Dell Dimension E520

...perfectly good 17" flat panel Dell monitor from my old PC. What does that matter? The E520 was one of only 2 PCs I could find that allowed me to make my purchase minus a monitor. I was rather annoyed at being forced to fork out for a mouse and keyboard I didn't want or need though! But whilst that was my main reason for opting for the E520; I think I may well have made this purchase with a monitor if I had needed one too.

What ...
...extras - you can call Dell directly and they'll help you to make the right decisions for your needs. I've had no experience with making an order over the telephone as I made mine online but I'd be a bit apprehensive about simply ringing up and taking a telesales operative's word for what I genuinely need to spend my money on. I imagine it might be worth making a call, seeing what they advise, then ringing back after consulting a few friends or PC ... more

Let's get one thing straight from the off; I'm not a technical expert and I can't tell you the ins and outs of the technical aspects of this PC in any great detail. But what I can and will tell you all about is my experience using this PC and how well it's been able to satisfy my needs so far.

Firstly, let's talk about why I chose this particular PC. Well I have to be honest, I chose the E520 mainly because I already have a perfectly good 17" flat panel Dell monitor from my old PC. What does that matter? The E520 was one of only 2 PCs I could find that allowed me to make my purchase minus a monitor. I was rather annoyed at being forced to fork out for a mouse and keyboard I didn't want or need though! But whilst that was my main reason for opting for the E520; I think I may well have made this purchase with a monitor if I had needed one too.

What attracted me to the Dell site in the first place (besides the memorable television advertisements) was the ability to choose my own product specifics from the comfort of my own home with the internet open in another window to guide me in making my choices. Now this really is a must for all intermediate and expert computers. Personally I'd describe myself as an intermediate user in that I can make full use of a variety of software and internet features as well as managing my files and tending to my hard drive but I often struggle with understanding exactly how specific pieces of technology work and what purpose some of the various components serve. That aside though, if you know what your needs are and don't want to waste time trawling PC magazines and internet review sites to decide which component upgrades are essential for your needs and which are unnecessary extras - you can call Dell directly and they'll help you to make the right decisions for your needs. I've had no experience with making an order over the telephone as I made mine online but I'd be a bit apprehensive about simply ringing up and taking a telesales operative's word for what I genuinely need to spend my money on. I imagine it might be worth making a call, seeing what they advise, then ringing back after consulting a few friends or PC magazines to make your purchase if you're a total novice.

The price for this PC starts at just £289.99 including VAT and Shipping! Pretty amazing for a brand new PC huh? But be aware that in order to get this computer up to standard you'll probably want to spend another couple of hundred pounds. It still makes this a very reasonable purchase though. Let me take you through the order process and explain my decisions along the way to help you get a clearer idea of what this computer has to offer and the results I've had from it:

OPERATING SYSTEM

When you begin your "build" you'll see your choices of operating system firstly. Unfortunately the choices are Vista, Vista or Vista I'm afraid to say. You can have Home Basic which is included in the original price, Home Premium which is £17.63 extra or Ultimate for £111.63. The information on screen when you hover your mouse over the three options will tell you what features each operating system has to offer. Home Basic is just that - a basic version of this operating system that's said to offer you the ability to "manage information easily" and has "advanced security features". Home Premium offers both of those plus a "media centre" and an "enhanced interface" (whatever one of those is) and Ultimate offers all four of those plus "simple network connectivity". Personally I had already resigned myself to disliking Vista before I'd even tried it so I stuck with the Home Basic. A big thumbs up on the Anytime Upgrade disc that came with my new PC though. If at any time I wish to upgrade to Home Premium or Ultimate I already have the software disc and would just need to make an online purchase to activate it so that's pretty handy. If you're unsure about whether or not you need something more than basic then you can easily try it out and upgrade at home if it's not what you need or want at any time or if your needs change at a later date. You can't downgrade and get a refund though!

