The Inspiron 9000 series has impressed us in the past, so we were eager to find out whether Dell could make the 9400 the best model yet thanks to the Core Duo. It’s been available in Australia for a few months already but the base specification and options have been in a permanent state of flux until now.

Indeed, the 9400 is customisable on Dell’s website, so you can choose from various Core Solo and Duo parts as well as RAM, video and even OS configuration. Just bear in mind that modifying it could bump up the price.

Last month we reviewed the Dell Inspiron 6400 and the XPS M1710. The Inspiron 9400 can be viewed as the 17-inch bigger brother of the 6400 and a lower-end version of the deluxe, previously A-Listed XPS M1710. The XPS was undoubtedly gorgeous, and at almost $6000 it should be. We were hoping that the 9400, which uses a similarly shaped and size chassis, and basic components of the M1710, would be a more sober version at an affordable price.

Our review model still had a top-end Core Duo T2600 CPU and meant that it matched the Overall 2D performance of our reference PC, which packs a dual-core 3.2GHz Pentium D 840 chip. Backing up the processor is 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 60GB hard disk. The latter feels a little small for the price, though.

We weren’t disappointed with the NVIDIA 7900 GS graphics. While it can’t match the 7900 GTX chip found in the M1710 it still packs a punch. In our new Far Cry with HDR benchmark it averaged 36.7fps in our tough 1600 x 1200 test. It was a fair bit slower in Call of Duty 2, however, and averaged a barely-playable 21fps. However, this score is easily boosted just by reducing textures and detail. In short, it’ll play the latest games.

This is a boon, as the glossy 1920 x 1200 widescreen 17in display is ideal for gaming. However, it proved slightly disappointing, as it had a grainy appearance and uneven backlighting which was more noticeable when viewing the desktop and office applications. Watching HD movies and playing games was a treat though, and viewing angles weren’t bad either.

Fortunately, the speakers offer decent quality and volume for music. And, ergonomically, we had no other complaints. The keyboard has a sensible layout and a firm action. Overall build quality is fantastic; the 9400 has one of the best-protected lids we’ve ever seen.

You’ll never be short of USB 2 ports either. There are six of them, with two on the left side by the dual-layer DVD drive for easy access. 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi is present, but the Ethernet connection is 10/100 rather than the expected Gigabit. Other benefits are the DVI, VGA and S-Video outputs. At the front are media controls which you can simply use to control volume and playback of multimedia applications. You can also use these without booting into Windows thanks to Dell’s MediaDirect technology which accesses media files and plays DVDs without booting into Windows. However, our unit took almost as long to boot into that than it did Windows.

The battery life is modest as it lasted one-and-a-half hours when running our intensive test and two-and-three-quarter hours under light use. You’ll be able to watch a DVD movie but it’s not really an issue for a notebook weighing as much as 3.8KG.

Many will appreciate Dell’s outstanding three-year, on-site, next business day warranty with one-year theft cover (and two week satisfaction guarantee). It’s slightly behind the M1710’s Premiere support but still leagues ahead of the competition.

All in all it’s similar to the M1710, but without the bells and whistles. It’s not quite as powerful, but it performs well at both 2D and 3D applications nonetheless. It also shares the same great ergonomics, and while the screen has its deficiencies, it’s still great in general use. Being over a grand less than the M1710, and having Dell’s spectacular three-year onsite next business day warranty, it cruises on to the A-List as our powerful desktop replacement of choice.