The Dell Dimension 8250 desktop has the performance you need!
Written: Oct 25 '02 (Updated Jul 14 '03)
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Pros: Plenty of power and smooth performance, plus 8 USB ports!
Cons: Not enough PCI expansion slots!
The Bottom Line: Overall the Dell Dimension 8250 desktop is a pretty nice computer.
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Dell Dimension 8250 (D825RL) PC Desktop |
The Dell Dimension 8250 offers you performance and speed made for today’s fast applications and games.
~~~ The Series ~~~
The series gives you a choice of the systems that can be customized to your preference. The lowest price system starts at $1589 that gives you an Intel Pentium 4 – 2.66GHz processor with 256MB of PC1066 RDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, a GeForce4 MX 420 Graphics Card, a 17 inch monitor and more. Not bad for a top grade system but when you start customizing it will easily run above $3000 for a top grade system.
Then they offer an Intel Pentium 4 – 2.66GHz that starts at $2099 plus the top of the line an Intel Pentium 4 – 2.8GHz at $2669. For a time all include free shipping.
All Dimension 8250 Include!
Here are some of the things found on all of the Dimension 8250 series desktop computers.
One of the nicest things on this series is the 8 USB ports, six in the back and two in the front.
You also have 1 serial port and 1 parallel port.
There are 4 PCI slots, 1 - 4x AGP slot, 1 - PS/2-style keyboard 6-pin mini-DIN and 1 - PS/2-compatible mouse 6-pin mini-DIN.
The computer I am playing with!
The Dell Dimension 8250 that I am using cost $2,873.00, it was customized to the specifications below.
Pentium 4 Processor at 2.8GHz with 533MHz system bus/512K L2 Cache
512MB PC1066 RDRAM (2X256 modules)
80GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM Hard Drive
3.5 in Floppy Drive
16 Max DVD-ROM Drive
DVD RW/ R Drive with CD-RW
64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 Graphics Card with TV Out and DVI
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card
Harman Kardon HK-695 Surround Sound Speakers with Subwoofer
56K Telephony Modem for Windows
Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Desktop Solution
19 in (18.0 in viewable) M992 Monitor
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Office Small Business w/ Money 2002 and EducateU
Norton Antivirus 2002 with a 90-day introductory offer
Dell Jukebox powered by MusicMatch
6 Months of Earthlink Internet Access
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service
The case measures 7.1 inches in width x 16.7 inches in height x 17.6 inches in depth.
~~~ Warranty ~~~
The Dell Dimension 8250 with the 2.8GHz processor came with a 3-year limited warranty plus 3-year at home. For an extra $70 it could be extended to 4-years.
They also give you the option of saving $60 if you take a 2-year warranty and saving $150 if you take a 1-year warranty.
~~~ My First Impression ~~~
Wow! This beauty is fast and very attractive in the dark and light gray colors. The programs opened up very fast and the games played smoothly without and interruptions due to the processor and memory.
The Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse was definitely a good add on investment working smooth making navigating easy without having a cord to drag around.
The 80GB Ultra ATA has plenty of room for all the applications, games and storage needed for some time to come.
The 16x DVD-ROM Drive played DVD movies without any problems and also played the music CDs like a CD player.
The DVD RW/ R Drive with CD-RW burned CDR and CDRW discs without any problems. The DVD RW/ R works great though it wouldn’t let me copy another DVD movie because of copy guard protection. I did burn a DVD as a backup of the 12 CDs I had saved with MP3 files for a total of about 1800 MP3 files on the DVD with room to spare.
The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card with the Harman Kardon HK-695 Surround Sound Speakers with Subwoofer sounded all right but it is not my Home Theater sound.
The Microsoft Windows XP Professional is great and so far has run smoothly without any problems, the Microsoft Office Small Business is OK but Office XP would be a better choice.
The 19-inch monitor was the lowest priced 19-inch but it turned out to provide beautiful colors and a great choice.
Games and DVD movies all looked and sounded pretty good with this system.
Dell has a winner with the Dell Dimension 8250 desktop.
~~~ My Second Impression ~~~
I got my second impression of a Dell desktop when I took a look inside the computer by opening up the case.
My first disappointment came when I saw only 4 PCI slots with only two of them being free. This means there is not a lot of room for card expansions. This shows me that it is a cheap built motherboard, most motherboards that you order have 6 PCI slots.
My second disappointment was seeing the 250-watt power supply. My personal idea would have been at least a 300-watt power supply and possibly a 400-watt power supply.
Second I saw only one fan to exhaust the heat outside, at least two would be better.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a nice computer but in my book Dell got cheap on the motherboard, power supply and exhaust fans. Then they went out of their way to install the most expensive processor, the Intel instead of AMD and the most expensive RAM of the RDRAM. (Rambus dynamic RAM)
The easy to open case is a plus and the color coordination inside of everything makes it easy for you to check if you need service over the phone.
Don’t get me wrong but this is a nice computer, I have built several computers from scratch and would have added the things I listed above.
~~~ Overall ~~~
The Dell Dimension 8250 series are nicely built computers that do run good on all applications, games, movies and the Internet. These are computers that should last for years and give you reliable service.
The biggest plus to the system is the 8 USB ports, though they should have placed 4 in the front and 4 in the rear.
The biggest minus to the system is it has some upgrade ability but it is limited!
Overall I highly recommend the Dell Dimension 8250 desktop computer!
Thank You for reading my review!
Need a Good Digital Camera? Then check out my review of the Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom Digital Camera.
Here are some of my other Computer reviews!
Dell SmartStep 200 Series Notebook Computers
HP Omnibook XE3 PIII Notebook Computers
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The Parts for Building a Computer from Scratch!
Products that would go good with this computer!
Kodak DVC 323 Webcam
Logitech Z 640 PC multimedia speaker system
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2873
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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