Dell WorkStation 400 review

Dell's WorkStation 400 is a machine for users wanting that little bit more from their PC. For example, if a 300MHz Pentium II system configured with 64Mb of memory doesn't float your boat, then perhaps the WorkStation's twin 300MHz Pentium II processors and 128Mb of EDO RAM will. I certainly hope so, because if they don't you might be obliged to leave the wonderful world of Wintel and face up to something altogether more exotic - and certainly more expensive - than a PC.

Despite being fairly exotic itself, at least internally, the Dell doesn't look like the monster it basically is. In fact, the standard-size desktop case with its smooth, overhung fascia is pleasantly understated. It comes with the normal full-sized Dell keyboard, which is a solid affair with a crisply positive action. It's comfortable but a bit noisy. You also get a Microsoft mouse.

The real treat in terms of peripherals is the monitor. Dell supplies the WorkStation with a variety of displays, but this one came with an NEC-manufactured 14.1in TFT unit, capable of 1,024 « 768 resolution in full 24-bit colour. The image was as bright as that delivered by a conventional monitor, and was delivered with an almost brutal clarity which even made an adjacent, good-quality 17in Diamondtron display look fuzzy. The monitor's power supply is integrated into the pedestal, so there's no 'brick' to deal with, and it succeeds completely in delivering at least as readable an XGA desktop as a 17in CRT, but from a vastly more compact package. For most of us, TFT is prohibitively expensive, but it certainly does the job. For a full review of this monitor under its NEC brand name, see page 172.

Although there's a 16-bit Crystal Audio sound chip integrated on to the motherboard, the review sample wasn't supplied with speakers, but Dell will of course supply them if you ask.

As well as built-in audio, the motherboard also boasts USB ports and a 3Com 10/100 Fast Ethernet adaptor, along with the usual two serial and one parallel port, so you're well supplied with connections. This is no bad thing - particularly as there isn't a vast amount of room for additional cards in the system.

The slots are on a riser board, which is home to an Adaptec Ultra Wide SCSI controller that handles the 12/24-speed NEC CD-ROM and the 4Gb Seagate Barracuda hard disk. The riser also houses an 8Mb Matrox Millennium II graphics card, leaving three PCI slots and one ISA slot available. As is often the case, there's a shared backplate cutout between the two types, so if you add an ISA board you'll be down to two PCIs. This should do, since all slots are unobstructed, but it's still not a lot.

There are a couple of slightly puzzling things about this machine, the first being the choice of a 440FX chipset with PCI graphics - rather than 440LX and AGP - for such a powerful, graphics-friendly system. The second puzzler is the size of the hard disk - 4Gb is hardly small, but again, for a machine as highly specified as this, you might have expected a larger capacity drive.

If 4Gb isn't enough you can either ask Dell to fit a bigger disk instead of this one, or add another drive to the single internal 3.5in bay provided for that purpose. If you want to add anything else you'll need to think carefully about what to choose as there's only one other free bay, albeit a useful front-opening 5.25in.

The innards of the machine are crowded, what with the cards coming horizontally off the riser board and the large, blue shroud covering the two processor modules and directing the airflow from the cooling fan over their heatsinks. Nevertheless, adding extra memory is no problem, as the power supply hinges up and out of the case revealing four 168-pin DIMM sockets, with the 128Mb of system memory contained on a single module, leaving the other three sockets free.