Dell OptiPlex SX260

Unlike your standard desktop PCs, business desktops usually just offer the bare minimum, which doesn't even include a monitor. After all, why buy a new monitor when you can use the 14in goldfish bowl that's been sat on your desk for the last decade? Nobody expects businesses to throw away money unnecessarily, but Dell is setting a precedent by selling only the OptiPlex SX260 with a monitor - a TFT no less. And that's not all the SX260 has to offer.

It's a completely new design, which looks more like a stylish thin client than an average desktop PC. It measures just 85 x 242 x 246mm (W x D x H) when standing up (although you also have to find room for the massive power supply block somewhere) and it can be screwed to the bottom of the desk or even to the back of the monitor with its ingenious mounting options.

With this in mind, you'd expect a lot of compromises on performance and features, but the SX260 is surprisingly well specified. There's a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor, along with 512MB of PC2100 DDR RAM and a 40GB Hitachi hard disk. The latter is only a 2.5in disk, but it runs at 5,400rpm and offers performance comparable to many standard 3.5in hard disks. The overall 2D benchmark score of 1.25 shows that the SX260 is more than fast enough to run office applications.

The rest of the specification is equally impressive, with an 8x DVD-ROM and 24x/10x/24x CD-RW combo drive in the front drive bay, 1Gbit/sec Ethernet and - with the exception of FireWire - the full array of both new and legacy ports. This includes parallel, serial, PS/2 and six USB 2 ports, two of which are front-mounted.

Even more welcome is the flexibility. A small plate on the left slides off to reveal the easily replaceable hard disk, and the optical drive (in the same format as Dell's Inspiron notebooks) pops out by pushing the eject button above it. You can then replace it with the supplied floppy drive module if need be, or perhaps with an upgraded combo drive later. The insides are similarly straightforward to access - slide the switch on the back and slip off the right-hand plate.

However, there's not a lot of point in doing this, as it only provides access to the single free DIMM slot, and you're unlikely to need more than 512MB for a long time yet. Expandability isn't well catered for on small form-factor PCs, and unlike the Watford SpaceCube 2200XP (see pxxx) you can forget amything like PCI cards on the SX260.

Why would you want this on a business PC? Well, you'll need a DVI output to make the most of the DVI-equipped flat-panel, and you're currently restricted to the analog D-SUB with no upgrade potential on the SX260. The monitor is still a pleasure to use on the analog input, though, and offers a bright and sharp picture with great viewing angles and pure colours that aren't over-saturated - significantly better than the alternative from IBM (see opposite).

A three-year, on-site warranty is provided with the SX260 as standard, which offers a next-business-day response time and can be upgraded to a four-hour response for an additional £xxx. It's also good to see Windows XP Professional included as standard, especially when the IBM NetVista S42's default option is still Windows 2000 Professional.

So where's the catch? Well it's mainly with the price, which is unusual for a company as competitive as Dell. Asking for £1,299 for a PC like this is a bit much when the NEC PowerMate ML5 (see Reviews, issue 100, p110) costs just £599, even if you factor in the combo drive and TFT monitor. However, it's great to see Dell producing an innovative design like the OptiPlex SX260, and the compulsory TFT monitor is going to be good news for squinting office workers everywhere. Quote E-value code xxxx to order.

Author: Ben Hardwidge