Customer Reviews for Vostro 420
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Vostro 420Vostro 420
Average Customer Rating: 
(21 Reviews) 21
Rating Distribution (21 reviews) 5 stars 10 4 stars 8 3 stars 2 2 stars 0 1 star 1
19 out of 21(90%)customers would recommend this product to a friend.
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Customer Reviews for Vostro 420
Review 1 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:OKtrav
(Oklahoma)
Duration of product use:Over 6 months
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:October 12, 2011
Title:
Vostro420
Product Uses:streaming music/video, School, mmo's, surfing net
Review:Dell Vostro420
age: approx 2 years or less
Ordered Direct
age: approx 2 years or less
Ordered Direct
This pc is extremely zippy and handles multiple programs very nicely out of the box(s). One can't go wrong buying this machine. Its an extremely user friendly experience and still flexible enough to cover a multitude of roles.
The upgraded card (at the time mind you) was not able to run some todays most advanced MMO's very efficiently requiring me to upgrade its graphics ability. The machine, however, still exceeds the increasing requirements to achieve an excellent gaming experience.
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 2 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:sealcorp12785
(Tyler, TX)
Duration of product use:Less than a month
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:November 18, 2009
Title:
Great computer & Great price!
Product Uses:network database, light duty photo and video, email and general internet
Review:This is a great computer for the price. It was bought as an upgrade for an employee, and they are very happy with it. The built-in NIC performs great on our network, and the huge hard drive has more than enough space for all the user's local files. They also really like the 22" widescreen monitor (who wouldn't, right?). Overall, this was a great buy, and we are very happy with it.
-1point
1out of 3found this review helpful.
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Review 3 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:cliffmx5
Duration of product use:Months
Level of expertise:Good
Date:October 20, 2009
Title:
Vostro 420 BIOS 1.2.0
Review:Dell just fixed the XP aspect ratio problem with wide displays. After upgrading bios to 1.2.0 the system went through a complete rediscovery and driver download. I had to do this with all my operating systems installed. XP32-Vista32-Vista64
and Windows7. When using XP32 my pictures are
now in the correct aspect ratio. Circles are now true circles and not stretched out.
Quad 6600 with 8gb ram. Runs great.
and Windows7. When using XP32 my pictures are
now in the correct aspect ratio. Circles are now true circles and not stretched out.
Quad 6600 with 8gb ram. Runs great.
+4points
7out of 10found this review helpful.
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Review 4 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:wrf01a
(Merkel Texas)
Duration of product use:Less than a month
Level of expertise:Good
Date:October 7, 2009
Title:
I'm Imressed
Product Uses:Connecting with Friends, video processing/ editting
Review:I've owned a couple of Dell computers over the years and this Vostro 420 is truely an impressive computer. It works Flawlessly and has no problem multi-tasking. Like my other Dells, this one will be around a while.
+2points
3out of 4found this review helpful.
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Review 5 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
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Reviewed by:Stillson
(Australia)
Duration of product use:Less than a month
Level of expertise:Good
Date:September 17, 2009
Title:
Great buy!!
Product Uses:Finances, study, Gaming
Review:I just purchased a Vostro 420, came very quickly, easy to install, able to fit extra HDD with no issues. Not real happy with Norton Anti-Virus but uninstalled and put on SAVCE from old system.
Overall very happy with product and service.
+4points
4out of 4found this review helpful.
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Review 6 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:Elf
(Sydney, NSW, Australia)
Duration of product use:Months
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:August 16, 2009
Title:
Very nice, but scrap MS and use linux instead
Product Uses:client has one
Review:Nice, nice specs, nice overall, however, especially for a SERVER, you should be able to "roll your own" and NOT be forced into purchasing Microsoft products.
-6points
13out of 32found this review helpful.
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Review 7 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:Cyberspy
(Warwickshire)
Duration of product use:Less than a week
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:August 11, 2009
Title:
Make sure you know what you are buying
Product Uses:web development
Review:Got the machine today and put Server 2008 64bit on it, as I am a web developer and that is the spec of the live server.
