One of the trends that has made its presence felt in the PC desktop range, has been the advent of space saving cabinets. Every major manufacturer from HP with its half-sized cabinets, to Apple with its Mac Mini has jumped onto the bandwagon and now Dell seems to have joined them there. The C521 comes in a half-size BTX cabinet format, which has been all but abandoned by everyone except Dell. Due to this, Dell has to source its parts directly from manufacturers and often in half-height formats which cannot be reused elsewhere. This also restricts your ability to upgrade to standard format PC peripherals. Physically the dimension is an attractive machine that comes with a burnished silver matte finish and white panel covers. While this color combination may seem uninspiring to a lot of people, I find this finish a refreshing change from the standard blacks or gaudy eye-bleeding cabinets that most manufacturers tend to offer as part of their lineup.
Despite the fact that Dell has designated the Dimension C521 as a budget desktop, it has built it up as an entertainment center and this reflects in its specifications. The processor that has been used on the C521 is the X2 4200, which is a mid-level AMD dual-core processor. Other components include 1 GB of DDR2 533 RAM, a 160 GB HDD, a dual-layer DVD-RW all built up on an Nvidia Nforce 430 chipset OEM motherboard. For graphics Dell has chosen ATI’s 1300 Radeon series card which offers low-end 3d support. For TV viewing, Dell has equipped the C521 with a generic tuner, which offers surprisingly good picture quality as our tests revealed.
Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.
1 - 3
The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.
4 - 6
An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.
7 - 8
Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.
9 - 10
Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!
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