The left-hand edge provides access to the tray-loading DVD rewriter and a Kensington lock socket. A little cluster of additional ports is built into the rear in such a way that the cables can be threaded through a cutaway hole in the stand.

The system actually comes with USB keyboard and mouse: if you want wireless peripherals, go buy some.

It’s a curious collection of connectors, that’s for sure: legacy serial and parallel ports, a pair of PS/2 ports, an Ethernet port, three more USB ports and a 3.5mm digital audio-out socket. Who knows what Dell thinks you’re going to plug into those serial and parallel ports: a 1988 dot-matrix printer, perhaps?

Wireless n is not supported by the computer, which is a shame: instead, you make do with the more commonplace 802.11b/g.

Usefully, Dell has built the power supply unit into the case, so there’s no 'dead rat' to deal with. Less usefully, the thick plug at the end of the power cord protrudes horizontally out of the case, making it difficult to push the computer back against a wall or desk partition.

Benchmark Tests

PCMark Vantage Results

Tests run in 64-bit mode
Longer bars are better

Nb. Review unit contained a 2.6GHz Pentium Dual Core E5300 CPU