SUPPORT SERVICES

Next along the line is support services where you can choose one of six support service options. Included in the price is one year collect and return warranty which I think's pretty good for under £300 but they automatically select a 3yr service in the hope you'll be swayed to pay out a bit more! You can pay £94 for 2yrs basic at home service, £141 for 3yrs basic at home service, £164.50 for 4yrs basic at home service, £188 for 3yrs standard at home service or £211.50 for their premium 3yrs at home package. With the basic 1yr collect and return service you're basically looking at only getting any help if the components fail you through a technical fault. This is the option I went for simply because I don't see the need to protect such a cheap system for the prices they're charging. The 2yr, 3yr and 4yr basic at home services offer online and telephone support plus a 30 day digital camera and camcorder training course including editing etc. I'm sorry but even with my limited technical knowledge I know I shouldn't have any need to pay out £94 to learn how to use a digital camera. That's what the instruction leaflet that comes with them is for. Basically, the basic cover seems to simply be an opportunity to extend your basic warranty beyond a year with a couple of useless sparkly bits thrown in. The standard 3yr cover is something you might want to consider though. Yes this is a cheap PC and as such, £188 is an awful lot to pay out as an extra but the 3yr standard cover includes protection for accidental damage including spills. So if you're looking to buy a family PC and have clumsy kids you might need protecting against Custard Creams in the CDR Drive... The Premium package offers as before plus coverage for theft. Personally I think it would be cheaper to add the PC to your home contents insurance but hey, your PC your choice!

SOFTWARE SERVICES

Okay, I'm a little taken aback by this one. I only ordered my new PC eleven days ago and they've changed part of the ordering process already! Just as well I decided to open another window and run through the process as I write huh? When I placed my order, I had the option here of having Microsoft Works included in the price, buying Microsoft Works Suite 2006 for an extra £45 or upgrading to Microsoft Office for £105. I actually wanted Office because I regularly use both Excel and Word but I just couldn't justify spending that amount of money. So instead I opted for the Works Suite here as that includes Word as well as five other applications including a calculator said to be similar to Excel. I won't say much more on that though because the option's no longer there! In it's place you're quite simply asked if you'd like to pay a £78.99 annual subscription fee for a 24/7 online and phone support service called "Presto". My opinion? Like hell am I paying £80 a year when I can Google for free. Your computer, your choice though... Some people would rather pay for the convenience and I hold my hands to being a cheapskate. This is why I bought the E520 though and if it's value for money you want then these kinds of extras are money you could better spend elsewhere.

MONITOR

Now it's best noted that the £278.99 starting price includes NO MONITOR so if you don't have one already then you should take this into account when shopping around. The cheapest monitor available is their value flat panel 15" for £129.24. Not a terrible price but not the most competitive I've seen for a 15" flat panel. It's worth noting here that if you do already own a monitor you should look into whether or not it's compatible because I've heard that you can't mix certain Dell components with other brands. I already had a Dell so I was sorted. The other options available are the 17" value flat panel monitor for £152.74, the 17" Ultrasharp for £182.11, the 19" value flat panel for £176.24 or the 19" Ultrasharp for £223.24. My monitor is a 17" value flat panel as I said before and I have no qualms with this one. I guess if you're a real stickler for graphics you might benefit from an Ultrasharp but I really can't see it making too much difference.

MEMORY

On offer for memory we have 512mb included in the price or you can upgrade; 1024mb is £47, 2048mb is £141 and 4096mb is £364.25. Now I made a mistake on this one and one I regret making. I thought I'd opted for 1024mb and didn't check my order properly despite being able to review my order at the end of my build before submitting my order. Instead I came away with the basic 512mb which may cause problems for me in the future. At the moment though, the system is running okay despite the low memory capacity. Basically what we're talking about here (for those of you who're unsure) is how much your PC can cope with. If you want to be able to download a gazillion games, music files, movies etc then you need to upgrade on this one. If you just want the PC to surf the net and use a word processor then the included 512mb of memory will probably be sufficient. However, that's only if you stick with the basic Vista Operating System because the upgrades for it are apparently very resource hungry and use a lot of memory to run properly.

