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Picture courtesy of Strachan, Carrie.
| Quality | 8.7/10   |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 7/10 |
| Ease of Set Up | 9/10 |
| Value for Money | 5.8/10 |
| Overall rating | 5.4/10 |
Full review by
JulioF
on 4th Jan 2007
User Rating : 7
Respect :
0
Good Points: The mini-tower version I have has been reliable for several years now. No burnouts, and reasonably snappy response times in most applications. The case is very easy to open and close - just has a button on opposing sides which needs to be depressed, and it opens like a champ! It is also easy to add additional hard drives.
Bad Points: I ordered the video capture package of the day. The software was fine (Videowave), but the capture device (Dazzle) was a total waste, in that it constantly failed to synchronize audio to video. Many users reported similar results. Dell should never have sold that device... bad! The resolution to the problem, for me, was to purchase a Canopus ADVC-100 capture device, which has worked wonderfully from day one. All is in sync now, even when recording two or three hours of video! Also, one of the fans occasionally "goes loud" for a day or two (maybe once every two months), but not a big deal. And the placement of the front USB ports is horrendous, near the bottom of the case, and angled so that you need to insert the device at an awkward angle, from the bottom-up at about a 30 degree angle from vertical. Why those ports weren't designed for horizontal insertion is a mystery.
General comments: I am very happy overall with the Dell Dimension 8200 computer itself. Delivery was prompt. The internal layout is fine, with drives being held by easy-to-use clamps rather than screws. The bootup time gradually increased, with boots taking typically 3 - 5 minutes, but this is a WinXP issue. I found that the bootup time became much faster after I deleted ALL the files in the /WINDOWS/PREFETCH/ folder, then modified this registry setting:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl
Session ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParametersEnablePrefetcher
... set to 2 to prefetch boot files only. This speeded up the boot process, probably because WinXP didn't need to load or parse through the scads of files which existed in there prior to being deleted.
JulioF's review and ratings | 325 words
Review by
walwel.
on 26th May 2003
User Rating : 4
Respect :
0
Dell sent part of the system via a commercial carrier (very good) and sent the rest via United States Post (very, very bad). I complained and complained and Dell didn't give the impression that they gave a rip.
walwel.'s full review | 44 words
Review by
Michael.
on 15th Feb 2003
User Rating : 0
Respect :
0
Stay away from Dell, not reliable.
Michael.'s full review | 59 words
Review by
Grandpa.
on 11th Nov 2002
User Rating : 9
Respect :
+1
If you are in need of a small, quiet, fast, pre-made computer, look no further. This is a very nice machine. It uses only one case fan, which doubles as a cpu cooling fan. I have trouble telling if it's on!
I went with the faster RDRAM and upgraded the monitor to the P1130. Terrific in every way. Very satisfied.
Grandpa.'s full review | 66 words | 2 comments added.
Review by
Grandpa.
on 27th Aug 2002
User Rating : 7
Respect :
+2
Having built an AMD 1.2 ghz pc my wife and I both realized we would never be satified with the final results. The AMD processor runs hot. That means you must use "adequate" cooling. In other words lots of noisy fans. To make it worse, the VIA chipset is very unstable. One day she said "Oh F__k it, why don't you just buy a Dell". I happily agreed. Today I am a proud owner of the fastest and quietest PC I have ever owned or seen. I would order another one in a minute. Guess I'm a Dude now :-)
Grandpa.'s full review | 129 words
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