Dell XPS 410: Core 2 Duo for the Masses
by Jarred Walton on September 18, 2006 12:20 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Multimedia Capabilities
One final item to talk about is the included TV tuner. The card is manufactured by Lumanate, Inc., and it includes a couple of Micronas chips as well as two NEC chips on the PCB. Windows Device Manager lists the dual TV tuner as Angel II MPEG. The card is naturally fully compatible with Windows Media Center Edition 2005. First, here's a shot of the card itself.
We did not try to test the TV tuner with other HTPC applications, but we did conduct some basic quality testing using the standard Windows MCE interface. Once MCE was set up for our location, watching and recording channels was extremely easy. In terms of quality, the picture looks good and subjectively compares to most other dual analog TV tuners. Without extensive testing time with additional cards, we can't say for certain whether it is equal to, better than, or not as good as other TV tuners we have reviewed. We would suspect it has a slightly lower quality image than the top analog tuners, but even the best analog signal pales in comparison to your standard HDTV signals. We captured a few sample videos to demonstrate the quality, seen below.
Note that deinterlacing is handled in part by the software during playback, so the output of Windows Media Center looks slightly different than what you might see in other media players. We chose to capture the unprocessed videos at their native resolution using Windows Media Player 10. You can spot some interlacing artifacts because of our capture methodology.
If you are looking for the absolute best quality analog tuner on the market, you'll probably want to do more research. Of course, if you are purchasing the XPS 410, you don't really get a choice about what TV tuner you want included. You can either get the dual-TV tuner or the single channel tuner, but both offer similar quality. In terms of out-of-the-box experience, the TV tuner left little to be desired. It works, the image quality looks about as good as most other analog TV tuners we have tested, and the Windows MCE interface is very easy to use.
One final item to talk about is the included TV tuner. The card is manufactured by Lumanate, Inc., and it includes a couple of Micronas chips as well as two NEC chips on the PCB. Windows Device Manager lists the dual TV tuner as Angel II MPEG. The card is naturally fully compatible with Windows Media Center Edition 2005. First, here's a shot of the card itself.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
We did not try to test the TV tuner with other HTPC applications, but we did conduct some basic quality testing using the standard Windows MCE interface. Once MCE was set up for our location, watching and recording channels was extremely easy. In terms of quality, the picture looks good and subjectively compares to most other dual analog TV tuners. Without extensive testing time with additional cards, we can't say for certain whether it is equal to, better than, or not as good as other TV tuners we have reviewed. We would suspect it has a slightly lower quality image than the top analog tuners, but even the best analog signal pales in comparison to your standard HDTV signals. We captured a few sample videos to demonstrate the quality, seen below.
 |
 |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Note that deinterlacing is handled in part by the software during playback, so the output of Windows Media Center looks slightly different than what you might see in other media players. We chose to capture the unprocessed videos at their native resolution using Windows Media Player 10. You can spot some interlacing artifacts because of our capture methodology.
If you are looking for the absolute best quality analog tuner on the market, you'll probably want to do more research. Of course, if you are purchasing the XPS 410, you don't really get a choice about what TV tuner you want included. You can either get the dual-TV tuner or the single channel tuner, but both offer similar quality. In terms of out-of-the-box experience, the TV tuner left little to be desired. It works, the image quality looks about as good as most other analog TV tuners we have tested, and the Windows MCE interface is very easy to use.
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Gary Key - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
BF2 is just a bit weird with the benchmark results. Although our demo contains several minutes of intense action on the Daqing Oilfield map in a variety of vehicles and personnel assignments we typically find there is very little difference in the benchmarks between 1600x1200/1680x1050 or 1920x1200/1920x1440 resolutions with a decent video card. Also, with the latest video cards like the 7900GTX or X1900 there is no penalty now for 4xAA at 1280x1024 as an example. The benchmark will score the same as we are not GPU limited at that resolution with the Dell configuration as an example.
JarredWalton - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
BF2 also doesn't properly support WS formats except in demo playback. Go figure. So perhaps it isn't properly optimized for aspect ratios other than 1.333 (the standard for 4:3 displays).giantpandaman2 - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
Thoroughly enjoyed it. :)Again, only suggestion would be to add how long it took between ordering and receiving.
bamacre - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
I've been telling everyone how well-designed these cases are, and how powerful the PSU's are. I stuck an X1900 XTX card in a precision 390 with a 375W PSU, and it ran great. People don't understand wattage isn't everything.And, I totally agree, I wish case manufacturers would take a peek and learn a few things from the higher-end Dell cases.
Again, great job on the review.
yyrkoon - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
Dell cases suck, however thier cases work for thier systems very well. Dell has always(atleast for the last several years) had innovative ways of cooling thier systems, I'm a bit surprised I even saw a radiator in this system, because normally, with a normal heatsink, and thier exaust shroud, thier systems run pretty dahmed cool.Anyhow, if you REALLY think thier cases are great, buy a Lian Li, then think on it again :) All it takes for me to realize it sucks, is to look at the back of the case, and notice how cheap it is.
Dell makes great computers for people who dont want to build thier own systems, however, for those of us who do build our own systems, I think all of us would agree, that nothing is better than a hand built system. You wont, however, be able to beat Dell prices (latest Dell catelog showed thier rock bottom system selling for $399 us, including a 17" LCD !)
mino - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
For sinle C2D, 2sticks generi DDR2, single X1900XTX, dual HDD and dual optical ANY _properly_designed_ 350W PSU is sufficient.The real issu is, these times 300W != 300W, thats the real issue.
As a fact wattage matters, however the real one, not the written one...
kristof007 - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
I really enjoyed reading through the review. So I was wondering would you be able to take that supporting piece off the 7900 and snap it onto a gfx card you buy?JarredWalton - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
The blue plastic is basically made to hold a GPU in place and it should work with any standard GPU. Some specialized cooling solutions won't fit most likely, but I did slot in an X1900XT card and it fit without problems.Homerboy - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
I'm so sick of the standard, anti-big-box-company rhetoric that's thrown aroung the Anantech Forums. Maybe this will quiet their tone.mino - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
In the US, Absolutelly True.Here, in Slovakia, Central Europe, NO.
Simply because the smaller the market, the more expensive the Dell and the worse the support.
We buy no pre-built ones since the for a price on an low-end pre-build I can have mid-to-high end custom build.
And local support -if knowledgeable- is FAR more effective and responsive that any DELL's. Not to mention cheaper, since most HW issues are warrantied even on customs. The real problem's are HW-SW and SW and most of these are not warrantied by anybody, so you are gonna solve them by yourself or pay huge sums for paid support.
Here the ~$200 per incident from big players is outrageous. Such can pay me 2-3 days of on-site professional's salary. And I need that professional no matter what.
Those Dell's prices are cute, if one forgets they ask $1000 here for the same machine sold at $500 in US... That puts thing a bit into the perspective.
Also to maintain an stable of a few hundred of those machines >3yrs often becomes a real pain.
Reason being 1GHz/512M Athlon/PIII from 2001 is still pretty sufficient for most of the tasks these days, also budgetary constriants are never predictable...
As of now, I simply buy 30% motherboards above the PC count and I'm pretty nicely covered for 5+yrs. 3yrs is warranty, and after that I have own spare parts stacked up nicely on the self.
Any other part is a comodity thingie, som almost no stockpile needed.
This way we can repair any HW failure within minutes of diagnose and if needed pretty comfortably operate for a few yers under seriosly limited budget.
So for me - screw the Dell's of this world :)