Out of the box, it's clear that both the E520 and 9200 are powerful PCs that'll laugh at almost any task you throw at them.
The Intel Core 2 Duo is a seriously powerful chip and is faster than anything else in the market (save for Intel's own quad-core Core 2 Extreme and Xeon processors).
The only area where the machines lag is in the graphics cards department. Though you can easily swap the built-in cards for something faster, it would've been nicer if you could buy these machines with more powerful graphics cards (Dell doesn't offer anything faster for either of these configurations).
Even though the GeForce 7900GS card on the 9200 is pretty decent, it isn't quite enough if you're a serious gamer.
Apart from that, these are fantastic machines to live with – their combinations of good looks, quiet operation, blistering performance and expandability make them very appealing.
The Intel Core 2 Duo is a seriously powerful chip and is faster than anything else in the market (save for Intel's own quad-core Core 2 Extreme and Xeon processors).
The only area where the machines lag is in the graphics cards department. Though you can easily swap the built-in cards for something faster, it would've been nicer if you could buy these machines with more powerful graphics cards (Dell doesn't offer anything faster for either of these configurations).
Even though the GeForce 7900GS card on the 9200 is pretty decent, it isn't quite enough if you're a serious gamer.
Apart from that, these are fantastic machines to live with – their combinations of good looks, quiet operation, blistering performance and expandability make them very appealing.
Pros: Powerful processors; very well designed case; good expansion options; fantastic optional 24in LCD.
Cons: Graphics card options could be better.
