Dell Dimension 3000 Computer Product Review

I have owned a Dell Dimension 3000 computer for about one year. It has many useful features and has performed reliably. It does have a few drawbacks involving noise and upgradability.

The Dimension 3000 comes with 256MB of memory (RAM), an internal telephone modem, and a sound card. This leaves two expansion slots. It has six USB ports (2 on front, 4 on back), a front earphone jack, two PS/2 ports (keyboard, mouse/trackball), an ethernet port, a serial port, and a parallel port. This allows for accessories such as a digital camera, DSL modem, or printer to be connected.

There are two large CDROM-style drive bays and a 3.5" disk drive. The disk drive appears to be non-standard, so you would probably need to purchase a Dell disk drive (or a generic disk drive with an adapter to make it fit in one of the large drive bays) to replace it. A compact disc writer/burner can be purchased which fits in the empty drive bay under the CD-ROM drive. Installing a Zip drive would require an adapter, as there are no free 3.5" drive bays. Putting in a secondary hard drive requires a two-socket cable and a mounting bracket to hold it.

It is fairly heavy and has a tower-style design. Much of the exterior is made of metal, although most of the front is plastic. Although tower-style computers have become much more common than desktop computers, towers sitting on the floor collect more internal dust, are more likely to be hit by feet or chairs, and take up more space than desktops. However, towers do put less strain on desks (because they aren't on top of them), which is good if you have a desk which isn't very sturdy.

The included Dell PS/2 keyboard is lightweight and thin. It has a smaller Enter key and space bar than some keyboards. Otherwise it is mostly standard. If you would prefer using an older 5-pin DIN keyboard, there are adapters which will allow them to be connected to a PS/2 port. The 2-button mouse included with the Dimension 3000 has a rubber scrolling wheel between the buttons, which can be useful for scrolling through websites.