Product Reviews

Dell may be the biggest seller of PC desktop systems in the world, but it's not a name you'd generally associate with new innovations. The company has altered this perception with its Dimension 5000, though, which is the first complete PC we've seen to use the new BTX form factor (see the box, right, for more information).

BTX helps make cooling a PC quieter and more efficient. This means the Dimension 5000 has a slightly different layout than we're used to. The front of the case has a small, hollowed-out section, which helps the thermal unit draw more air through the case. Only the power supply, thermal unit and nVidia GeForce 6800 have fans, so the Dimension 5000 is noticeably quieter than standard ATX PCs.

Excepting the chassis' clever design, the components are pretty standard fare. That's not to say they aren't impressive: the

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3.4GHz Pentium processor and 1GB of RAM produce some very impressive benchmark results. Intel chips are particularly capable in multimedia tasks and the Dell scored a fantastic 134 in our video-encoding test. Gaming performance is not quite as awesome, though all but the most hardcore gamers will be satisfied with the 48.4 frame rate in Doom3.

All that gaming power will not be wasted on the 19" LCD Dell-branded monitor. The image quality is more than satisfactory, with colour and greyscale tests displayed smoothly. It doesn't produce particularly bright colours, but that is a comparatively minor point. Build quality is up to the high standard of the BTX case and the monitor has a gas lift, pivot and swivel base along with a two-port USB2 hub.

Peripherals are matched to the system, with a slimline keyboard and wired mouse, although neither are anything special. The attractive 5.1 speaker system has a horizontal centre speaker that will fit easily below the monitor. The quality of the speakers is on a par with similar offerings from Creative; they are capable of a full tonal range with help from the sub-woofer.

This is a powerful and desirable system from Dell. The BTX case and matched peripherals will look great on your desktop and the performance keeps up with appearances. The only downside is Dell's standard one-year collect and return warranty, which doesn't compete with many suppliers' onsite warranties.