Dell Dimension XPS T550

If you read the review of Dell's Dimension XPS T500 (see issue 54, p145), what follows won't hold too many surprises. The new XPS T550 has a lot in common with the T500, bar its faster processor, larger hard disk and the replacement of the T500's Trinitron monitor with an FST model. Nevertheless, if you want a machine that combines excellent performance with a strong entertainment slant in hardware for a sensible price, not to mention the satisfaction of having a machine 50MHz faster than those who bought two months ago, you should read on.

Something that hasn't altered is the case, which is still the standard plastic-on-metal Dell midi-tower. This is a relatively compact box. The fascia is bland rather than ugly, and it's also a quiet unit.

The keyboard is the usual narrow-bordered Dell with its rattly, slightly gritty action. The mouse has changed from the usual multibuttoned Logitech type to a normal Microsoft IntelliMouse that will be slightly easier for left-handed users to get to grips with.

The T550 costs the same as the older T500, but the only concession to cost management in the new system seems to be the 19in FST monitor, which is less expensive than the T500's Trinitron version. It's none the worse for this, as the screen has a bright, crisply focused image at 1,024 x 768 resolution, which it handles at a visually stable 85Hz vertical refresh rate. It copes reasonably well with 1,152 x 864 but, personally, I wouldn't push it any higher, and this holds true for most 19in monitors.

The first TNT2 and Voodoo3 graphics cards are beginning to appear in review machines, but the Dimension was supplied with a Diamond Viper V550 card based on the original nVIDIA Riva TNT 2D/3D accelerator. This may change, and Dell is saying that by the time you read this the standard amount of memory on the card will double from 16Mb to 32Mb without any cost increase.

You get a choice of sound cards: either a Turtle Beach Montego II or the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! 256 Value fitted to the review model. Both cards feature hardware wavetable and 3D spatialisation, but the Dimension also has an S/PDIF digital audio output on the back of its Quadrant CineMaster 3 DVD decoder card for sending Dolby Digital (AC-3) film soundtracks to the speakers.

The five-piece set of Altec Lansing ADA 880s has a big subwoofer and four satellites that can be set up individually or clicked together to make a pair of units with side-firing top baffles. The whole lot comes with a remote to make tweaking the balance and surround effects as easy as possible. The internal circuitry switches automatically between standard analog stereo, analog Dolby Pro Logic surround and AC-3 digital surround inputs, decoding the latter reasonably convincingly despite lacking a dedicated centre-front speaker for dialog. Home cinema enthusiasts may already own more complete AC-3 setups, but gamers should be more than happy with the Altecs.

There's a lot in this machine - you get a US Robotics V.90 voice/fax modem in addition to the DVD decoder, the graphics card and the sound card, which leaves you with a choice of either two further PCI cards or one PCI and one ISA. The same is true of the drives: there's a 7,200 rpm IBM Janus UltraDMA hard disk with a huge 22Gb capacity, a 250Mb Iomega Zip drive, and a 4.8-speed Toshiba DVD-ROM. If you do want more, there are two 3.5in bays (one internal) and one external 5.25in slot free.

On top of this you get 128Mb of RAM on a single module as standard, leaving two more sockets free. Again, this ought to provide enough headroom for the lifetime of the machine.