Dell Dimension™ 2400 (D24RS) 15 in. PC Desktop
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- Optical Drive Type: CD-ROM CD Burner
- Chipset: Intel 845GV
- Form Factor: Micro Tower
- Recommended Use: Home Use, Business
- Display: 15 in. Flat Panel Display
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.2 GHz
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User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Reasonable.
Pros
Beautifully put together, quality components all around. Nice, speedy system sans Dell software.
Cons
their software is tragic, no included driver CD, video poor and upgrade options limited.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Anyone who doesn't care about 3d graphics will find this a thoroughly useful machine.
The Dell Dimension 2400 is a reasonable machine in all but two areas. My system came with 512 MB of RAM and a 2.6Ghz Celeron-4 upgraded for free from the stock 256 MB and 2.4Ghz Celeron-4, but Dell seems to have different upgrades included free every week. It may be wise to keep this in mind if you don't really want the peripheral they're including this week -- you may be able to wait for a better deal. The hardware is well put together, and rock solid stable. My machine has run for weeks at a time without ever crashing, only rebooting when Windows starts to get fussy. I've admired Dell's hardware since I worked on Dell Optiplexes back in 1999, and nothing has changed in that regard. Case access is easy(though you probably won't need to use it), and there are plenty of ports in convenient places. As a musician, I was disappointed by the lack of a joystick port(which on most motherboards doubles as a MIDI port), but considering how popular USB game pads and joysticks have become, it's understandable, and only niche users like me would likely notice.
The two areas which are hobbled are video capacity and the original software setup.
The Intel Extreme 2 is a solid video card in that you won't have to expect many crashes, but it's a slow one. Even older games like Neverwinter Nights will be choppy, and you won't be able to play the latest games with an acceptable frame rate. Compounding this error is the fact that the Intel Chipset used on the Dimension 2400 doesn't support AGP -- the connections actually exist on the motherboard, but the slot doesn't exist as far as the computer is concerned, meaning that anyone wanting to upgrade this will have to go with a less desirable PCI video card, which limits your options and puts a slight price premium on most cards you'll end up with.
The software loaded on the machine initially is enough to slow down a machine with a gigabyte of memory. Also, their recovery and diagnostic software takes up a full quarter of the 40 GB hard drive! Before I reloaded anything, Windows was a hog on my Dell. Starting up, bringing up windows, doing just about anything was torturously slow, especially when considering the 2.6Ghz Celeron and 512 MB of RAM installed! After the reinstall, the components started to shine.
A word of caution, however: Dell does NOT include a driver CD! Make sure you have a copy of the drivers handy BEFORE you do any wiping of the drive, or you're in for a world of hurt!
Other than that, I've had mine for 3 months now, and it's been everything I expected. Solid hardware, reliable, trustworthy components, and some decent case design. It's hard to go wrong with a formula like that -- just remember to get rid of the software that comes with it, or you'll find yourself wishing for more hardware in a hurry.
The two areas which are hobbled are video capacity and the original software setup.
The Intel Extreme 2 is a solid video card in that you won't have to expect many crashes, but it's a slow one. Even older games like Neverwinter Nights will be choppy, and you won't be able to play the latest games with an acceptable frame rate. Compounding this error is the fact that the Intel Chipset used on the Dimension 2400 doesn't support AGP -- the connections actually exist on the motherboard, but the slot doesn't exist as far as the computer is concerned, meaning that anyone wanting to upgrade this will have to go with a less desirable PCI video card, which limits your options and puts a slight price premium on most cards you'll end up with.
The software loaded on the machine initially is enough to slow down a machine with a gigabyte of memory. Also, their recovery and diagnostic software takes up a full quarter of the 40 GB hard drive! Before I reloaded anything, Windows was a hog on my Dell. Starting up, bringing up windows, doing just about anything was torturously slow, especially when considering the 2.6Ghz Celeron and 512 MB of RAM installed! After the reinstall, the components started to shine.
A word of caution, however: Dell does NOT include a driver CD! Make sure you have a copy of the drivers handy BEFORE you do any wiping of the drive, or you're in for a world of hurt!
Other than that, I've had mine for 3 months now, and it's been everything I expected. Solid hardware, reliable, trustworthy components, and some decent case design. It's hard to go wrong with a formula like that -- just remember to get rid of the software that comes with it, or you'll find yourself wishing for more hardware in a hurry.
