DELL Vostro 460 and RAID

I had to order three new DELL Vostro 460 desktops for a business customer. To upgrade the basic configuration from 2Gb to 4Gb of DDR3 memory costs £60 plus VAT and to add an extra 320Gb hard disk drive to each costs £120 plus VAT. I decided to buy the extra bits myself at £18 per 2Gb stick of Crucial memory and Samsung 320Gb HDD for £30 each. In total for three systems saving myself over £500. Now the difficult bit, fitting the extras and reconfiguring to RAID 1 Mirror.

Adding the RAM was relatively easy of course, but fitting each extra hard disk drive less so. DELL mounts their hard drive in proprietary rails which they don't sell separately. However, you can screw the extra disk into to space for the optional optical disk drive. There is a 3-1/2" bay available but the SATA power lead won't stretch that far. And I don't think that business customers are going to upgrade to Blu-Ray drives that soon.

Then press F2 to go into BIOS and set the SATA device controller option to RAID. Save and install Windows. When complete, start the Intel Rapid Storage Manager and select protect your data by creating a volume. Wait a couple of hours and you have data protection at the desktop level for minimum outlay and trouble. Magic!

DELL Vostro 460 review

Let me start this review by saying that this is the fastest, most responsive computer that I've ever used and all my benchmark results prove this. And this is only a mid-range 'Sandy Bridge' processor the Intel Core i5 2400! With configurations starting at just over £400 this Vostro 460 mini-tower is a real bargain for anyone who wants a powerful desktop or as a basis of a value gaming system.

Opening the attractive case reveals further details that show the typical DELL attention to detail. Two 8cm fans spin slowly and quietly, and the quality 350W power supply. Also the six pin PCI-EX graphics card power adapter allowing you to install mid-range low power consuming graphics card like the AMD Radeon HD6850. There do not appear to be any USB 3 connections available or SATA 6GB/s sockets on the motherboard and these do not appear to be options either. There is an external eSATA and HDMI connectors on the rear of the case. Also an older VGA D-sub video connector instead of the more modern DVI.

A real disappointment is the use of proprietary metal rails to secure the hard disk drive. These are not available from DELL unless you purchase a really expensive extra hard drive. Also the memory upgrades are expensive as well, though with four slots you can always purchase the DDR3 DIMMs yourself and easily expand the capacity.

These points do little to dampen my enthusiasm for this excellent value desktop which really show the performance of Intel's new processor in an affordable package.