Dell Dimension C521 Desktop Computer (Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 2.00GHz/250GB/1GB)
Desktops Buying Guide
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October 20, 2006 02:36
3.5/5
I purchased this for my wife for her work at home (teaching. It is replacing a very slow and cumbersome older Dell.
This is fast enough for everything she does, including a fair amount of PPT presentations and other graphics.
Not very expandable if you want to make a gaming or hot rod computer out of it, but does everything well as it is.
I don't agree with CNET's review. Both the burner/player and HD can be removed and replaced in a few seconds with no tools.
They made it sound like it's such a burden.
Yes, you do have to change out a couple of plastic brackets if you you want to use a different drive. I don't see where that is such a big deal. How often do you plan to do that anyway?
Of course adding another HD internally is out of the question.
We find it a slim and attractive piece of gear with enough computing power to support everyday work or leisure computing for a long time.
It's nothing super special, but it is no dog either. -
February 25, 2007 06:44
Terrible
0.5/5
My PC experience started with the tiny Osborne decades ago. Since then, I have owned and operated many, many computers. One of them, a Dell Dimension 8200, is the best computer I have ever owned. This one, the Dell Dimension C521 with Vista Home, is, hands down, easily the worst computer I have owned. It is unbelievably slow and remains hopelessly fragmented with the registry in turmoil. One out of four times after shutdown, it will not reboot from the hard drive and the CD must be used. I finally ran out of patience and returned it. This dude is a world class loser. -
January 8, 2007 02:40
4.5/5
This a great computer for general home use. I generally use computers for web surfing and e-mail, downloading and managing my numerous digital photos, using Office programs, and listening to music. I do not use a computer to play video games, watch or edit movies, or record TV programs, so these were not factors in my purchase. The C521 I purchased has an AMD 64 bit dual core processor, 2 GB RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive. And though that is more than enough of what I need at the moment, it never hurts to overestimate the amount of RAM and hard drive space you think you'll need, since memory and disk space tend to degrade over time. Plus, I wanted to make sure it would run Windows Vista with ease. I bought it to replace my old Dell Optiplex that was getting slow and long in the tooth. That one only had 192 MB RAM and a 20 GB hard drive, so the difference is amazing! I wanted my new computer to retain the slimness of the Optiplex, and though the C521 is slightly bigger, there are no complaints here. (Since my old CRT monitor was so big and bulky, this computer with its flat screen monitor actually takes up less space.) I don't plan on adding any PCI cards in the future (not unless I have to), so the availability of the smaller cards is not a concern for me. Compared with my old computer, the speed is very fast and it's able to handle my numerous photographs with ease (the old one always took forever just to load the thumbnails of them). This computer suits my needs perfectly and I couldn't be happier! -
January 26, 2007 08:08
3.0/5
Purchased this system with a 21' widescreen for under $800. System is very fast with a AMD x2 3800 processor. To my supprise it is also very quiet for being small. Good for average use and is vista capable (and comes with a free upgrade through mail). I did have to remove the plate from my wireless network card for it to fit, and cannot find any aftermarket video card small enough to fit due to it being a smaller system. The only video card choice from Dell is a ATI x1300, or x1300 pro.
This system if good for general use, and the cost in parts would equal more than what I paid for this system with the monitor. -
January 23, 2007 05:08
4.5/5
I purchased two of these, one for my office and one for home (XP Pro and Media Center). Dell delivered fast; ordered on Monday, at my door on Thursday.
This is not a high end gaming system. If you do office tasks, Internet, enjoy music and watching DVD's, and playing most games, this is a great system. It is fast and fits both my home and office needs. I've had multiple programs running (PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, browser, and MusicMatch in addition to all the background stuff) with no noticable drop in performance.
I'm not really impressed with Media Center Edition, but it works.
I went with the 2G RAM and the 256M video card-well worth the upgrade. The fans are quite and the system runs cool.
The other reviews point out the most serious downside-you only have 2 PCI slots (one if you use a video card). The remaining slot is half-height. I use a lot of USB devices, so this is not a concern for me. -
April 4, 2007 08:28
4.0/5
Nice little computer but not intended for the power user. Dell recommended it for home use and MSoffice. Won't be loading MS20007 as I do business on my laptop, but I just wonder if I ever want to make that transition, how it would work.
Aside from the flimsy power switch I mentioned, it's great so far. The footprint is small and it is extremely quite. I really like that! I don't even know it's there...that's how quite it is. The case is nice and fits very well on the desk space. A bit of an improvement over the typical Dell ugly in that there is more silver and the sides are white. Dells are so typically ugly! You would think they know this already? -
March 23, 2007 03:56
3.5/5
I just got it a week ago and already there is a free upgrade on my system. Nevermind that, I bought this one for the cool and quiet operating environment of AMD chip. I got an HP a few months ago for the office and was impressed how quiet and cool it is. Unfortunately, HP is more expensive and does not carry any small form desktop. The C521 harddrive is a little noiser though. Overall happy with this machine. Quick and free delivery too.Updated
CNET's review is not entirely fair. The HDD compartment is quite easy to access because the optical drive and media reader are both easy to slide out by lifting a tab and lock back in place by sliding them back. They have to be done one by one since they sit on each other. There is no tool required so I do not agree with Mr. Brown's comments. The unit runs fine and yes, as long as one does not plan to upgrade the PCI cards, which is often the case for home PC use, then there is no problem. The unit runs extremely quietly and cool. I have got it for 3 months, no problem. Dell has improved its products. In fact, I have since bought an Optiplex and Inspiron and am happy with all of them. -
January 3, 2007 07:15
Mediocre
1.0/5
Straight out of the box it wouldn't turn on. The mother board was replaced by Dell but it never would boot up properly. The decision was made to return it since it's hard to imagine a scenario that inspires less confidence. -
July 4, 2008 08:08
Excellent
2.0/5
I bought the Dell C521 in a hurry and picked it up for the small footprint. It doesn't save much space over the stardard sized Dell. The sacrifice you make is that it is very challenging and limited in its upgradability.
Running Vista Ultimate it's slow to do anything but it will run the OS. A year later I am struggling with the debate of upgrading it or scraping it for a whole new box. -
May 12, 2008 04:20
3.0/5
My daughter bought one of these systems. It came with Windows Vista and 512MB of RAM. This is not a usable system. You can run barely one major app at a time....and after that the hard drive goes crazy. With more memory, the problem goes away, but what the heck is Vista doing with 512MB of RAM? Terrible.
We put a wireless card in it by buying a cheap 802.11g card with a low-profile circuit board, but full height metal spacer. I cut the spacer at both ends with tin snips to make it fit and molded the top end with pliers to fit the smaller DELL slot space. This took about 10 minutes to do and she now has a WiFi card in this system. But WHY??!!
Lesson here: buy full-size cases and make sure you have at least 1GB of RAM, (preferably 2) if you're running Vista.
My daughter now wants an ASUS eeePC preloaded with Linux. She's played with one in the sotre and thinks they're hot. I think they are cheap, fast and correctly spec'd. She'll have one soon.