Windows 2008 did not come with some important drivers - video adapter and NIC were the two main culprits. The included driver disk is no help (acceptable as the supplied OS is 32 bit) but the web site only has drivers for 32bit Vista. A long, slow on-line chat with Dell revealed that 64 bit OS's are not supported by Dell on this PC, even though the CPU (I have the Q9550) is 64bit. This is just lazy Dell - it took me about 20 minutes to find the correct drivers on the Internet but if you really can't do this for us, tell us in the tech specs!
Video card. Although I selected the Radeon 3650 (actually, it was the only one available), and the driver I found on the AMD site makes the installed card work OK, the connectors on the card are different to every 3650 picture I've seen. The 3650 has 2 DVI connectors - the card I have has 2 HDMI and one DVI.
As I have two S2409W displays (great value at £161 each (special offer) for a 24", 1920x1080 display), I now have to buy a DVI splitter cable, or a HDMI to DVI cable.
The response from Dell during the online chat was that the PC "had a different model of video card". Duh! I can tell that! However, as the photo on the Dell site shows what looks like a Radeon 3650 (2 DVI connectors), and this is the only graphics card offered, what have I got!!
As I have two S2409W displays (great value at £161 each (special offer) for a 24", 1920x1080 display), I now have to buy a DVI splitter cable, or a HDMI to DVI cable.
The response from Dell during the online chat was that the PC "had a different model of video card". Duh! I can tell that! However, as the photo on the Dell site shows what looks like a Radeon 3650 (2 DVI connectors), and this is the only graphics card offered, what have I got!!
It's a good spec for the price, but Dell, please be honest about what is supported up front (i.e. 32 but not 64 bit) and supply the parts (i.e. Graphics card) selected!
+66points
69out of 72found this review helpful.
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Review 8 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:originalsnuffy
(Midwest)
Duration of product use:Months
Level of expertise:Good
Date:August 6, 2009
Title:
Nice Machine (some small limits)
Review:Overall this is a nice machine for the small or home office. What I like about this unit is that it can bridge old and new; it has PCI and PCI-E slots. The built in eSATA port is a plus.
My unit has the 8200 chip. It is fairly quick, but be aware that is does not support the Intel virtual machine capability. This may matter is you run Windows 7 and want the XP mode. Heavy duty users of Virtual Machines probably already know about the limits of this chip.
Things to be aware of. As noted in other reviews, the front bezel is designed for disc drives. I had to use a dremel tool to provide access to my front panel audio patch bay.
Also, although the motherboard is designed to allow turning off SATA ports from firmware...the currently shipping firmware does not enable that capability. I can not get a direct answer if this is a capability that was removed in the latest firmware, or if it has never been enabled.
I also can not get an answer if this will ever be added to firmware. This would be a nice feature if you would like to have a multi boot system, and want to "protect" some hard drives.
I also can not get an answer if this will ever be added to firmware. This would be a nice feature if you would like to have a multi boot system, and want to "protect" some hard drives.
Like every Dell, I recommend a mix of Dell parts and non-Dell parts. Even though the case is more "old school" in terms of design, I think this is a plus. The case does not hinge, but has screws. Add in cards are screwed in too. I think this is more solid than the old designs of my previous Dells.
+9points
11out of 13found this review helpful.
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Review 9 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:AlexCheung
Duration of product use:Over a year
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:July 22, 2009
Title:
Failed Nvidia Card
Review:don't even bother to upgrade with the nvidia card. i upgraded the 8800GT and it failed 3 months after my 1 year warranty expired. I got random blue dots on BIOS boot screen and XP boot screen. XP won't start the graphic card. it is a very commone issue with nvidia card...so stay away...
Called dell and they said it's gonna cost $280 to get the graphic card replace?!
Called dell and they said it's gonna cost $280 to get the graphic card replace?!
+41points
46out of 51found this review helpful.
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Review 10 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
Reviewed by:peeka
Date:July 14, 2009
-1point
6out of 13found this review helpful.
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Review 11 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
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Reviewed by:Dallasatty
(Dallas, TX)
Duration of product use:Less than a week
Level of expertise:Good
Date:June 24, 2009
Title:
Fast and Good
Product Uses:Finances, business
Review:This machine is an awesome piece of work that speeds up my productivity immensely.
By adding a hard drive and an automatic back-up program, I can forget about the clutter around the machine. With XP we can fly through the work.
By adding a hard drive and an automatic back-up program, I can forget about the clutter around the machine. With XP we can fly through the work.
