Dell has another winner in its 1GHz Dimension 4100 home system. Although not a flashy P4 or zippy new Athlon system, it provides solid all-around performance for a much more reasonable price.
Quality components like the 7,200-rpm, ATA/100 hard drive and an nVidia GeForce2-based graphics board helped earn honours as the fastest 1GHz Pentium III, Windows Me-based system we've seen to date. It's generally faster than the only 1GHz Athlon system we've tested--but that's a cheaper model configured with a budget-performing nVidia Vanta card. As you'd expect, the 4100's slower than the best 1.1GHz Athlons as well, but for far less expense.
While its 20GB Maxtor hard drive isn't gargantuan, it is sufficiently capacious to hold numerous applications and a lot of data. We recommend adding a CD-RW drive for data backup and file sharing (a AU$300 optional extra), as the 4100 lacks a removable-storage drive. For the graphics subsystem, Dell chose the nVidia GeForce2 MX 4X AGP card-an all-around good performer. While not the fastest among 3D graphics cards, it's no slouch, so expect decent 3D gaming from the system. Our review unit contained a single 128MB DIMM, leaving the second memory socket open for expansion.
We liked the system's hefty fan and large plastic duct that provide fresh air for the 1GHz CPU. Dell's tool-free mini-tower case offers plenty of room for expansion and leaves ample airspace to ensure proper component cooling. The 4100's Intel motherboard has five PCI slots, three of which are occupied by a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value card and a US Robotics V.90/56K PCI telephony modem.
The 16x NEC DVD-ROM drive (some systems may ship with an equivalent Toshiba brand drive) in our review unit operated flawlessly with DVD discs, but whirred noticeably while reading data and music CD-ROMs. If the system were located under a desk, this noise would be tolerable, but on a desktop, it's annoying. Combined with InterVideo's WinDVD 2000 software decoder, the drive delivered flawless video performance--even on high bit-rate segments of movies.
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