Dell Dimension 4400 2.2GHz

During the past two years we have seen the clock speed of Pentium and Athlon chips steadily increasing, and now the 2GHz barrier has fallen.

Intel's 2.2GHz Pentium 4 is the star of the new Dimension 4400 from Dell. The machine clocked up the fastest overall score we have to date seen in our Labs test and showed that it will deal admirably with any job you throw at it. But aside from performance, is the rest of the system up to par?

The tower case is finished in a matt black and has a clever design, allowing it to be swivelled open. The right side holds the drives and the left everything else, enabling easy access.

Considering the 4400's princely processor, the 256MB complement of DDR memory is a tad stingy. One spare DIMM slot is available to accommodate upgrades.

Similarly, the 40Gb hard disk drive seems a little slim these days, though it provides sufficient storage for most tasks. An excellent CD-RW/DVD combination drive delivers further storage flexibility.

The GeForce3 Ti 200 graphics card produced a great result in our 3D visuals benchmark and, combined with the 17in monitor, will make most games and DVDs look fantastic.

Elsewhere, the Turtle Beach sound card combines well with the Harman Kardon speakers to provide quality sound, so it's a good system for gamers and/or film and music fans. There is no FireWire port, which is disappointing, but there are four USB ports for adding peripherals.

Dell wants plenty of money for this PC and the bulk of it pays for the fancy Pentium 4 processor. It's undoubtedly a good machine, but can you afford to be this fancy?

SPECIFICATIONS

• 2.2GHz Pentium 4 processor
• 256Mb DDR-RAM
• 40Gb hard disk; CD-RW/DVD combo drive
• GeForce3 Ti 200 graphics card
• Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card
• 56Kbps modem
• 17in CRT monitor
• Windows XP Home edition

Contact

Dell: 0870 152 4850 www.dell.com/uk

See also:

Evesham Evolution 2.53

Evesham's new model features the very latest processor from Intel.  06 Aug 2002

Task-IT Predator 2.4GHz

An impressive machine for the power-hungry user.  24 Jul 2002

Dell Dimension 8200 MLK

A great machine for hardcore gamers and 3D designers.  22 Jul 2002

Evesham Evolution 2.5

A monster PC with a price to match.  04 Jul 2002

PC World Advent 3509

A 2.4GHz Pentium 4 desktop monster at a very fair price.  05 Jun 2002

Mesh Matrix XP 1900-R85

Performance and power in a bargain PC.  26 Mar 2002

Evesham Athlon XP 2000+ PC

Fast, well-specified PC with 512Mb of Ram.  14 Mar 2002

Dell Dimension 4300

An extremely competent and desirable PC.  15 Feb 2002

Apple iMac Flower Power

While we're still hoping for a G4 iMac, this latest machine is no slouch and, at £1199, it's reasonable value when everything is considered.  15 Feb 2002

Evesham Athlon XP 1900+ PC

A blisteringly fast Athlon XP processor beats at the heart of this PC.  10 Dec 2001

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