Dell Inspiron E7400 Review

The Geek — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:40:00 +0000

In recent years Dell has emerged as the king of the personal computer realm. Walk into any home or business and quite often you will see at least something made by Dell. However, having a popular brand and a large presence in the market, should not be the sole deciding factor when looking to purchase a new computer. Lets take a look at one of Dell’s newer home computing systems, the Inspiron E7400 and see if it lives up to the branding that Dell has garnered over the past few years.

Coming in with a decent set of stats, the E7400 offers a package that is more than capable of day to day home computing. Activities such as web surfing, word processing, watching videos should not be a problem for this computer what so ever. The E7400 comes with a very capable optical drive, capable of burning CD’s and DVD’s right off the bat, with the included Roxio 10 burning software. Built into the front of the computer the E7400 comes with the increasingly common set of card readers that work with the majority of camera memory cards on the market. Light gaming should not be a problem as well, this would include basic windows games of course, as well as puzzle type games such as Jewel Quest. The graphics card however is a little on the lower end in terms of power, so I would recommend upgrading it if you want to play any more advanced 3D games, I am not saying they would not work, just that they would tax the computer’s resources.

With a price point of approximately 650 dollars, the E7400 falls into the budget computing range. Now, being a budget PC is not necessarily a bad thing. Being a budget PC in the current market means what you trade for in a good price is most often longevity. The old mantra, you get what you pay for, comes to mind, and unfortunately is true when it comes to modern computers. While it can vary greatly from computer to computer, as well as how well you maintain it, but the bottom line is, a budget computer just does not have the staying power as some of its higher end counterparts. Grabbing an extended warranty however, can often help mitigate this and while adding a little on top of the price tag, can still often come in less expensive than a more expensive computer.

The E7400 offers up decent stats, with a fairly decent price, however, for not too much more, there are other computers, such as HP’s Pavilion a6750y, which for less than a hundred dollars more offers much more in terms of computer power. Unless you really need to pinch pennies, find this on a sale or as part of a monitor/printer/computer deal, I would keep looking for a computer that gives you more bang for your buck. Even if you need to pinch pennies there are better budget brands such as eMachines that will offer similar staying power without paying for that Dell logo on the front.

Specifications

HP Pavilion Slimline s3700y Review

The Geek — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:12:53 +0000

The HP Slimline class of desktops offer mid range quality computing for a low end price, creating the perfect product for home users that want more than just casual surfing and e-mail capabilities but do not want, or do not need the higher cost of a full sized desktop. The Slimline offers up decent specs and a small form factor making it easy to place in even the most cluttered of work areas. Despite its small size though, it packs a lot of punch making it an ideal workstation for a cost conscious consumer.

In terms of specifications, the Slimline s3700y, offers up a duel core AMD Athlon processor operating at 2.6 GHz, which offers smooth operating experience even when running multiple programs. It also comes with 3GB or RAM, and a 360GB Hard Drive, making sure that you will be able to run and install plenty of new programs on the market today, from word processing programs, chat programs, as well as DVD players. These specs make this desktop a great choice for people who want to be able to multitask while working on different multimedia projects.

The graphics card in the Slimline is a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE, which is a mid level graphics card. It is built into the motherboard of the computer, yet still has its own separate processor, making it a hybrid graphics card not quite as capable as a stand alone addition, but still more capable than your average built in graphics processor. This graphics card is more than capable to play older computer games, as well as new ones so long as the settings are turned down.

This PC also offers up some very nice media center features. First and foremost it comes with Vista Home Premium. Home Premium, offers all the new features of Windows Vista such as enhanced desktop search and built in security, but it also offers up the Media Center bundle, which allows your computer to act as the true center of your home entertainment network. In addition to that, the Slimline also comes with a Light Scribe enabled DVD burner, allowing you to not only burn content to CDs and DVDs, but to etch in a label to the top of your disc creating a neat professional look to your media. There is also a built in multi media card reader, allowing you to transfer photos and video directly from your camera or any device that uses a removable media card. Finally, the Slimline also offers up the capability to run a 6 speaker configuration directly from the computer, making a nice addition to any home entertainment system.

The Slimline s3700y comes with a 1 year manufacturers warranty protecting from any defects. Many other retailers also offer warranty protection plans covering protection from other amount of wear and tear such as dust build up, however, you can usually forgo these extra protections so long as you apply the occasional amount of preventative maintenance.

The specifications of this computer, combined with its small easy to place size, as well as its low cost compared to similar but larger counterparts, makes this an excellent choice both for people needing to spend a little less, and those that want quality and affordability wrapped into one package.

Specifications

1 Year Warranty
AMD Athlon X2 2.6GHz Processor
3GB DDR2 System Memory (RAM)
320 Gigabyte Serial ATA Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE Graphics Card (On board)
6 Speaker Capable Sound Card (On board)
56 Kbps Modem (PCI Card)
10/100 Network Interface (On board)
Duel Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW
Multimedia Card Reader
1 PCI-E x 16
1 PCI-E x 1 (Modem comes in this expansion slot)
6 USB 2 Front 4 Back
HP Multimedia Keyboard
HP Mouse
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1

Geek Junk » Personal computer

Dell Inspiron E7400 Review

HP Pavilion Slimline s3700y Review