I bought this PC about 8 months ago now, at the time my old PC died but I needed the internet for online selling and had to buy the cheapest thing I could find at the time, a Dell C521.
For the money the Dell offered double the spec of any other type of PC I could have bought, it came with ... Read review
Installation in matched pairs of modules is required, please order quantity two. Dell ... more
Branded memory offered in the Memory Selector is fully compatible and supported by Dell. Memory offered now may differ in speed from the original system memory but
Postage & Packaging:see site for shipping costs Availability:3-7 days
Installation in matched pairs of modules is required, please order quantity two. Dell ... more
Branded memory offered in the Memory Selector is fully compatible and supported by Dell. Memory offered now may differ in speed from the original system memory but
Postage & Packaging:see site for shipping costs Availability:3-7 days
Advantages: low price, relatively good value for money Disadvantages: looks cheap, no scope for upgrades or home repair
...find at the time, a Dell C521.
For the money the Dell offered double the spec of any other type of PC I could have bought, it came with a reasonable Athlon X2 dual core processor, 1 gig or RAM, 160 gig HDD, built in 3D graphics, DVD RW, Windows Vista and all the other bits you'd expect. Looked like a bargain, looking back I guess it still is though it's not as good as you might think. This may be down to Vista though to be honest. ...i've found it's not quite what I would want from a PC but until I have the money for a better model this will have to do.
For starters the graphics card, an in built N-Videa 6150 LE, isn't as good as it should be. It will do some older games ok but for anything graphically taxing it struggles to cope. Annoyingly the only upgrade options are limited by not only the case size (it is a "half height" small form factor case) but ... more
I bought this PC about 8 months ago now, at the time my old PC died but I needed the internet for online selling and had to buy the cheapest thing I could find at the time, a Dell C521.
For the money the Dell offered double the spec of any other type of PC I could have bought, it came with a reasonable Athlon X2 dual core processor, 1 gig or RAM, 160 gig HDD, built in 3D graphics, DVD RW, Windows Vista and all the other bits you'd expect. Looked like a bargain, looking back I guess it still is though it's not as good as you might think. This may be down to Vista though to be honest.
In the time i've had it though i've found it's not quite what I would want from a PC but until I have the money for a better model this will have to do.
For starters the graphics card, an in built N-Videa 6150 LE, isn't as good as it should be. It will do some older games ok but for anything graphically taxing it struggles to cope. Annoyingly the only upgrade options are limited by not only the case size (it is a "half height" small form factor case) but by the power supply, because the PSU cannot be upgraded the choice of graphics card upgrades are severely limited. Limited to about 3 if I remember rightly though only one of them is safe to use in the long run due to heat problems. Bottom line is don't waste your time with one unless you don't mind playing games over 5 years old. Of course this is all irrelevant if you don't want it for games, it's fine for everything else though DVD playback can suffer some tearing which isn't ideal. Stand alone DVD players are cheap enough anyway so not really a big deal.
RAM - The one I bought came with just 1 gig which isn't really enough when Vista is hogging lots of it. 2 gb at least would be my recommendation. Again though this might not be releveant to many people unless you want it for games, for general use it's more than enough.
Storage - Mine came with 160gb which these days is nowehere near enough for the full PC experience, that said though it's enough for a casual user who might play a few games or download the odd DVD or album. External drives are cheap enough anyway and recommended for backup so again it's not that big an issue.
Processor - Nothing to write home about, mine came with AMD Athlon X2 dual core, only runs at about 1.9ghz which is poor but it's good for multitasking.
Reliability wise it's had it's moments, a couple of times it's failed to boot properly and the drive is getting gradually louder in it's operation. It takes longer to boot up though this could be attributed to the growing list of programmes I have installed.
Appearance - Hide the tower out the way, the white side panels shout out "cheap and mass produced", which of course they are. The plastic front is made of very cheap plastic sprayed in silver glittery paint.
