Sean Captain

Dell Dimension 2100

Dell's entry-level PC is well packaged for home buyers with limited space or limited budgets. Our review unit, priced at $798, features Dell's solidly constructed "midnight gray" minitower case (with matching monitor and keyboard) that provides easy access for upgrading. Push a lever on the top of the case, and half of the plastic shell pops off. Replacing it is also relatively easy, as long as you are careful to line up the plastic tabs that anchor the bottom of the shell. If you want to make the machine harder to open (or steal), you can lock it up using either the metal loop or the Kensington lock slot on the back of the case. Setting up the Dimension 2100 was trouble-free. Its documentation includes a nicely illustrated setup poster, a quick reference card for obtaining tech support, a setup guide, and an excellent system-specific "Solutions Guide" manual with upgrade information, technical support details, and a very extensive troubleshooting section.
With a PC WorldBench 4 score of just 79, this Dimension is by far the slowest Home PC we have so far tested under Windows XP and our new benchmark (the next slowest systems, a Polywell P4-1500 and a Gateway 500X, were each about 10 percent faster). The sluggish performance is likely due, in part, to the system's Celeron CPU. Celerons typically score far lower than other Intel or AMD processors, and bumping the clock speed up to 1.1 GHz on this chip did little to close the speed gap. Dell's Dimension line offers only Celeron processors in the 2100 series systems, but the 4400 and 8200 models come with Pentium 4 CPUs. While we didn't expect this system to work very well as a game machine, we were surprised at how poorly it performed. Our judges rated Unreal Tournament as unplayable, even at the lowest monitor resolution and color depth setting. And Quake III game play couldn't limp past 800-by-600 resolution at 16-bit color.
Audiovisual performance was middling. The two Harman/Kardon HK-195 speakers (running off the PC's integrated audio system) reproduced sounds well on our two choral tracks, but the voices sounded a bit distant, even with the volume turned up. Our synthesized music track sounded a little tinny compared to playback on other speaker systems. Text on the Dell E771P monitor looked slightly out of focus. On our test photo of a group of children, colors were washed out and faces looked slightly grainy. Our review unit lacked a DVD-ROM drive, so we could not rate movie playback. A thick trunk of cables running from the power supply to the motherboard and drives hinders access considerably, though the power supply does swing out and away from the motherboard. The hard drive is mounted vertically on a bracket and is secured with both a clip and screws; you must remove the front bezel to reach them. Fortunately, that's easy: The front of the case pops off after you press a button. With the front off, you can also remove the CD-ROM and floppy drives by squeezing two tabs to release them. Our unit provided just one free, 3.5-inch, externally accessible drive bay; two standard PCI slots and one RAM slot were also open. The keyboard features shortcut buttons for launching e-mail clients and Web browsers. Typing is smooth and quiet, but the keys lack tactile and audible feedback. Dell's old QuietKey keyboards, though less stylish, were more responsive. In contrast to its Dimension siblings, the 2100 skimps on port labeling, providing color-coding for just the keyboard and mouse ports and only faintly stamped icons for the others.
No performance or multimedia machine, the Dimension 2100 is a low-cost system that would serve well as a second PC or a basic workstation for word processing, e-mail, and casual Web browsing.

Buying Information

Dell Dimension 2100 PC WorldBench 4 score of 79, 1.1-GHz Celeron CPU, 128MB of PC-133 SDRAM, Windows XP Home, 20GB hard drive, 24X-48X CD-ROM drive, integrated Intel 810 graphics with UMA, 17-inch Dell E771P monitor, integrated sound, Harmon Kardon HK-195 speakers, network adapter, V.92 modem, minitower case, Microsoft Works Suite 2001. One-year parts and labor warranty; free, unlimited, 24-hour daily toll-free tech support. $ 798 PC WorldBench 4 score of 79, 1.1-GHz Celeron CPU, 128MB of PC-133 SDRAM, Windows XP Home, 20GB hard drive, 24X-48X CD-ROM drive, integrated Intel 810 graphics with UMA, 17-inch Dell E771P monitor, integrated sound, Harmon Kardon HK-195 speakers, network adapter, V.92 modem, minitower case, Microsoft Works Suite 2001. One-year parts and labor warranty; free, unlimited, 24-hour daily toll-free tech support. http://www.dell.com 800/388-8542