I personally wish I'd gone for 1024mb because I like to multitask but that said, I've had up to seven windows open at a time on here including several internet explorers, a couple of Words, notepad and calculator and my system's run just fine. In case you're wondering - I'm researching my family history! I do think things could have been faster with a memory upgrade but I can't say 512mb has been overly slow. The main problem has been that my McAfee 8.0 antivirus security has been unable to run and I think that's largely down to insufficient memory. I've actually had to switch off the phishing protection it slowed things down so much so for that reason alone I wish I'd made an upgrade. Think carefully about your needs and how much you're going to use your computer before you choose your option here. There's no quick fix solution if you don't buy a PC with enough memory although additional or replacement hard drives are available for a price and inconvenience.

HARD DRIVE

Here we have the option for 80gb included in the price, 160gb for £17.62, 250gb for £52.87 or 320gb for £188.12. I opted for 160gb myself and so far this has worked just fine for me to run the internet, upload 100 photos, save thirty or forty Word documents and install my printer and Works Suite. If you think you'll want to download a lot of music and video files then you'll want a much larger capacity than I've opted for. If you don't think you'll upload / download many photos and probably no music or video files then you could probably get away with 80gb.

If it's a dual hard drive you're after, which personally I don't fully appreciate the benefits of, then you can get 320gb for £117.50, 500gb for £176.25 or 640gb for £270.25. My ex had a storage drive on our old PC and to be honest - we never used it! The only thing we used it for was sharing photos or files between the desktop and laptop but that said, we could have just used photobucket or emailed them to ourselves! I guess if you're looking for a family PC with several users or even looking to share one with a partner this might be of use. It also might come in handy if you store a considerable amount of large video or music files. As regular Ciaoers will know though, there's just me and my baby round our way so I have no need for anything more than 160gb and if I need to store files in the future then I'll either purchase a storage drive or buy a USB memory stick!

OPTICAL DRIVE

Here's your chance to upgrade your CDR drive. I say CDR, I apologise, the basic drive included in the price is actually a 48x CDRW/DVD-ROM combination dual drive. As someone who only uses their drive to install software, burn files onto CDs and listen to the odd CD I saw no need to upgrade on this one. But if you like you can pay £29.38 for a 16x DVD+/-RW drive or £52.58 for 16x DVD+/-RW & 16x DVD Drives. Now my understanding of this is that you need the 16x drive if you're looking at watching / burning DVDs and the twin drives if you want to use two drives simultaneously (ie watch a film or listen to a CD and burn a different file while you're at it). If you think you'll use your PC for DVD orientated activities then I suspect you'll want to make this upgrade. Personally I own a DVD player but there you go.

GRAPHICS CARD

Included in the price is the Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 but I can't see how this is going to be sufficient for anyone. I'm sorry but with Vista having such shockingly intricate graphics and menus for a gazillion different functions and programmes I just don't think any integrated graphics could cope very well. The cheapest upgrade for a separate card is £47 for the 256MB nVidia GeForce 7300 Turbocache graphics card which is a big leap in price but one I think is probably necessary. I won't say you have to upgrade on this one because I have nothing to compare it to - I opted for the nVidia card and don't know how things would work without it. I do know enough about computers to say I'd be sceptical about it though. The third and final option on this one is the 256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro graphics card for £70.50. You might be wondering why is the latter £30 more than the nVidia if they're both 256mb? Well I did a little homework on the net before I made my selection on this one and apparently the nVidia card isn't exactly 256mb. In laymen's terms, the nVidia cards siphons off memory from your PC to function whereas the ATI card is self-sufficient. That's probably the best way to put it. I went for the nVidia despite this sneakiness because the 56mb (or there abouts) that it contributes in it's own right is sufficient for my needs. Despite all the bad reviews on the net, you have to bear in mind most graphic card reviews have been written by die-hard gamers - which I am not! If you are a gamer though, in that you enjoy playing a lot of online or PC games you will probably enjoy the enhanced visuals the ATI has to offer you. If you upgrade your Vista you may well need to upgrade your card too unless you buy a suitable one to being with.