+7points
13out of 19found this review helpful.
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Review 12 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
5
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
4
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
4
of
5
Reviewed by:sagi
(Philadelphia, PA)
Duration of product use:Less than a month
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:April 17, 2009
Title:
Nice computer well built - a little slow
Pros:Nice build - case looks good.
Spacious case - easy to open and add drives, a TV tuner card.
Many USB ports and front audio.
Once applications are loaded they run fairly quickly.
Supports 2 screens.
Cons:Not as fast as I had hoped even with a quad core processor and 4GB of ram computer feels a little slugish.
I have a feeling that the HD is slowing things down.
I had a year and a half old system before this with a slower processor and faster drives and worked much much faster.
Delays are noticebale when loading heavy applications.
Review:I think this would be a good system if you are not super sensitive for speed. Runs office applications well as well as multimedia apps, does very well on multi tasking.
+122points
132out of 142found this review helpful.
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Review 13 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
5
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
5
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
5
of
5
Reviewed by:defoss64
Date:March 25, 2009
Title:
Fast and silent
Pros:I really like this 420. It is really fast yet runs so quiet. I have had no trouble with it so far and am well pleased.
Cons:The only con is that IE sometimes locks up--so nothing new there.
+12points
16out of 20found this review helpful.
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Review 14 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
3
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
4
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
4
of
5
Reviewed by:kgpicman
(Hollywood, FL)
Duration of product use:Months
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:March 25, 2009
Title:
Better than my old Dell Dimension 9600
Pros:Fast, quiet and mostly reliable.
Cons:The integrated network card was a disaster. I have purchased 2 Vostro 420s in the last 4 months. The first network card worked fine for about 2 months and then died. The network card on my new Vostro worked for 2 days and then died. Dell's solution was to have the motherboard replaced. That was totally unacceptable because I was not convinced that the new integrated network card would be any more reliable. My solution was to purchase and install a separate network card on both machines. Everything has been fine since.
Review:I love Dell products, but do not like the rigid solution process used by the Dell support technicians. I am sure that I am not the only one that has had the network card problem, so Dell should have stepped up to the plate and offered to send out a separate network card free of charge.
+63points
67out of 71found this review helpful.
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Review 15 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
5
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
3
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
4
of
5
Reviewed by:Ras2009
(Canada)
Duration of product use:Less than a month
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:March 8, 2009
Title:
Vostro 420 not so business
Pros:With a Q9550, 4G of RAM, 2 x 160G in datasafe (i.e RAID1) and the base ATI 3450 video card it run all our business application without a hitch... powerful, fast, very quiet and at around 140W power consumption.
Cons:As noted elsewhere the enclosure is a departure from the hinged design. Now all parts are rivetted and more or less friendly for any upgrades. Any h/w using the 3.5" slots will have an overhang of approx 1/2 inch. The front plastic bezel is about one 1 inch deep and customized for narrow CD/ DVD trays only; it will get into the way of adding any standard 3.5" HDD tray adapters normally used to allow one to easily replace or remove HDD's. I believe this to be a design oversight for a business computer
Review:It came with Vista basic which I allowed a few days to make work then decided to install XP which works very well for us. If you decide to go this way, make sure you slipstream your XP version with the latest Intel drivers and burn this into an ISO copy (google on this topic to find more details)
+31points
44out of 57found this review helpful.
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Review 16 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
4
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
5
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
4
of
5
Reviewed by:Adrian28204
(Manchester, UK)
Duration of product use:Months
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:February 25, 2009
Title:
Better than expected
Pros:Specs say 4GB ram only and up to 4 HDD's, but I'm currently running with 6 HDD's (over 5 GB total storage) and 8GB ram. Great for virtual machines.
Cons:only 4 HDD bays, needed to use 5.25" to 3.5" converter to mount additional HDD's. Other than that, nothing to report.
Review:You must use a 64bit OS to use more than 4GB ram. I am currently using Solaris 10 with all hardware operating. ZFS with two drives as parity so three drives need to fail before I lose any data. Great box for clustering with another Vostro 420 (since they're cheap) to provide high availability.
+11points
18out of 25found this review helpful.
