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More…The Dell Dimension C521 sacrifices some expansion room to keep its case skinnier than a typical midsize tower PC. Even so, the $729 (as of November 6, 2006) C521 is a good choice if you seek a space-conscious, low-cost system that retains some expansion options.
Dell Dimension C521
- Spec Navigator
- Processor
- Memory
- Storage
- Multimedia
- Software
- Optical Drives
- Expansion Slots
- Display
- Modem / Networking
- Case
- Other Features
- Interface Connection
Multimedia
| Audio Adapter Model | Integrated SigmaTel High Definition Audio |
| Audio Channels | 7.1 surround |
| Graphics Board RAM Type | DDR |
| Video chipset | ATI Radeon X1300 |
| Installed video memory | 128 MB |
| Video bus | PCI Express |
Software
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition |
| Included Software |
|
Expansion Slots
| Open PCI Express X16 Slots | 0 |
| Number of PCI slots | 1 |
| Open PCI Express X1 Slots | 1 |
| PCI Express Slots | 2 |
| Slots | 2 |
| Other Storage | Five-in-one media-card reader |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Desktops »
Pros
Case mounts horizontally or vertically
Reasonable performance for the price
Cons
Limited internal expansion room
Bottom Line
The inexpensive C521 is a solid performer; its compact design makes it a great fit for tight spaces.
Dell Dimension C521
Dimension C521 Review, by Richard Baguley November 20, 2006
Set up vertically, the well-designed case has a width of just 4.5 inches (you can also situate it horizontally). Even so, it retains a modicum of expansion room, including three open expansion-card slots--one each for PCI, PCI Express x1, and PCI Express x16. The thin chassis limits you to half-height PCI cards, however. The system's other expansion options are limited to one 5.25-inch externally accessible bay (which a dual-layer DVD burner occupies) and two 3.5-inch bays (claimed by a 160GB hard drive and a five-in-one memory card reader).
Our test system came with Windows XP Media Center Edition installed, but it lacked a TV tuner. In fact, Dell doesn't offer a TV tuner as an option for this model, but you can buy a third-party TV tuner card for about $80.
The C521 configuration we tested packed a 2-GHz Athlon 64 X2 3800+ dual-core processor and 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a combination that powered the C521 to a creditable WorldBench 5 score of 95--more than adequate for tasks like word processing, Web browsing, and even video and image editing. Thanks in part to its ATI Radeon X1300 graphics card with 256MB of memory, the C521 did reasonably well in our games tests, too, managing about 24 frames per second on Doom 3 at a resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels on the included 17-inch E177FP LCD monitor. We consider Doom 3 barely playable at that frame rate, but the PC would adequately handle less graphically demanding games.
Dell bills the C521 as Vista-capable and offers Vista upgrade information on its site.
Though its performance trails far behind that of more-expensive systems, it's fast enough to make the C521 a realistic choice as a casual gaming system for the kids or as a versatile second PC.
Richard Baguley
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
-
63
-
71
-
77
- See Complete Lab Results »
63
51Performance
| ACD Systems ACDSee | 588 |
| Adobe Photoshop | 361 |
| Adobe Premiere | 411 |
| Ahead Nero | 657 |
| Discreet 3ds Max DirectX | 305 |
| Discreet 3ds Max OpenGL | 362 |
| Doom 3 with AA, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 16.7 |
| Doom 3 with AA, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 13.3 |
| Doom 3, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 30.2 |
| Doom 3, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 23.7 |
| Far Cry with AA, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 29.74 |
| Far Cry with AA, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 18.69 |
| Far Cry, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 57.51 |
| Far Cry, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 34.44 |
| Microsoft Office XP | 559 |
| Mozilla | 424 |
| Multitasking | 513 |
| Musicmatch Jukebox | 531 |
| Overall Graphics Score | Poor |
| Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1024 by 768, 16-Bit | 106.3 |
| Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 76.7 |
| Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 48.13 |
| Roxio VideoWave | 286 |
| Unreal Tournament, 1024 by 768, 16-Bit | 183.72 |
| Unreal Tournament, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 140.94 |
| Unreal Tournament, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 90.84 |
| Windows Media Encoder | 323 |
| WinZip | 411 |
| World Bench 5 Score | 95 |
| World Bench 5 Word Score | Fair |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for Dell Dimension C521
2 Reviews Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 2 reviews
-
Reviewed by: pdhamblin
Duration of ownership: 11 Months
Strengths: Solid PC, small, 17" monitor sits nicely on my desk and is easy to adjust as needed. Quiet CPU, easy to open case. USB ports on front are easily accessible.
Weaknesses: No real expansion bays, case can be noisy if not closed up properly, especially during burning a CD\DVD. DELL support, morons.
Overall: Overall I would call this a great machine, I work in the IT industry and it has never failed me. I like the ease of access to USB ports for my flash drives. I have mine at 4GB of RAM, so it really scoots when I need it to, I highly reccomend the RAM upgrade. Worth every penny.
-
Reviewed by: spoe402327
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: powerful for it's size
Weaknesses: graphics card not for gamers
Overall: online tech support is TOPS, they can even access your PC remotely to diagnois any concerns
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