Overall for the money it's not bad, you get what you pay for generally and this is no exception. If you are looking for a no frills PC it's a good buy, but beware these are designed to be bought by people who just replace their computers every 2 years. There is practically no room to future proof, can only assume they expect people to just throw them out when they stop working after warentee.
If you want something for games made in the last few years then carry on looking.
Dan205 06.01.2008 (06.01.2008)
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Review of Dell Dimension C521
Speed
Reliability
Memory / capacity
Range of Extra Features
Design
Manufacturer Support
Instruction manual
Ease of use
Value For Money
Quick review of Dell Dimension C521
I recently purchased one from Walmart for $499 plus tax and find it superior to any other I have owned. It came with Vista already installed which has caused some problems like not having support for older HP scanner and Lexmark printer. Downloaded drivers from internet and now both are working fine. For the price you cannot go wrong. ...
Dewbydude 02.08.2007
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dell Dimension C521
Advantages: Good Specs, Good vaule Disadvantages: Small Size means you can't upgrade as much
Introduction
The Dell Dimension which Retails for around £279.99 when i brought it is a Dual Core Computer with 1GB RAM & Windows Vista Home Premium. The Computer is in a Low profile case which restricts the upgrades as there are only a few Low Profile upgrades.
Processor Power
The Dell Demension C521 Comes with the AMD Athlon 64X2 4000+ which is Clocked at 2.0Ghz but as of the dual Core it can reach speeds of up to 4.0Ghz.. Ram
The Dell Demension ... ...Other The Dell Demension Uses a Powerfull 250GB Serial ATA Harddrive and DVD-RW with a Memory Card reader which can take up to 16 Memory Cards.
Good Points The Good Points is the Size of the Machine but this is ideal if you have no room or a small space. The Other Good points are is that it comes with Built in Graphics which are 128MB. Bad Points
The bad points are again the Size. The problem with the Size of the Machine is that it is very hard ...
k800ifan07 06.05.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dell Dimension C521
Advantages: Performance and Reliability Low Noise Disadvantages: Upgrade restrictions
This is a excellent PC I have brought 7 of these and have made very good use of these as working machines in my office.
I got these upgraded at the time to Dual Core 3800 With 1GB Ram
With Linux aside it came with Windows Vista and perfomace is excellent.
It used the New SATA Connections for the CD/RW Or DVDRW Not very much room for upgrade you can add a PCI Express Graphics Card with a low profile back plate
The system is very reliable and does ...
stiffy249 24.11.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dell Dimension C521
Advantages: Speed, upgradabilty, customer support and aftercare Disadvantages: Online only, cant get printer ink from anyone except Dell
...got a call from the Dell sales team to congratulate me and ask me a few question regarding my order. After I had received it I had some minor issues with installing products, after a quick email to Dell I was live chatting with a member of their service team who talked me through every step I needed to take, when the machine needed to be restarted he kindly phoned me to make sure everything was working fine, a top job. I would highly recommend this ... ...upgradeable and should sort most people out until the next major PC invention. The only real downfalls are that Dell are on line only and you cant buy printer ink from anyone else but Dell, its a costly thing! Overall a very stylish machine that looks good in all homes ...
nicky.mattsson 14.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dell Dimension C521
Advantages: Cheap and easy Disadvantages: slimline case is hard for modification.
The Dell C521 is a very compact desktop computer, but very powerful at the same time: Things i like about the Dell Dimension C521: - It has a very small case and it's easily fitted into anywere - it has sd card converters in the front which is very handy now a days - it has a good number of USB ports (6) - easily accessible hard drive, disk drive and RAM cards. - good number of RAM card slots. - when bought from dell can be modified to anyones standards ... ...can be improved: - The Dell Dimension C521 has a built in Graphics card that can cause may problems for people who want to modify it. - as the case is a slim line one it can only fit slimline graphics card holders in there which can cost people a good amount more when changing graphics cards. - the USP (un-interrupted power supply) has only a small output of electricity for each component. which can be a pain when choosing new components to put into ...
hazzyb 06.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dell Dimension C521
