Last week at the E3 Show in Los Angeles, Best Magazine received an invitation to witness a sneak preview of Dell’s newest machines. Wednesday afternoon, two Best Magazine writers went to a small conference room away from all the noise of the latest videogames on display at the show and met with Liem Nguyen (media guru) and Nathan South (proud product manager) from Dell. After swearing us to secrecy, we were given a chance to see the latest and greatest products on the way from Dell. They were officially unveiled on May 26th, and we can now give you a report.
The new Dell Dimension 9100 is a redesigned premium desktop computer that is capable of supporting high-end performance multimedia technologies so that you can more easily manage your digital content and information. After the launch of its first XPS machine, Dell saw a huge market for high performance machines and now, many of today’s everyday programs (which have become increasingly bloated) can truly benefit from a computer with more horsepower. More importantly, with the proliferation of digital photography, video recording, digital audio, and the demanding needs of the latest videogames, horsepower is no longer just recommended, it’s required, and the new Dimension 9100 is loaded!
The Dimension 9100 is also the first of Dell’s next-generation desktops offered in stylish colors (alpine white and arctic silver) to complement your room and blend in nicely with other Dell products you might have.
The top of the line is the new Dell Dimension XPS Gen 5 desktop. To my knowledge, Dell is the first major vendor to ship 500-GB Serial ATA 2 hard drives and you can now order them for the new XPS Gen 5. The XPS series was custom designed from a clean sheet of paper for high performance gamers and multimedia enthusiasts. With these new mega-hard drives in place, the XPS can store hundreds of thousands of digital music files and photos or hundreds of hours of video.
One of the coolest (literally) advances on the new XPS series was solving its noise problem. Generally, powerful computers need a lot of cooling and that means fan noise. Older XPS machines were suffered from this. The problem has now been addressed: Dell combines its latest QuietCase technology and industry standard “Balanced Technology Extended” design to deliver a quieter and cooler system than the previous models, while helping to improve the machine’s reliability. We were told that Dell plans to incorporate this innovative design in future consumer desktops.
The fifth-generation Dimension XPS continues to be an industry leader in delivering the latest technologies to customers. It can support up to three SATA 2 drives to deliver faster access to information, photos, music, videos, and games. You can also specify Intel Pentium D 8xx and Pentium 4 6xx processors and an integrated media card reader.
Those Dimension 9100’s that are ordered with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 OS, also offer expandability, high performance, and an affordable price making them the ideal multimedia hub for small businesses or managing your digital home networks. Its Intel dual-core technology chips can save time by running multiple programs simultaneously without experiencing performance degradation. The 9100’s front panel is designed for easy access to ample USB 2.0 ports, an IEEE 1394 port and 9-in-1 media card reader to help you quickly transfer digital photos, music and video from devices such as digital cameras, camcorders or handhelds.
For the technically inclined, additional specifications include:
- Intel 945P Express chipset with integrated Intel XD antivirus protection
- Pentium 4 6xx single-core and Pentium D 8xx dual-core processors
- Up to 4GB DDR2 memory
- Six expansion slots: (1) PCIe x16, (1) PCIe x4, (1) PCIe x1 and (3) PCI
- Integrated 7.1 audio support and 10/100 network controller
- Easy open chassis for increased reliability and serviceability
- Microsoft Windows XP Home, Professional or Media Center Edition 2005
Dell Support After The Sale
These new Dimension systems all ship with Dell’s new automated update, upgrade and remote notification application, called Dell Support 3.0. This free, Dell service enables real-time health scans of your PCs, peripherals and network devices, proactive alerts, automated “fixes”, software updates, and relevant self-support information all designed to help keep your machine in optimal working order. With Support 3.0, Dell can identify known errors, such as incompatible device drivers, and either automatically fix them for you or offer a solution—even before you realize there is a problem. As usual, Dell offers fair pricing, especially when compared to the finicky “custom-made” machines of similar speed from smaller companies. How do they do it? Volume.
The Dimension 9100 starts at $1,299 and the Dimension XPS starts at $2,099. If you want more information, go to www.dell.com/dimension and www.dell.com/xps.
More shots from E3:
John Lentz Jr.
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