Dell Studio XPS sx8100-1408NBC Review

    Today in the fast changing world,everything is changing so fast that someone has to wonder what kind of desktop he/she should buy.Well! here is one solution in the form of Studio XPS from Dell.As a midrange PC, this system comes across as a respectable all-around desktop. Gamers looking for an affordable PC might prefer it if Dell included a faster 3D card instead of wireless networking.


     The smooth, curved lines and glossy black plastic give the SX8100 a solid appearance that's more pleasing than the boxy mid towers that make up the majority of retail PCs. The upward sweep to the array of front-panel USB ports and memory card slots makes them easy to use, and you'll likely find the gadget tray depression on the top of the case conveniently placed as well.

     Dell meets our other expectations for an $899 PC; the wireless card comes across like an added bonus feature. Gamers will be tempted by the Asus system for its faster 3D card, but anyone looking for a well-rounded desktop, even if you have modest
PC gaming ambitions, will find this Dell a fair deal.

    This Dell all come with Intel Core i5 650 CPUs, a desktop chip with two physical cores, that provides four processing threads total through the power of Intel's HyperThreading technology. Presumably by offering only two physical cores, Intel can achieve faster clock speeds in this price range than the AMD chips in the Asus CG1330-05.

    That clock speed advantage likely explains the Dell and the other Core i5 650 PCs faster performance on my clock-speed-focused tests, particularly Photoshop and iTunes. But when you get to our Cinebench multithreaded test, which focuses on cores rather than clock speed, the native multicore CPUs pull ahead of the Intel-based PCs, the six core Asus system most dramatically.

    Thus, if you are considering a midrange PC and you spend a lot of time with programs you know are multithreaded, like more demanding games and many digital media editing apps--like the most recent version of Photoshop, which we don't test with yet--you can get better performance in this price range from an AMD-based PC.

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  My Rating:3.7/5