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Dell Dimension E521 @ [H]

  • Thread starter Deleted member 119758
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Ol' JW gets back in the saddle to talk about whether this $1000 machine is worth its salt.


Overall, this was a good experience. We’ve definitely given Dell a few things to work on, so perhaps we’ll see some changes in the future. It continues to ship systems with a cluttered OS however, and this degrades the machine’s productivity. We’d like to see this addressed so that Dell’s customers are getting the most out of their computers. Lately we’ve seen a marked increase in the physical build quality of Dell systems and even some obvious effort made to keep the wiring tidy, which is great to see.
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Thanks for reading!
 
I thought it was funny that you guys got the same guy on tech support 3 times in a row.

Nice review :)
 
Ha, what are the chances of that! :D

Before I being, I was under the impression [H] Consumer was gone? Tell me that was a dream, man, tell me that was just some huge dream. Is it back? (I'd really like the answer to be: What? We never closed! You're crazy!)

Oi! What's wrong with that keyboard? I'm using it with my OPC! :D My wrists feel fine, thank you very much! It is a tad loud, but like the noise because it tells me I actually hit the key. :) And no, I'm not senile.

OK, I'm about to kill that stupid little Experience Index.:mad: EVEN THE DELL MACHINE beats me in my hard drive score. My Seagate 320GB 7200.10 is being a b!tch and *always* seems to score 5.7 or even 5.6! How is Dell getting the 5.8? I'm confused as hell about that.

The weird hard drive seeking might've been indexing? My OPC really likes to index, especially when I'm playing BF2! There a setting to make the interval longer, but I'm too lazy and the problem is a just a bit too intermittent for me to actually do something about it.

Well, Dell must be kicking itself right now. They just can't get a "recommended" from you guys! Their support was OK, but I think the XPS support with the 710 was a bit better. Especially with the optical drive RMA. I've been wondering about that encoding test where it was slower than it should be. Have you tried a format/install OS? That is really quirky and makes me want to recommend other OEMs over Dell.

That little diagnostic thing is pretty cool. I never knew it existed until a tech guy at Dell mentioned it to me. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

What you could've done to get that memory RMA quicker would to have said that you ran the built-in Vista Memory Diagnostic thing and it failed. That might've spurred them a bit further, but I'm glad to see how far they went anyhow.

I'm a bit disappointed that World Bench won't work on Vista. I've been wanting to run it on my OPC to see what it got, lol. I guess it wasn't to be.

Nice review and I'm hoping to God you're going to say that Consumer closing down was just a really bad joke or something!

:D

~Ibrahim~
 
I picked up an E521 in January when I had a 25% off coupon that was stackable with a 12% that I get through school. I was able to pick it up similarly equipped to the review with the 24" monitor.
Since then I have added a Thermaltake W0099RU ATX12V 250 Watts (Peak Load: 300Watts) Graphic Card power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153037
and a Geforce 7950GT.
It doesn't quite have enough for Half-Life 2 Episode 2 at 1920x1200 with everything maxed. It is playable, but frame rate drop is noticeable.
I don't have any up to date games for testing.
Just throwing my experience in. You can't reach the high end dual slot video cards, but you can put a decent midrange upgrade in if you are willing to add some power.
 
was this review one that was in the works when Consumer shut down? or is it back? it brightened my morning to see this review on the main page. im hopin Consumer is back somehow, in some way.
 
Notorius said:
it brightened my morning to see this review on the main page. im hopin Consumer is back somehow, in some way.
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It truly did for me, too! I was like, whoa! It actually did brighten my morning, too.

~Ibrahim~
 
About 4 years ago I bought a PowerEdge400SC w/P4 3.2HT that I have been playing games on since. It only has an AGP, but for 4 years I have been able to upgrade the AGP card and with my LCD only supporting 1280x1024 I have been able to play most games at high or Medium level graphics settings.

I recently had a family member get a DimensionE520 and I was pondering if I could do the same thing, get a cheap base system and just pop in a higher end video card. I am glad the [H]ARD was able to see that graphics cards would not easily fit. I wonder, if it did fit into the system, if the Power supply would be able to keep up. These are the parts of these reviews I love. The tech support side of things always confuses me. Do many of us ever call tech support unless it is to get an RMA?