DELL PRINTERS

When you reach this stage, you're on the home stretch so fear not! No printer is included with the E520 but you can opt to include one in your purchase. On offer is the Dell colour inkjet 725 printer for £30.55, the Dell all in one 810 which can print, copy and scan for £59.98, the Dell all in one 926 which is before but more advanced currently available for £69.40 (usually £79.98) or the Dell all in one 946 for £99.87 which allows you to photo print, copy, fax and scan. As far as prices go, these aren't bad prices for printers but I can't comment on how well these printers actually work having an Epson all in one myself. I remember paying around £50 my Epson all in one about six months ago (well, Daddy did) and it works superbly so have a look at a few reviews before you decide on this one.

SOUND CARD

No options here. There's integrated audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability included in the price and that's your lot. I've got no qualms with this one though and in fairness - how much can you expect to build on such a cheap and basic PC?!

SPEAKERS

Choose from no speakers (included in the price), Dell A225 stereo speakers for £5.87, Dell A525 speakers with subwoofer for £23.50, Dell 5650 5.1 surround speaker system for £41.12, Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 speaker system for £81.07, Dell AS501 soundbar for £35.25 or Logitech Z-5400 5.1 for £186.82. I apologise if this sounds OTT but who in their right mind would spend nearly £200 for speakers on a £300 PC? For goodness sakes buy a stereo! I opted for the sensible £5.87 basic speakers here and I've not been disappointed. They're easy to plug in, no installation was required and the sound quality is that which you'd expect from a television. I can understand if you use your PC in place of a stereo and want to upgrade or would like to watch DVDs on it and require surround sound though. Think about what you want to use your PC for here and as a nice little bonus, you can view all the speakers and systems just by hovering your mouse over the options.

KEYBOARD

I object to this bit I'm afraid to say. I don't appreciate being forced to purchase a keyboard and mouse when I have a perfectly good (and expensive) Logitech keyboard and mouse already from the ex's PC. But still, I suppose it's only worth about a fiver so I shouldn't grumble. Included in the price is the basic USB keyboard in black. It plugs in and types. So if you're an amateur or rarely type then it'll probably be sufficient but otherwise I think you want an upgrade here really. It's really a little too cheap and clunky to type on with any real speed. The enhanced USB multimedia keyboard is only £11.75 and much better for typing on. If you hover your mouse over the picture you'll see the keys appear smoother, there are some multimedia controls on offer and there's a built-in wrist rest. For £55.23 you can have the Logitech cordless desktop which includes keyboard, mouse and sensor. I love my Logitech personally but you have to remember that someone else paid out that ridiculous amount of money, not me! I love the way I'm not restricted by wires and how simple and easy it is to set up. I had thought I needed software to work these but on changing PCs I realise that all I had to do was plug my sensor into the PC in place of my mouse and keyboard then click "connect" on the sensor then the keyboard, and repeat with the mouse. That was all I had to do! The keyboard is nice and smooth too which makes avid typers like myself very happy. I tend to type at around 75wpm and I type quite a lot so I really appreciate the smooth experience I get from using the Logitech.

MOUSE

I don't get this one I'm afraid. You can have the free black wheel mouse or the £11.75 scroll optical mouse. If anyone knows what the difference is here aside from the pricey one having silver buttons instead of black then please write into the usual address. The third option is to deduct £5.88 if purchasing the Logitech wireless option in the previous stage. Unfortunately, like the keyboard, you HAVE to purchase a mouse with this computer which I think is an absolute cheek. A lot of people have a mouse or keyboard floating around their house somewhere and like me don't want to fork out for new ones. Still, I guess they have to try it on somewhere.

