-500 machines we've tested so far. It was also within 3 percent of the 234 score of its more businesslike sibling, a number-four Best Buy on our April Top 20 Power Desktops chart.

When the speed benchmarks were complete, I checked the system from stem to stern, pulling off its light-gray easy-open midtower case to explore the clean, roomy interior. This PC is well designed and efficiently cooled, with a wind tunnel-like molding over the CPU assembly. Access to memory, expansion slots, and drive bays was unimpeded. With a single DIMM installed, there were still two memory sockets available. The Dell was loaded with four expansion cards, so only one open PCI slot was available. The single ISA slot was already used by the modem. There was plenty of room for adding drives in the three available bays, however, and the 5.25-inch half-height external bay could accept a CD-Rewritable or tape backup drive.

The sound and the fury

Next came the fun part: rating the bevy of entertainment options. Since sound and video assessments are subjective, I convened a small committee of experienced testers to watch the DVD version of Clear and Present Danger. Everyone liked the silky smooth video and vibrant colors on the UltraScan P990 monitor -- it was tough to break away from the movie and continue testing.

Opinions were split about 50-50 on whether the Altec Lansing ADA880 speakers were very good or just pretty good. Cranked up all the way, the subwoofer seemed to strain a bit during the movie's firefights and explosions. At more moderate levels, we found that sound was accurately conveyed. Finally, we spun a variety of audio CD tunes at normal levels--noting good bass response and lilting highs -- and agreed that the speakers were better suited to medium rather than large areas.

Will a family assemble in a large room to watch DVD movies on the UltraScan P990? Probably not. Even a 19-inch monitor with an 18-inch viewable screen isn't big enough in a wide-open space. You could use the TV-out on the system's decoder card to hook up a television -- assuming the PC and TV are close enough together. On the other hand, if you live in a small apartment the system's TV/FM tuner, combined with its great monitor and good sound system, could give you all the entertainment you need.

Dell's documentation is concise, complete, and well-written. The standard warranty is three years on parts and one year on labor (on-site). Support technicians are available toll free around the clock -- and in our surveys, PC World readers consistently rate the company's desktop PCs as reliable.

On balance, I found this system to be a terrific deal. I was only sorry that I wasn't ready to upgrade my current computer. If I were, I'd be doing far, far better than I did on my last purchase.