Couple weeks back, my very-old-hag desktop computer has decided to die on me without a proper farewell. Leaving me with no choice but to make a tough decision between the ‘Monster‘ and the ‘Beast‘.
Being a hardcore multi-task user, I have strong believes in Dell’s product quality and performance. Since my dream machine is way far from my budget. At this very urgent timing, I had to once awhile choose Dell.
In order to make sure things work well this time, I’ve decided that I should get a Workstation instead of normal desktops.
I need something that will give high performance, doesn’t shut down my Photoshop in the middle of drawing and doesn’t melt the graphic card’s fan(my Radeon 9800XT has both its fans melted). On top of that, I’d love to have a bigger, wider workspace. You can imagine how annoying and time consuming to switch between browsers to compare the output results and the compatibility in one not-so-wide screen.
Eye-ing around the workstations list on Dell’s website, I’ve decided to give Dell Precision T3400 a go. Being the middle range priced workstation in the list, Dell Precision T3400 has the attractive basic specs before customization.
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Q9550 (2.83G/1333FSB/12MB)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Business & Windows XP® Professional (both 64bits edition)
- 8GB (2×4GB ) DDR-2 800MHz ECC Dual-Channel DDR2 Fully Buffered DIMM
- 1TB SATA HDD (7.2k RPM)
- 48X/32X/48X/16X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
- 256MB PCIe x16 NVIDIA Quadro NVS 290, Dual DVI, Dual VGA and DVI+VGA
- Broadcom 5721 Gigabit Network Card
Just look at the basic ‘Monster’ specs! All I need to do are just some minor customizations and everything’s good to go!
I waited 6 days(included weekends) for the 39 lb(that’s roughly 18kg) ”Monster’s Arrival”, then plunged in the latest Adobe CS4 Master Collection CD and have everything installed. Fired up multiple browsers, doing some hardcore drawings with my tablet using Photoshop CS4 on the new screen while having Illustrator on the other screen(Dual-screen first timer).
Everything’s working so smooth on this baby and there’s not even a tiny lag. A friend of mine even said that he’d get an orgasm by just sitting on this monster. 
If you ask me, I’d tell you this machine is awesome! I have no regret of getting this even though I preferred the ‘Beast’ (Apple Mac Pro). It was definitely a tough decision to make, Monster or Beast? Price wise, I’d go for the Monster.
Until I can manage to get my hands on a Beast, the Dell Precision T3400 will definitely be the top machine for me now!
