Dell Studio Hybrid Desktop

With an Intel Core 2 Duo low power dual-core processor under its hood, this machine is capable in many mainstream user applications and could make for a decent Home Theater PC.

Hi, I’m Dave Altavilla from Hot Hardware. Today we’ll continue our coverage in small form factor systems with a look at the Dell Studio Hybrid. Now as the name suggests, the Studio Hybrid is a low profile system that consumes a lot less power than a full-sized desktop but maintains all the features and functionality’s. In addition it’s possible that this machine can double nicely as a home theater PC. Let’s take a look around at this Eco friendly machine from Dell. The Dell studio hybrid is a small form factory system that weighs in at just under five pounds and measures about only eight and a half inches tall. Dell builds the hybrid as one of its most environmental friendly machine that consumes 70% less power than a typical desktop, leads energy star standard for ISO compliance and has a power supply with an 87% efficiency rating. In addition the hybrid packaging is made from 95% recyclable materials and Dell also ships with the system, a system recycling kit for your old system which is essentially a prepaid ground service delivery tag back to Dell, so that DELL can dispose your old system in an environmentally friendly way. Our studio hybrid can build upon an Intel 965 chip set with integrated X3100 graphics and an Intel core two duos T58 50, dual core processor clock to two point one six gigahertz. They also had installed three GB of DDR two C 67 system memory and a standard 5400 RPM, 160 GB hard drive. We also had an eight X slot load CD-DVD combo drive in our machine but Dell also offers options for a six X slot load, blue ray drive as well. Operating system choices include Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, and Vista Ultimate. On the front of the system you can see we have an integrated multi format flash card reader slot, pair of USB slots, and a headphone jack slot and of course we have our slot load combo DVD-CD drive. The backside of Dell studio hybrid has lots of different I/O options starting form top to bottom here. You can see we have our power jack, our GIG-BD LAN ports, HTMI output, DVI video output, three USB 2.0 ports, 1394 Fire wire, SP def optical output, microphone in and audio output line out. So let’s power on the Dell studio hybrid and see what she’s made of, as you can see the hybrid logo nicely illuminated through the front panel of the system, as well as the power button. I think you saw the hard drive indicator light flash there as well and in a moment you’ll see there’s an optical drive indicator light that also doubles as a touch button for slot load DVD drive. And as you can see the Dell logo also nicely illuminated through the side panel of the system. Again real slick stylings with the dell studio hybrid, a reminder that this system is built on an Intel core two-duo dual core processor with three GB of system memory and a standard 5400 RPM hard drive. So Windows Vista boot times as well as general desktop responsiveness should be competitive with a full sized system and as you can see we got into a Vista Desktop in a well under 30 seconds. Let’s have a look around, our Dell studio hybrid came pre-configured with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium and the first thing you’ll notice is that Dell includes a handy multi media tool bar bundled in with the OS and this toolbar divides functionality for e-mail, internet, photos, music, video, security and other features. Taking a look here at the Vista Experience index we see, Vista Race Studio Hybrid 140G that we have at Windows experience index three. And our Intel core two duo processor T 5850 at two point one six gigahertz as listed here as well as three GB of system memory and of course this is a 32 bit installation of Windows Vista Home Premium. Another important utility that Dell includes with the studio hybrid is Dell media direct home and this is a multi media viewer/player of sorts, giving you access to your digital pictures, music and of course digital video. We’re going to fire up the video player and our DVD movie of choice, in this case Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest, and as you can see playing standard definition digital video is not a problem, fluid and smooth and CPU utilization currently oscillating between 15 to 20%. Let’s do a little bit of multi-tasking well perhaps do some web pages, as you can see, CPU utilization spikes form that 20% or so up to 70% but also of course the DVD video remains smooth and fluent in the background. So good multi-tasking performance here playing digital video and browsing web pages simultaneously. Let’s take a look at high definition digital video next. Now one of the areas of concern with small form factory system like the Dell studio hybrid, which can also double nicely as a home theater PC, would be its ability to playback high definition digital video. In this case, the system’s chip set with onboard graphics only has the ability to partially upload the host processor for digital video processor. Let’s fire up a 720P resolution high definition clip and as you can see, CPU utilization over here on windows task manager performance monitor is showing 30 to 40% and the video plays back smoothly, brilliantly. Next we’ll fire up a 1080P clip, a little bit more work for the Dell studio hybrid and as you can see, CPU utilization has spiked up a little bit more now or importing 40 to maybe 65% or so. The video does playback smooth, fluent, with no drop frames. We should note that we had to disable Direct X processing in the windows media player option’s menu in order to get these 1080P clips to play cleanly in windows media player. The reason for this frankly is that Intel’s chip set driver still needs a little bit of optimization but Dell’s media direct home player utility has done a nice job playing these clips and also will serve as the media player for blue ray DVD’s as blue ray player is also an option with the studio hybrid. Now, during testing we found that the Dell studio hybrid consumed about 28W of power under idle conditions and about 63W of power under full load. Not bad for a system with its capabilities. In addition Dell also offers interchangeable outer sleeves for the studio hybrid which allow you to change colors and there’s even a bamboo sleeve if you’re really feeling earthly crunchy. The base price for the studio Hybrid is $499.00 on Dell’s site and with additional options like blue ray players and 80211 and wireless, prices can go north wood from there. Stop by the site for the full review I’m Dave Altavilla for Hot Hardware thanks for stopping by.