Dell Studio MT Desktop Review

Everyone seems to be buying laptops and netbooks these days, even if all their work is done from the same table day in and day out. It seems that desktops are becoming like dinosaurs – too big and unworldly to exist, in a world of smaller and lighter competition. But let’s not be too quick to sound the death knell of the PC. There are those who do not move around and are happy to work from one fixed place all the time. Often these are people who need the kind of power and durability that laptops cannot provide. And this includes desktop replacement notebooks – after all, how often is a replacement as good as the original?

Anyway, to get to the point, Dell’s recently introduced Studio MT desktop shows just why this breed of computers will always be around. This is an off the shelf version of Dell’s customizable Studio range and is a classic Dell computer offering the best performance in its class. It’s faster and comes with better equipment than anything else in a similar price range and while cheaper PCs are available, within its range, this one is a bargain.

Lets first look at who this PC is meant for. Priced at about $800 it will need a $400 24 inch LCD display to get the best out of it. For a total of $1200, its better than anything Apple has to offer in the price range. This is about as good as you can get in a mid range PC. Of course you can get cheaper ones, but this is meant for people who want more than a budget PC. And at the other end of the spectrum, it will not meet the demands of the hard core gamer or digital media professionals. The Studio MT is for the average middle of the road user who needs sophistication and performance but not top of the range features and prices.

So what do you get for the $800?

• 2.3 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
• 6GB DDR2 RAM
• 750 GB HDD at 7,200 RPM
• 256 MB ATI Radeon HD 3450
• Dual layer DVD burner
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

This should be more than enough to meet any normal computing requirements. And in case you want to expand later on, there’s space inside for another hard drive along with some expansion cards. In the unlikely event you need to increase the memory, the down side is that the memory slots are all full so rather than just adding, you will have to replace and existing memory with a bigger one which is more expensive.

That aside, there is really nothing at all to complain about with this desktop, either in price or performance. Price wise it gives you more that similarly priced HP and Gateway PCs of the same price range.

And performance wise every application you would normally run, from office to graphics to audio and video will run smoothly with no delays, hesitation or conflicts. Of course, the quality of the audio will depend on the speakers so it’s worthwhile to spend a bit on a set of good ones to maximize the potential of the computer.

And if the $400 LCD monitor mentioned earlier seems a bit too expensive, you can go in for a cheaper and smaller one, but you will be losing out on the great visual experience that watching movies on this desktop can provide you.