I imagine the majority of us know that tech support is mostly outsourced to the lowest bidder. The few tech support people left in the states are like wise going to be low paid employees were anybody with with decent troubleshooting skills is going to get a better paying job after 6 months.

So for me, I like these reviews of cheap systems that I can upgrade economically. It gets me the most bang for my buck, which is why I got into overclocking and reading the [H]ARD in the first place.
 
I thought I remember them saying that there would be a couple more [H]Consumer reviews, that just needed some finishing touches, published after the shut down.
 
Hey,

I also purchased an E521 last October when they were first released(5000+ 90nm, 2gb, 160gb hdd). I purchased an EVGA 7950GT 512MB in the PC and added a Dell SE198WFP (19" wide screen) that was given to me.

I have been running the PC with the stock PSU with no lockups/crashes/randomness for 9+ months. It's 12v rail is strong and I really think the PSU is really high build quality for the $$.

Long as you take the dell os media disc and slipstream it with updates + drivers (nlite), and format/reinstall its a great pc. *Note* at work most of our workstations are Dell systems and we always format/reload after opening boxes.

The biggest downside is as you said the x16 slot can only accommodate a single slot card. The worrying part is the CPU heat sink/plastic shroud would have to be seriously modified :(

Good review!
 
In terms of the recovery partition, I know that older Dell systems like the Dimension 5150 (a.k.a. E510 I think) used CTRL+F11 on bootup to access them. It's not stated anywhere on bootup though. I do agree it should be listed in the boot devices menu accessed by the F12 key.
 
Oh, OK. Not another OPC review maybe stuck in there, is there? :D

I cannot believe I forgot to mention my foray with graphics and my dad's E520.

So, he got a brand new monitor, a NEC 20WMGX2, but his lowly integrated card was having trouble displaying graphics at it's native resolution, 1680x1050. So, I thought I'd get him a nice PCI-e x16 card. So, I wanted some real horse power, so I picked up a HiS X1300 Pro. lol, it was a great deal! So, I popped it, but the stupid motherboard was BTX! Same problem as [H]ard OCP, the dual-slot card just won't work because of the slot not being there.

We actually chopped off with a knife some of that "useless" plastic heatsink, but that was a moot point, as we found out later. Hopefully, Dell won't mind, :D

~Ibrahim~
 
I try whenever possible to build PC's for myself and.or friends.

When I couldn't, I would almost ALWAYS recommend DELL. They were a name with stopping power and people were oft time much more comfertable with DELL then Maingear of VM.


Although, after reading that DELL is falling behind HP in global selling, anyone care to drop a line on how HP and DELL stack up?



The review was golden btw. It is sad to see it is one of the last of a dieing breed.
BTX doesn't seem like it is too usefull... Does anyone know if there is a DIRECT tempature comparison between a ATX case and a BTX case? I think that would make for some good readin'.
 
As far as OEM manufacturers go, Dell is to be one of the best, for both business and home. I have used them exclusively for purchases where I work and have only had a few anomalies where the product was not amazing.
This article sadly, doesn't mean much. Many of you may know that Dell recently revealed a whole slew of new products, but they also phased out the whole Dimension line at the same time. The low and mid range computers are now Inspiron. Hopefully this change will bring Dell back into a position to better combat HP and Apple, but thats just the fan boy in me wishing. The competition is good, and there are many great products out there now thanks to it.
 
Do my eyes decieve me? a Consumer review? :eek: AWESOME!

It was an incredible review :D Really freaking long, and tech support was damn interesting... why didn't you guys try a different graphics card like a higher end 7 series variant like someone on the uber cheap would have used?

PLEASE DO MORE! :D I smiled when I saw this on the front page :D
 
Sorry to join the party late, folks. I was up until 8am getting the article done and my son has been a little under the weather.

Anyway, to clarify, [H] Consumer is not "back," I'm very sorry to say. The situation has not changed at all from what it was a couple of months ago. This is a system that was purchased a very long time ago and sat in its box while we were trying to figure out what was going to happen with the site.

