"I'll try to mention things that others haven't in prior reviews. System startup takes a little less than 2 minutes after the initial setup, which to me seems just a touch sluggish considering the decent specs. I'd recommend updating the BIOS among everything else from Dell's support page as soon as you can.

The display: the Radeon 3650 has an HDMI connection not mentioned on this site. The drivers should be updated from ATI's support page but download the driver and the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software separately. You'll get an error upon installation. I had success with it after uninstalling the CCC using Windows Add/Remove Programs, then reinstalling. The software also defaults to downscaling the display 15% (this effectively shrinks the display, not using the full screen). This can be fixed in the advanced menu of CCC.

The system does come with an IR remote for use with Media Center.

The TV tuner is Hauppage's WinTV-HVR-1250. You'll want to update the drivers from their site. This tuner will allow you to view/record HD video, but *NOTE*, like all Hauppage's tuners concerning HD video, it will only decode over-the-air ATSC HD broadcasts, not cable or satellite broadcasts. It'll see ClearQAM (unencrypted) digital channels if your cable company provides them. See their support page FAQ for more detailed info.

Windows was free of all the junk extras which was a pleasant surprise. The free Trend Micro subscription is nice, too. Decent system that should last."

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Apr 16 2009

gil1

Dayton, OH

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Dell XPS Desktop with Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q8300

Decent system

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