Dell Studio Slim Small Form Factor Desktop PC

Mar 26 2009 - Dell's Studio Slim desktop system is a half width version of their traditional Studio desktop system that packs the same level of performance and value into a smaller package. This includes full use of desktop grade components to give it a competitive edge against traditional laptops. However, if you plan on upgrading the system, you would be better off upgrading at the time of purchase due to the internal design that makes consumer upgrades quite difficult.

Mar 26 2009 - Dell's Studio Slim is a half width version of their Studio tower desktop. Unlike the traditional tower design though, Dell has built the Studio slim to be used either in a tall tower or traditional desktop orientation. This makes the Studio slim fit in nicely with a home theater style setup, although you don't want it in a closed cabinet for cooling reasons.

Life the normal Studio, the Studio Slim uses standard desktop components inside of the system. This gives it equal performance levels to a traditional desktop. The Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 desktop processor provides it with a solid level of performance and optional quad core processors are even available. The system comes with 4GB of memory but it does use the slower DDR2 memory compared to the faster DDR3. This should let it run applications without issue.

The 500GB hard drive is much larger than the laptop drives that are typically found in mini PCs but this is due to the Studio Slim's use of 3.5 rather than 2.5 inch drives. A dual layer DVD burner comes standard but users do have the option of upgrading to a Blu-ray drive if they so desire to watch the new high definition video format.

Graphics are handled by the new Intel GMA X4500HD integrated graphics that let it fully support high definition video streams including Blu-ray movies. The downside is that it still lacks 3D graphics support for gaming. Video card upgrades are available but the half-height card slots limit the options to fairly low powered cards.

The big problem comes from the internal layout of the Studio slim. The larger case design would lead many to assume it is easy to upgrade. The internal wiring and component layout including the retention bar make this near impossible for the average user. The heavy use of metal also makes this system quite heavy for a small form factor PC.