When the decision was made to shut down, getting an evaluation written on this lower-end, non-sexy machine became a low priority and we planned to simply ship it back to Dell. However, our agreement with them is that we needed to produce content with the machine in order to send it back, so we started evaluating it in early May. I was doing it solo, along with the extremely time-consuming framerate articles and other projects, so it took a very long time to finish. Not to mention that I hadn't done one of these from start-to-finish in a while, so I made some boo-boos :).

I'm very glad that you guys enjoyed seeing a system evaluation again. As of now, there are no more planned (we don't have any more systems!), but it's possible that we may present previews from some companies that we think are doing something really special. We've been working with Biohazard PC to try to get something for you. They do some very impressive engineering.

Thanks for reading and for your support. It means a lot.
 
I just recently installed a Geforce 8600GTS and an extra gigabyte of ram into one of these machines for a very good friend of mine. He got one of these from Wal-Mart for just under $700 with a 19" monitor. Had no problems installing the video card other than having to use an adapter for the PCI-Express power connector. A dual slot card definitely wouldn't work, and you'd have to be mindful of how long the video card would be as well. The power supply has a dual 12volt rail setup with 18 amps on each rail and seems to have no problems so far with the extra load from the video card. Also worth noting, since this is a BTX form factor and the video card was flipped heatsink up, the fan blowing from the front generates good airflow over the card and blows the hot air off it straight out the back. That was a happy coincidence. I don't normally say this about Dell PC's (or any other mass manufactured PC's for that matter) since I've had to work on so many of them, but I like this model. And apparently my friend does too since he's getting another one soon and I'll be doing the same upgrades to it as well.
 
Ooh, Biohazard! I haven't heard much from them in quite some time.

~Ibrahim~
 
why not use some thats single slot
also some Dells you have to dig a bit for the PCIe power cable it a friends PC that got my old 7800GT it was back hidden under the HDDs

and that PC wouldnt be bad for some one thats not a hardcore gamer you could easly still get a 7950 in it or even a X1950Pro and have good frame rates with out DX10

with some luck there will be some faster single slot cards that are DX10 soon that would fit nicely
that box is screaming for a 64 shader 256bit 8x00 card
 
Hi we bought a few very similar system to these at work.

They use thesame chassis and gfx card thought they had core 2 duos and intel mobos. I cant comment on O/S issues, we create customs ghosting images for all our machines. However one thing to note is that fact that not only do you not get a gfx card power cord (6pin) but that you dont get any normal Molex power cords either. In the chassis i used the only spare power connector was the SATA one routed dow to the free hardrive bay. Also worth noting is that you must use a right angled SATAconnector onto the drive. It looks like you can fit a normal one however this will snap off the connector on your HD if you try and close the case. Its at the bottom so there is so much levearge that even trying to shut the case quite gentley has enough force to snap it. Silly move on Dells part, if they have recessed the drives half an inch this issue would not exhist.

Phil
 
filholder said:
However one thing to note is that fact that not only do you not get a gfx card power cord (6pin) but that you dont get any normal Molex power cords either. In the chassis i used the only spare power connector was the SATA one routed dow to the free hardrive bay.
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There's one Molex connector wayyyy up by the optical drives. There's just enough slack to connect it to the 6-pin PCI-E adapter so that we could slip in a card, if one could fit.

We would have really liked to try a nice single-width card, but didn't have any on hand, unfortunately. As long as they're not too lengthy, we don't see any reason why they wouldn't fit. From other reader reports, it looks like the PSU would probably handle the upgrade.
 
Iam thinking of getting this tower to make it into a back up/media extender/file server/ server 2k3 test bed.... Going to configure it with 1 gig of ram, and then throw in 2 additional HDDs - 500 Gbs each.... I saw that the mobo only has 2 SATA ports correct?

would you say this is a decent PC to transform into a server on the cheap?
 
chronic9 said:
I saw that the mobo only has 2 SATA ports correct?

would you say this is a decent PC to transform into a server on the cheap?
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It has two ADDITIONAL SATA ports, 4 total.

It could hold up to 8GB of RAM and you could squeeze a third hard drive in if you put it in an optical bay. So, yeah, it might make a very good file server, actually. To get it to that point, though, you might screw up your warranty if you ever have to send the computer in for repairs.
 
well i wouldn't be "dremeling" any parts like you guys wanted to stuff a nice VGA in it ;)

only thing i would do is, install a HDD into a optical bay... i dont think that voids warranty? right?
 