FLOPPY/MEDIA DRIVES

No floppy drive is included in the price. Most modern PC users will appreciate that this is standard as most of us no longer use them. You can add a 1.44mb Floppy Drive if you need one for £17.62 which isn't a bad price. Or you can add a 13-in-1 media card reader at this stage for £17.62. Apparently this enables you to "copy your photos to your PC from multiple memory card). I have absolutely no idea what that means. I apologise but in fairness I've done well with the technical aspects so far. What I can say is that I didn't take this upgrade and my PC works just fine. I guess if you need one of these - you'll know what they do!

MODEMS

No modem is included in the price but you can add a Dell v92 Data/Fax Modem for £23.50. I checked this one out before making this selection because I was worried about whether or not I had to have one. The caption underneath the modem option reads "enhance your desktop and connect to the World Wide Web with your modem". Well, could I connect without one? What's all this fancy router and microfilter stuff BT sent me when I signed up for Broadband then? Check what you've got before you add a modem because chances are that like me you don't need one built into your PC. There's one incorporated into my Broadband equipment.

WEBCAM

Tut, they do like to encourage you to bump the price up don't they? Here you can have no webcam as included in the price or you can purchase the Logitech Quickcam Pro 5000 for £41.12. Bit disappointing they don't offer more options here but hey, I don't want to strip naked and dance around in front of strange pervy men anyway (what's that you webcam users say? You don't all do what Lesley Grantham did?).

CAMERAS

You can choose to add the Pentax Optio M20 Digital Camera to your order here for £116.32. I've just had a look on Google and you can pick this model up for £90 elsewhere so possibly not worth it.

TV TUNERS

None are included in the price so here you can choose to upgrade to an integrated Analogue TV tuner for £41.12 or an integrated Hybrid (analogue/digital) TV tuner for £105.75. Now in all honesty I see no need for this and don't understand why people do it when you can buy TVs and freeview boxes for less than it would cost to make your PC TV capable but your PC, your choice. This certainly isn't an essential upgrade.

DESKTOP ESSENTIALS

Here you can choose to protect your PC from power surges for £18.80 with a Belkin 8 socket surgemaster or for £16.45 you can have a Belkin 6 socket surgemaster. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems a tad odd that the 6 socket version is more expensive than the 8? Anyway, basically this is something you might not think about if they didn't chuck it into the line-up so here it is. I guess if you live in a stormy area you might want one of these because as the name suggests, they protect the devices plugged in from power surges. Personally, not for me thanks.

WIRELESS NETWORK

The little note at the top of this sections reads "Dell recommends you to confirm with your ISP provider on the type of router you require". In English that means "ring BT and make sure your broadband will work with the one you want". You can have the D-Link AirPlus G DI-524 Wireless Router DSL/Cable for £44.65, the D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G700AP Wireless Access Point for £44.65, the Belkin F5D7230 Wireless Router DSL/Cable for £45.82, the D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G DSL-624 ADSL Modem/Wireless Router for £65.80 or the Belkin F5D7632 ADSL Modem/Wireless Router for £69.32. Basically you'll need a wireless network router if you're looking to set up a wireless home network but from experience I happen to know that this is something you can do cheaply and easily at a later date if you don't want to fork out now. I would agree with Dell that you need to speak to your provider if you're not confident on this one.

ORDERING AND DELIVERY OF MY PC

Well as I've explained above, if you order online you go through the various options and make your selections to suit your individual requirements. Then when you're satisfied with your order you can go ahead and submit it and make a payment online. My order was slightly different to the above because they've gone and changed the options just eleven days after I made my purchase so deducting the McAfee security centre and Microsoft Works Suite my customised E520 came to about £375 which is a pretty good price considering what I got for my money. I think that what I paid was about the minimum you could get a decent PC for but if you're looking for absolute bottom of the range then you could always pay the £278.99 start price without any upgrades or additional features.

