Dell Dimension E510 (3.2-GHz Pentium 4 640)

The Dimension E510 delivered adequate power to handle home and office tasks, but its performance was a bit slower than we would have expected from a PC with a 3.2-GHz Pentium 4 640 processor. Its score of 89 on our WorldBench 5 test suite ranks closer to the marks posted by systems running on Pentium 4 500 series CPUs.

The Dimension E510 turned in merely acceptable results on our gaming tests, too. The ATI Radeon X600 SE graphics card supplements its 128MB of on-board memory with up to 128MB of system RAM, and it produced middle-of-the pack frame rates on both our Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Unreal Tournament tests. Game play on Return to Castle Wolfenstein looked smooth, but video images seemed very dark--even at the full brightness setting. Serious gamers who want to play newer, more-demanding games will want a graphics card that doesn't share system RAM.

Colors looked rich and sharp on the 19-inch LCD monitor, and small (6.8-point) type was impressively easy to read at the display's native 1280 by 1024 resolution. However, the Dell UltraSharp E193FP LCD supports analog RGB input only; a digital LCD display running off the system's digital DVI connector would probably yield sharper images.

Thanks to a special fist-sized ventilation port that perforates the front end of the attractive gray-and-black midsize tower case, the Dimension E510 can use a slow and quiet fan--enabling it to run with noticeably less noise than other systems. The case is upgrade-friendly. Too: An easy-off cover provides entry to the interior. Our test system's one free PCI slot--the other was filled with a modem--and its one PCI Express X1 slot are readily accessible. The hard-drive chassis is rotated so that the drive connectors face outward for quick access; and because they're fitted with quick releases, adding a hard drive to the one open bay is simple.

The Dimension E510 offers other nice touches for upgraders: Small clips secure the SATA power and data cables to the fan housing. An extra data cable for a second hard drive is already in place, as is a connected IDE cable for a floppy drive--very convenient for floppy drive emergencies, since the system has no floppy drive. (A 13-in-1 media card reader fills the only 3.5-inch external drive bay.)

Two USB ports and a headphone and microphone jack sit beneath the card reader on the front of the system, and four more USB ports reside on the back. DVI and VGA connectors, an S-Video-out port, and analog audio jacks for 7.1 surround sound sit on the back of the case. Unlike many Media Center PCs, the Dimension E510 has no digital audio-in or -out ports, so audiophiles seeking all-digital connections will be disappointed.

Dell's small but sturdy keyboard has firm and responsive key action, eight programmable buttons, and the best multimedia control buttons I've seen. A large, easy-to-locate volume control knob provides a nice reference point so you don't have to look at the keyboard to find the control buttons clustered around the knob.

Upshot: This entry-level Media Center PC lacks a TV tuner and digital audio ports, but serves well as a home or home office PC.

Kirk Steers