Product Reviews

The Dimension 8400 is the newest flagship machine from Dell, showcasing all the latest and greatest components. This is a strictly traditional package, encased in Dell's signature charcoal and midnight-grey colouring.

Aesthetically, the chassis is almost unchanged since the Dimension 8300. The good news is that despite the improved specifications, including a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 550 and a 256MB ATi Radeon X800 XT, the price has dropped by £150 (using E-Value code PPUK5-D0887R).

One area where the system has been scaled back is with the 17in 1703FP TFT monitor. While it shares its 19in predecessor's 1,280 x 1,024 resolution, it makes the system less attractive for DVD movies or games. Thankfully, the performance is superb, with great low-end colour definition and excellent contrast. It strode comfortably through our technical tests, save for some lag caused by the 25ms response time. It had fantastic viewing angles too.

The USB hub on the monitor is welcome, as the pair on the front of the case aren't easily accessed. They're not only hidden behind a large flap, but are angled downwards and tricky to use with flash drives. The monitor also houses Dell's AS500 sound bar, which fits to the bottom of the monitor to neatly hide the trailing cables.

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These are complemented by a 5.1 surround-sound set of Dell's own speakers that deliver a passable rendition of movie soundtracks, but lack the subtlety and presence to bear too much scrutiny. The Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 provides flexibility for a 7.1 speaker upgrade though, as well as offering digital outputs and EAX 2 gaming support.

Dell's hinged case design allows for easy access to the innards, but it's fiddly and requires a lot of space to open. However, the inside is better designed, with a single 120mm case fan also cooling the passive processor heatsink via a cowling - impressively quiet for a high-end Pentium 4 system. The drive bays and PCI cards are tool-less, although cards must all be manually held in place while re-attaching the PCI card holder.

The review system came with the Audigy 2 positioned next to the PCI Express graphics slot, with the subsequent overheating causing our 3D benchmarks to crash repeatedly until it was moved. The scores of 77.4 and 62.8fps in Halo and Unreal Tournament 2004 respectively are ample though, with a decent showing of 58.1fps in Far Cry at 1,600 x 1,200. The application benchmark score of 2.18 is more disappointing, particularly as cheaper systems in this month's Labs, such as the Watford Aries Performa 9047 scored higher.

In terms of expansion, the 1GB stick of PC4200 RAM still leaves two sockets free, and the twin Western Digital Caviar hard disks, configured in a RAID0 array, give an impressive 320GB of storage. Future-proofing is provided with the LG dual-layer DVD writer - just be aware of the single free PCI Express slot.

This isn't a bad system and is unlikely to disappoint, although we still have concerns about overheating while gaming. Ultimately though, with the impressive line-up in our Labs this month, the 8400 is left overshadowed.