Having made my payment I received on screen confirmation quickly followed up by an email. Then, just two days later I got a phone call from Dell asking me to arrange a delivery day with them. They were great on this score because they not only phoned me but also offered me a choice of days and times. Unlike some stores you could choose a morning or afternoon slot and pick a day to suit you. This was a Thursday when they called and as I work all day Friday plus Monday afternoon I was able to pick an 8am to 12pm Monday slot. And it showed up when it was supposed to as well!

SETTING UP AND USING MY NEW PC

This couldn't have been easier. In the box that arrived promptly at my chosen delivery time was a stylish silver and black computer, the keyboard and mouse, a few discs and leaflets including the Anytime Upgrade and a quick start instruction page that allowed me to set up my computer without having to trawl through a tedious instruction manual. In fairness though, I didn't really need any instructions and most people who've set up a PC in the past won't need any either. You simply plug in your computer, connect your monitor and plug that in too, plug your mouse and keyboard (or Logitech sensor) to the back of the PC and you're ready to boot up.

It took a couple of minutes to boot up the first time and I was greeted by a prompt asking me if I wanted to set up a password. I decided I did so that if anyone ever nicks my PC they won't get very far very fast (why make things easy?) and that took a matter of seconds to do. I was then pleased to find my internet was simply a case of plug it in and get going too. I've got a Voyager 220 wired router (I do have a home hub actually but can't be bothered to install it) and having put the original disc in the drive expecting to have to go through the long and tedious set-up as I did previously I was surprised to find that Vista pretty much establish my net connection immediately. Well, I guess Vista has it's advantages! And whilst the operating system is a big part of a PC, you have to allow some credit for the components that go into the running and speed behind it.

The only thing that annoyed me about my new E520 was how many useless applications they'd filled my computer with before I'd even begun. I don't want an internet explorer with a Dell tab annoying me at the top of my screen thank you. I had to go to Google and download their version of internet explorer then delete the Dell one to solve that annoyance. I also found that they'd added a few things like Tiscali and Orange internet which I also didn't want on my PC. That said, it's easier to delete what you don't want than install what you do so I guess it'll make some people's life easier. I was pleased to find they'd already installed my Works Suite which is fantastic. All I had to do was insert one disc once as a kind of verification process that took all of five seconds and away I went. I also found they'd already installed Adobe Reader which is helpful.

As far as my chosen specs go; the only problem I've had is as I said before - running the security package. I note that this option is no longer offered as part of the order process but whether you buy your protection with your PC or on it's own you'll need something, even if it's just one of the free applications that you download off the net. I had assumed that the McAfee centre would simply run in the background but my computer just doesn't seem capable of allowing this to happen. Every time I booted up the internet I found the pages took a painfully long time to load until I disabled the internet protection. Perhaps this is more down to McAfee than my E520 but I'd be more inclined to suggest it's a mixture of both. I don't think the specs of this computer are high enough to run three such gannet applications as Internet Explorer, Vista and McAfee simultaneously without problems. With the McAfee internet protection disabled however I'm not having problems with multi-tasking and running several applications at once. That is of course until my hard drive starts to get cluttered with photos and files... All in all I'm happy that I got what I paid for and am finding this PC very suitable for my personal needs. Well it would be having built it myself! I just wish I'd gone for that memory upgrade but hey, that's my own fault.

CONCLUSION

If you're on a budget and looking for a new PC like I was this time two weeks ago then this is probably the best PC for you. The E520 is very basic to begin with but like I did, you can add components to get it up to the specifications that suit your individual needs. The biggest advantage of that is there's no-one having already decided that if someone tends to use their PC for that, they'll automatically want this too (when you might not want their "this"). Delivery and customer service get top marks from me on this one as an internet customer.

For further details visit the Dell website at www.dell.co.uk
You can contact General Sales Enquiries on 0870 907 5818 if you have any questions between 8am and 9pm Monday - Friday, 9am - 6pm on Saturday or 10am - 5pm on Sunday.
 

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