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Review 17 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
5
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
5
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
5
of
5
Reviewed by:Carl07
(Austin, TX)
Duration of product use:Less than a week
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:February 24, 2009
Title:
Vostro 420
Reviewer Images
(click to see full-size image)
Pros:PC design and expandibility, monitor flexibility with USB ports, overall value for the price, ease of setup and use.
Cons:Initial quality control scare, no instrutions on when to use the VGA or PCI connector for the monitor.
Review:When I began unpacking the computer, I noticed that the lower right side of the faceplate was open (see photo). I began to question the quality control, and removed the cover on the left side and then opened the faceplate and snapped it into place. In retrospect, this was the last quality control issue I had.
I noticed that the computer wiring was very organized, and the structure was capable of significant expansion, with four open SATA slots (see photo) on the motherboard. Both optical drives are SATA, which is very positive to me. I will soon add my SATA LG HD/Blu Ray/DVD/CD drive into the third bay with no issues, I expect. I also found an eSATA connection on the back of the computer.
When I connected the monitor (2208WFP UltraSharp), I at first wondered why I was connecting an USB cable to the PC, but then realized that the monitor provided four additional USB connections – two on the left side and two on the bottom. Nice!
Don’t use the VGA connector; use the DVI one, if you can. I used the DVI cable to connect the monitor to the PC, and then went to Settings/Control Panel/Display to set the resolution to 1680 by 1050 pixels. The results are a brilliant monitor, but I found it to need dimming significantly from the default setting of 75, and increasing the contrast from 75 to 85.
The computer booted in Windows xp, since I had opted for the downgrade – I am a technician who uses some tools that do not work in Vista. I haven’t even looked for Vista yet, though it is installed.
The rest of the story is a fast and capable PC that has exceeded my expectations in performance, quality, and ease of use. The optional wireless-N card produces a very fast throughput with my Wireless-N router, and it has a versatile antenna to ensure good reception.
At first, the covers on the three drives and the media area seemed superfluous, but they work smoothly, and make cleaning a breeze. They also keep dust and pet hairs on the outside of the PC. The unit looks as sharp as my Samsung 1080P plasma TV, with its polished black surfaces.
This PC is the source of my livelihood, with a little recreation on the side; and I could not be more pleased. I hope that in the long term it is as reliable as my previous Dell PC’s – both desktop and laptops.
+69points
69out of 69found this review helpful.
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Review 18 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
4
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
4
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
5
of
5
Reviewed by:minusdot
(East Lothian, Scotland)
Duration of product use:Months
Level of expertise:Expert
Date:February 23, 2009
Title:
If only it could take more memory!
Pros:Works with Windows 2008 Hyper-V really well.
Cons:Once you start using virtual machines you quickly discover that 4GB isn't really enough.
Review:I was pleased to see the eSATA port on the back - I've ordered an external disk to utilise this and see if I can spot the 6x performance increase over USB2.
+3points
4out of 5found this review helpful.
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Review 19 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
3
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
2
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
3
of
5
Reviewed by:hebrsa
Date:February 18, 2009
Title:
Lack of different power supplies
Pros:This would have been a great PC to have for work HAD Dell had enought sense to offer a few different power supplies.
Cons:How can Dell offer a PC that uses more then one hard drive-up to 4 hardrives if you need/want..and not offer an option to get something more substantional then a 350 watt power supply.
A PC like this should have as it's basic Power supply..a 400 Watt to start..
As a matter of fact..Dell should offer the option to all consumers as to what power supplies the would want to purchase.
Review:I would think twice before buying this PC unless you are going to stick to one hardrive and the 350 watt power supply that comes with this PC.
Sorry Dell..bad choice
Sorry Dell..bad choice
+19points
27out of 35found this review helpful.
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Review 20 for Vostro 420
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Overall Rating:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
(21 Ratings)
Quality:
4
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Features:
(21 Ratings)
Features:
3
of
5
(21 Ratings)
Value:
(21 Ratings)
Value:
4
of
5
Reviewed by:Woodrowsrc
Date:February 17, 2009
Title:
Vostro 420
Pros:Nice package at a very good price. Downloaded to XP.
Cons:No parallel port- that would have been nice to know! And try to get a parallel card to work- good luck.
Review:Arrived on time- started right up. Normal Microsoft software issues....
+7points
9out of 11found this review helpful.
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