Dell GX270

I've normally got mixed feelings about Dells. On the up side they tend to be fairly reliable (apart from some well publicised problems with POTs bursting on some motherboards). The downside is that they tend to be fairly hard to upgrade.

So why change my computer for an old GX270? Well, the fact is that it is significantly faster than the venerable old Athlon XP 2200 which has served me well for the past doo-de-dah years (where doo-de-dah is a number between one and too-many).

One thing that is taking some getting used to is the noise, or lack of it. My original PC sounded not unlike a Harrier jump jet taking off when it was started, and made a constant noise whilst in use. Yes, you get used to it but My God was it loud!

To give you an idea of how quiet the GX270 is, my LCD monitor makes more noise. Seriously, this thing is whisper quiet. I'd go as far as to say it is one of the quietest PCs that I've ever used (and that is including some of those with specialised cooling equipment).

Really, the only problem with this model of Dell is reliability. Hopefully this will be one of the PCs that doesn't suffer with swollen capacitors, think of it as the XBox 360 of the PC world.

I don't like playing Russian Roulette with my equipment, but I'm going to take a chance and hope for the best (I'm just going to have to put my original PC "on ice" as a backup in case of emergencies).