Dell Inspiron 1720

Dell's completely revampled Inspirion 1720 desktop replacement has a fabulous

configuration (see specs box). With 4 GB RAM, two 250 GB hard drives, NVIDIA

8600M GT based graphics, and even a Blue-ray drive, it's truly a mean machine

for power users. Its overall multimedia experience was enthralling. There's a

DirectMedia Button to instantly access DVD movies, music, photo slide-shows, and

videos, all with a pair of good speakers.

One obviously expects it to outperform all players in the league with such a

configuration. In 3D Mark06 however, it beat Lenovo T61p's (also reviewed in

this issue) score of 1606, with a score of 2730, clearly showing its gaming

supremacy. In PC Mark05, it scored 3626, which is high, but lower than T61p's

score of 4751.

In Battery Mark4, it gave a battery backup of around 4 hours and 15 min,

which is 30 min more than the T61p.

Bottomline: It's a lucrative option for

power users, if they're willing to pay the price.