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Dell Dimension E520

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Pros
Equipped with large hard drive
Has dual optical drives
Cons
Only one vacant drive bay

Dell Dimension E520 Review

by Richard Baguley

- The Dimension E520 may look like its cousin the E521 on the outside, but inside it's a different beast. It has a faster processor, more memory, a bigger hard drive, and a dedicated graphics card that makes it a more desirable proposition for a wider range of activities. But it's also more expensive at $989 (as of November 6, 2006) versus $489.

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User Reviews for Dell Dimension E520

Reviewed by: dcontarino

Duration of ownership: 10 Months

Strengths: Great value (including inexpensive upgrade to 20" digital widescreen monitor), reliable, stable operating system, no quirks, somewhat upgradeable but limited by chipset and motherboard

Weaknesses: Required a good deal of upgrading to make it a capable gaming rig, Dell tech support for this model is overseas and leaves much to be desired

Overall Evaluation: I purchased this system in November 06 during one of Dell's great sales. The E520 came from the factory with a Core 2 Duo E6400 processor, ATI X1300 Pro video card, 2GB of 533MHz RAM, a TV tuner, a 20" UltraSharp widescreen monitor, all running on Windows XP Media Center for just over $1000. Since then I have upgraded to a E6700 processor, a Sapphire X1950 Pro 512MB graphics card, and 4GB of 800 MHz RAM. Finally, games can run at high resolution and not miss a beat. Be warned: this system will not support a dual-slot graphics card such as a NVidia 8800 series, so you will be limited to anything that is a single-slot card. However, the processor is upgradeable to most of the Intel dual or quad cores, and RAM can be upgraded to PC-6400 speed. This system has recently been replaced by Dell's new Inspiron desktop, but if you can get an E520 and you're not a serious gamer, I'd say you can't go wrong. I have owned 5 Dells in the past 10 years, and this one is the best yet.

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