Great review. I just recently purchased a similar system in Shanghai, China. Though it is the Dimension 9200. The configuration is almost identical (Edit: Hmm, now that I think about it, its not identical but a different class.) to the E521 except it is configured with the Intel CPU/Mobo. The 9200 is also slightly taller than the E521 which allowed Dell to place a second intake fan in front of the hard drives. Instead of stacking the drives on top of each other, they are placed horizontally on the bottom of the case. This gives the hard drives a nice breeze. Swapped out the 7300LE with a 8600GTS card with no obstructions in the way. The 6-pin pci-xpress power connector was also conveniently placed for the upgrade. Right away I installed a 2nd hard drive while upgrading the vid card. Why doesn't Dell supply spare sata cables? I had a few lying around and i thought weren't a problem to use. It turns out that the sata cables Dell uses have a 90 degree angle on the molex where the cable comes out. So when the side cover is re-attached, it doesn't press on the cable. Any standard sata cable are just straight-through, using those would actually push up against the cover. If i wanted to I could have jammed the cover on but it just didn't feel right. Luckily I found some sata cables with shorter molex's. Connected those then put the cover back on. Perfect, with room to spare.

Installed BF2142, Supreme Commander, and C&C3. Turned up all the graphics. It was great. Almost as smooth as silk. Though SC got a little choppy. I guess when all hell breaks loose it gets choppy as well.

Overall I am pretty satisfied with this Dell purchase. The 375W power supply is taking it like a man. I haven't tried tech support yet; I hope I won't need to. The price was around 10600RMB which converts to about $1400USD. Without the required 3-year warranty, it probably would cost about $250USD less.

If you are wondering about the specs:
Dimension 9200
Intel E6420 (2.13ghz)
2 x 1GB DDR2 (667mhz)
Maxsun 8600GTS 256mb
2 x 160GB Seagate HD (SATA-II)
16x DVD+-RW
20" 2007WFP LCD
 
i wonder if that 300w PSU can handle 2 500gb drives + all the other stuff... i dont want a burn out

does the dell PSU have standard 20 pin plug... or some weird proprietary plug in?
 
Jason_Wall said:
There's one Molex connector wayyyy up by the optical drives. There's just enough slack to connect it to the 6-pin PCI-E adapter so that we could slip in a card, if one could fit.

We would have really liked to try a nice single-width card, but didn't have any on hand, unfortunately. As long as they're not too lengthy, we don't see any reason why they wouldn't fit. From other reader reports, it looks like the PSU would probably handle the upgrade.
Click to expand...

Just FYI, the E521 delivered to me Tuesday does not have the additional molex on the power run for optical drives. You would have to add your own connector to add PCI-E power.
 
hamm3rhead said:
Just FYI, the E521 delivered to me Tuesday does not have the additional molex on the power run for optical drives. You would have to add your own connector to add PCI-E power.
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No shit? Well that's certainly interesting. Are you quite sure? Ours had a rubber black sleeve over it.

I'm not sure how you'd go from the black power connector to molex to a 6-pin. I don't think they make that adapter.
 
Jason_Wall said:
No shit? Well that's certainly interesting. Are you quite sure? Ours had a rubber black sleeve over it.

I'm not sure how you'd go from the black power connector to molex to a 6-pin. I don't think they make that adapter.
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The power lead ends at the optical drive on mine other then that it looks identical inside to your pics. You can just add a clamp-on molex end or if you want to do it right strip back a little plastic and solder on a whole new pci-e end + longer leads so you can tuck it all away nicely. Much simpler then modding the pci-e slot in SC420's a couple years back.
 
is this a standard PSU or some custom made contraption?

Jason_Wall said:
No shit? Well that's certainly interesting. Are you quite sure? Ours had a rubber black sleeve over it.

I'm not sure how you'd go from the black power connector to molex to a 6-pin. I don't think they make that adapter.
Click to expand...
 
i should have asked.... is it a regular 20 pin plug? can i swap it out with another PSU?
 
Dell have often in the past scrambled the pins on their PSU and Mobo's so that the parts are not interchangable with other manufacturer. I do not know if that is the case in this system but they had a policy of doing this a few years ago.

Phil
 
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