Labs

When we asked for future proof PCs that only cost £599, it was with some trepidation. It's not unheard of for manufacturers to make their PC future-proof by cramming in every new standard under the sun, but then cut their cost by using puny components. We needn't have worried though - with the Dimension 9150, Dell has put together a system that would be impressive even if it cost a couple of hundred pounds more.

The first thing that struck us as we set up the Dimension were its looks. By the standards of this group test, the Dimension is a supermodel. Sure, most people will want to stow a PC away from tampering little fingers and the critical gaze of a house-proud other half, but we'd be in no rush to hide the Dell under our desk.

Two's company

The cynical would imagine that the Dell's neatly tailored exterior hides a multitude of unforgiveable sins, but they'd be plain wrong. The Dimension 9150 is one of only two systems on test to squeeze a dual-core processor into the modest confines of its £599 budget. While four of the other systems here make do with single-core AMD Athlon 64 processors, Dell has sensibly employed the entry-level Pentium D 820 model. With two processor cores running at a nippy 2.8GHz, the Pentium D 820 is a powerful chip that will happily keep the Dimension 9150 churning through even demanding tasks for years to come. By the time the other PCs here are gagging for a processor upgrade, the Dell will still be cruising along nonchalantly - so you can spend your hard-earned cash on upgrading other components.

It'll be a fair old while before you'll find yourself in desperate need of any serious upgrades, though. The Pentium D processor needs a good chunk of memory if its two processor cores are to work to their full potential and Dell has installed two 512MB sticks of DDR2 RAM. Aided and abetted by 1GB of memory, the Pentium D processor helped the Dell race ahead of its opponents with a mighty score of 121% in our 2D tests. Not only does this make the Dimension a whopping 20% quicker than its nearest AMD-powered rival, but thanks to its extra memory, it even beats the Q Multimedia by LG machine, which has a faster Intel Pentium D 930 dual-core processor - impressive stuff.

The rest of the specification is well up to scratch too, but if we were going to be really picky, we'd have to bemoan the fact that the hard disk is a relatively modest 160GB. Thankfully, there's a free bay ready for another drive when it's needed and the quality LG DVD writer will happily write to the capacious 8.5GB double-layer discs in case you need to backup reams of data.

Seen and not heard

But while we were peeking behind the Dell's natty side panels, we noticed something interesting. The Dimension uses a relatively new type of case layout known as BTX. This offers a different way of distributing the components inside a PC case so that they're easier to keep cool.

A single fan hidden at the front of the Dell sucks air in and thanks to the BTX motherboard layout, uses the airflow

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to whisk hot air away from the processor, memory and the graphics card with one quiet gust. At first glance, you'll be astounded at the huge cooler that squats over the dual-core processor - but don't worry, it's a good thing. A large fan can spin slower than a smaller one and still move the same volume of air and a slow spinning fan is a lot quieter. If it's under your desk, you'll be hard pressed to even hear the Dimension is there.

Easy on the eye

One thing you won't be able to help but admire is the Dell's gorgeous 17in TFT monitor. It's one of Dell's own branded models, namely the catchily named E1761PF. It only has an analogue VGA connector at its rear, rather than the preferable digital DVI socket, but this didn't prevent it from providing sterling picture quality in our tests. Photographs were impressively reproduced with bright vibrant colours and plenty of detail even in really dark parts of the picture. Fast-moving scenes from DVD movies and a spot of Call of Duty 2 was no problem for the Dimension's screen either, as it only showed the slightest evidence of ghosting when things got really hectic. We did notice a hint of graininess when we looked really hard, but this wasn't a serious fault when set against the monitors numerous plus points. The screen also felt substantially more sturdy than the uniformly plasticky models provided with the other PCs in this test.

Game for a laugh

The PC from Q Multimedia by LG was the only other contender that managed to provide a dual-core processor for the money and while it managed to supply a faster 3GHz model, it had to settle for 512MB RAM and onboard graphics. There are no such nasty compromises in the Dimension. The graphics card is a powerful nVidia GeForce 6800 model with 256MB of dedicated memory. The GeForce 6800 is getting a bit long in the tooth, but it's still a great performer. Our Call of Duty 2 benchmark is enough to intimidate even fairly hefty graphics cards and the Dell did well to muscle its way to a score of 49%. That may not sound particularly impressive, but when you consider that our reference card is a GeForce 7800GT that costs over £200 - that's a third of the value of this entire PC - then the Dell's performance is exemplary.

All the trimmings

As if great performance in our benchmarks and a quality monitor weren't already enough, Dell has thrown in some good peripherals too. The speakers are a 2.1 set and despite slim satellites and a tiny subwoofer, they reached impressive volumes before starting to sound stressed. Everything we played through them sounded crisp and clear, and vocals were particularly well reproduced for a budget set. The keyboard was also good quality and one of the best on test. It provided a lovely positive key action and some handy shortcut buttons for pausing music tracks and changing the volume without having to use the mouse.

The Dell Dimension 9150 is one of the best value PCs we have ever seen in Computer Buyer. Its specification and build-quality are such that it would have severely challenged the PCs in our £799 dual-core group test a couple of months ago, but at £599 it offers a truly mind-boggling level of performance.

If you're looking for a desktop PC that's good-looking, supremely well-built and has impressive performance across the board, then you'll be delighted with the Dimension 9150. Well you'll be happy with everything bar one tiny detail, the mouse. It seems churlish to complain, but ball-mice are horrid things at best and we'd send this one back to Dell in an instant. As for the rest of the PC, well we're not going to give that up so easily.