Dell Computer Corp duly launched its 50MHz 80486 desktop machine in the UK yesterday: the 450DE EISA-bus system costs UKP6,000 with 100Mb hard disk, 4Mb RAM and colour VGA monitor; according to Dell, the machine offers a 50% performance improvement over a 33MHz 80486 Dell system, which can be upgraded for UKP2,200; upgrades include a simple board swap, with BIOS upgrades installed from a floppy disk; however, Dell’s Tower-based systems currently have a different architecture, and will not be upgraded to the 50MHz chip for another month or so; Dell claims that the new machine will be available in reasonable quantities from next month.
