The Precision 330 is the new boy in Dell's Workstation range which is aimed at just about everyone. Dell hopes the 330's price/performance ratio will make it an attractive option to all-comers, from home and corporate video makers to 3D applications developers.

As the machine was kitted out with the Pinnacle DV500 video-editing package, we assessed its suitability for this function.

The 330 certainly looks the part, with its sculpted all-black case, system monitor and keyboard. The only ugly and dysfunctional thing about it is the three-button moulded mouse, for which left-handed users will need to find a replacement.

Internal view

Inside, the motherboard houses a 1.4Ghz Pentium 4 with Intel's 850 chipset featuring a 400Mhz front-side bus. There is space for a maximum 2Gb of PC800 RDRAM in four RIMM slots using 512Mb RIMMS. Our review machine had 256Mb.

Both SCSI and EIDE drives are supported, the former via an Adaptec AIC-7892 Ultra 160 PCI SCSI card and the latter via onboard dual-channel UltraDMA100 ports. While this provides plenty of storage options, the fitted 18Gb Seagate drive is just not big enough for video work.

The only other drive fitted in the review machine, a Sony CD-RW with 32-speed read and 12/8 write speeds, occupies one of the three full-height bays. This leaves you free to make your own choices about a DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM or DVD-R drive.

The AGP slot is occupied by nVidia's highly respected Quadro Pro 2 64Mb four-speed AGP card. With DirectX and OpenGL optimisation, second-generation T&L (Transform and Lighting) engines and nVidia's Shading Rasteriser (NSR), the performance of this card would make it the obvious choice for anyone working with 3D applications such as 3D Studio Max, Maya and even Photoshop.

It has VGA and DVI connectors and supports TwinView. Apart from that, it has no specific video-editing benefits that justify its choice over a cheaper card.

Flummoxed by FireWire

FireWire ports provide a third option for connecting additional drives, as well as the all-important high-speed conduit for DV camcorders and VCRs.

We were initially puzzled by the inclusion of a Texas Instruments OHCI PCI FireWire card in addition to the Pinnacle Systems DV500 - which itself has three FireWire ports. This seemed to be overkill, particularly as the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI sound card leaves only one PCI slot available.

But, in fact, it's fitted because you can't connect FireWire hard drives to the DV500, and it's incompatible with the two camcorders we tested and quite probably a number of others.

Fortunately, virtually every aspect of this machine can be user-specified.

Capture caper

In use, the machine performed satisfactorily as an editing platform but capture was less than straightforward, largely due to the shortcomings of the DV500. We were eventually able to batch-capture DV clips from a Sony PC110E camcorder using DV Tools.

First Premiere crashed on startup until we disconnected the camcorder from the DV500's FireWire port. Then, having plugged the camcorder back in after launching Premiere, it wasn't recognised until we plugged it into the TI card rather than the DV500.

Nice build, shame about the spec

The 330 has plenty of muscle. The 400Mhz system bus and faster RAM is very welcome, as is the choice of Ultra160 SCSI and UltraDMA100. However, there are few applications that take full advantage of the P4's features.

The 330 could provide the basis of a good video-editing system, but not with this specification. At this level, you'd at least expect the FireWire ports on the DV card to function properly.

Contact
Dell: 0870 907 5664 www.dell.com