Dell Studio Hybrid Review

Gee, these external hard drives are getting better and better. This one's got a nice oval face that looks good whether you stand the drive vertically or horizontally, and a handsome color case (the company says it's available in half a dozen colors). A couple of pass-through USB ports on the front? That's handy. And around the back there's more USB, and Ethernet, and HDMI and audio and ...

Um, wait a sec. That's a whole PC.

At least ours wasn't the biggest office double-take over the Dell Studio Hybrid -- that honor goes to a coworker who said, "It looks like a clock radio." But it's certain that the Hybrid won't be mistaken for your average desktop.

It measures about 3 by 8 by 8 inches and weighs 4.9 pounds (4.4 without the supplied stand that holds it in portrait or landscape mode). Its use of notebook components helps it get by with a 65-watt power supply -- a small external brick like a laptop's AC adapter -- which Dell notes is a fraction of most desktops' power consumption. The power supply's 87-percent efficiency also qualifies for Energy Star 4.0 status.

Dell cites other reasons why the Studio Hybrid is its greenest consumer desktop -- 75 percent less printed documentation by weight (there's a 4 by 6-inch mini manual) and 95-percent-recyclable packaging, not to mention the fact that it's made of rather less metal and plastic than a conventional minitower.

Too Rich or Too Thin?

It's also affordable, though not as affordable as a minitower: Prices on Dell's site start at $449 for a stripped-down but usable Windows Vista Home Basic model with an Intel Pentium Dual-Core CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard disk, and DVD±RW.

Retail shoppers can choose a system with Core 2 Duo T5850 (2.16GHz, 2MB of Level 2 cache) processor, 3GB of memory, 32-bit Vista Home Premium, a 250GB hard drive, and wireless keyboard and mouse for $600 (plus monitor) at Best Buy.

A similar configuration on Dell.com comes to $669, with a slightly slower 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo but the free option of a Sapphire, Topaz, Ruby, Quartz, or Emerald shell or sleeve over the standard slate-gray case. A black or brown leather or -- for extra-green activists -- bamboo shell adds $100. Our test system had the Best Buy specs plus onboard draft-n WiFi, which is a $70 option on Dell's site.

Swapping the DVD±RW for a Blu-ray player adds $200, though we'd advise against entrusting high-definition playback to Intel's GMA X3100 integrated graphics -- in case you haven't guessed, the Studio Hybrid has no graphics upgrade or other expansion slots or unused drive bays.

That's one thing to consider if you're torn between the quasi-clock-radio and a more ordinary machine: The same $600 budget at Best Buy gets a Dell Inspiron 530 minitower with a quicker 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo E7300 processor, more memory, a bigger hard disk, and empty bays and slots galore.

Or, if you're shopping at Dell.com, the Inspiron 530s slimline -- a desktop that roughly splits the size difference between the Hybrid and minitower -- rings in at $5 under the abovementioned $669 Hybrid model despite bundling a 19-inch LCD monitor.