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Most of the Dell Dimension XPS systems I've seen remind me of a Buick LeSabre. They provide a comfortable, safe, and reliable ride, with better-than-average performance. And their value is undeniable-- they consistently earn Best Buys in PC World's monthly ratings of power, budget, and home PCs. But like the comfy LeSabre, they don't provide much excitement.
But what if you could sit down and design your dream PC, combining Cadillac comfort and features with Corvette performance? Would that accelerate your pulse? I decided to find out. The Dell Dimension XPS 500T reviewed here is the decidedly exciting result.
When Price Is No Object
For this review, I was determined that price be secondary. So I bravely ticked off my wish list, starting with a Pentium III-500 processor, 512KB of level 2 cache, 128MB of PC 100 SDRAM, and a 22GB 7200-rpm IBM hard drive. Great video is critical, so I combined an outstanding 19-inch Dell UltraScan P990 (a PC World Best Buy in February) with a 16MB STB TNT graphics board. Excellent sound was also high on my list, so I asked for the Turtle Beach Montego II full-duplex sound card and an Altec Lansing ADA880 four-speaker set with a big subwoofer.
Then I took a deep breath and...