Occasionally the allocation of the Speed Award can lead to some misgivings in the Labs staff since, to paraphrase an adage, PCs do not live on speed alone. In this case there are no misgivings since the Dell Dimension XPS B733r simply strolls through the benchmarks. It's a rare occurrence for the PC Authority Labs since the manufacturer must get just the right balance of components and software to sweep the Benchmarks. This is exactly what Dell has done, and while there are other machines on test that are cheaper or have more components, the Dimension neatly pushes the other systems out of contention in terms of performance.

The Dimension XPS B733r is based on the Intel Pentium III/733MHz CPU with the i820 chipset running in native RDRAM mode, unlike the two other i820 boards seen this month in the Mitac Elite and MBI SmartPartner. Both of the latter use the performance-hindering memory translation chip to handle SDRAM, which is one reason why the Dell managed to snatch the Speed Award. The only drawback of using RDRAM is its currently high price, which is several times more expensive than SDRAM, which makes upgrading a costly processes.

Both the I/O and graphics sub-systems are configured for performance. The hard disk comprises a 27Gb IBM Deskstar hard drive and, to complete the sub-system, Dell has included an 8-speed DVD-ROM drive. The machine's graphics system is based around the powerful nVidia GeForce256 chipset with 32Mb of RAM, although it didn't perform as well as the MBI SmartPartner in 3D.

The standard Dell midi tower case is one of the easiest cases to open - one thumb screw and two clips, giving you access to all the internal components. The Intel 820-based motherboard is laid out in a spacious manner allowing ample room when working on the system. It is strange looking into a system these days to find only two memory slots, although only one module carries the physical memory and the second slot carries a terminating CRIMM.

The Dimension is built to handle any application you could put it through. With this amount of power that little rotating hourglass will only make a rare appearance, and with 27Gb of storage you won't run out of room for a long time. This system would be great for anyone looking for the ultimate machine capable of doing almost any task.