Dell Computer Services

Dell Inspiron 530

Dell's first desktops to carry the Inspiron name look good, inside and out. With a huge range of available components and two equally attractive cases, mainstream consumers ought to be able to find a config that meets their budget, tastes, and computing needs. If you require Bluetooth or Blu-ray, however, you'll have to put your purchase plans on hold.

Dell has dropped its venerable Dimension desktop brand. Now, both its mainstream consumer desktops and laptops will carry the Inspiron name. Along with the name change, Dell's new Inspiron 530 and 530s PCs usher in Intel's latest G33 chipset (aka Bearlake), which features a speedy 1,333MHz frontside bus. The other two models in the lineup, the Inspiron 531 and 531s, feature AMD processors on Nvidia's MCP 61 chipset. The 530s and 531s units feature a slim chassis akin to the Dimension C521's. Each of the four models boasts a wide array of configuration options; prices start at a rock-bottom $349 and can quickly top $1,500 when you start adding upgrades. For a complete details, read our full review of the Dell Computer Dimension 531, which won an Editors' Choice.

The big range in price is due in large part to the wide array of CPU options. The Intel-based models offer both low-end Celeron and dual-core Core 2 Duo processors, while the AMD-based models offer both low-end Sempron and dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors. Memory ranges from 512MB to 4GB. All four major flavors of Vista are offered as well; no word on whether XP is an option for those less than enthralled with Microsoft's latest OS effort.

Both the midtower and the slim chassis offer two hard drive bays (which you can populate with two 500GB drives for a 1TB of storage) and the option for a PCI Express graphics card (the half-height variety for the 530s and 531s units). Also available in all models but particularly useful in the slim models, which are likely candidates to be shoehorned into home theater racks, is an optional 802.11b/g (but sadly, not 802.11n) Wi-Fi card, which will save you from having to run an Ethernet cable through your living room. Integrated Bluetooth is another living-room-friendly technology, and Dell is bringing it to these Inspiron desktops shortly. Likewise, Dell will add Blu-ray drives as on option soon.

Aesthetically, the new Inspiron line extends the silver-and-white color scheme that you can find on late-model Dimensions. The last generation of Dimensions were sleek-looking, but the area around the optical drives was black, which was in stark contrast to the rest of the case. Now, the Inspiron cases feature drive-bay covers, lending a more unified design to the PCs.

The Inspiron line carries Dell's standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty, but the company's DataSafe backup has moved online. Dell offers you 3GB of online storage and won't charge you for the first year.

Dell Inspiron 531

The good: Sleek new case design; overachieving application performance; finally has a Wi-Fi adapter option; integrated Bluetooth (shortly after launch); new, mostly useful support software.

The bad: Some higher-end configuration options are limited to Dell's XPS line.

The bottom line: The last of the major desktop vendors to update this year's desktops, Dell used that time to good advantage. On some tests, the Inspiron 531 is even faster than systems that cost $500 more. Keep your gaming and digital media ambitions modest, and this PC should deliver nearly everything you'd want in a mainstream system.

The Dell Inspiron 531 (along with a handful of other new desktops) marks the introduction of a more streamlined Dell product family. For both laptops and desktops, the Inspiron line will represent its mainstream consumer PCs, with the XPS looping together the high-end products. In other words, so long Dimension, hello Inspiron, which makes a strong first impression with this new midtower system. Our $979 Inspiron 531 config is as fast or faster than others in its class and it also has a compelling set of features. Throw in its clean new looks, and this suddenly becomes the mainstream desktop we'd recommend first.

Consider the Inspiron 531 the spiritual successor to the Dimension E521. Both represent Dell's mainstream consumer desktop offering, with configuration options that let you build a system in a price range roughly between $350 and $1,500, not including peripherals and optional software. The new Inspiron also continues the Dimension 531's aesthetic update from the old Dimension 4000 series. While not quite as clean-lined as an Apple product, Dell's new desktop design is attractive enough so that you shouldn't feel embarrassed to keep it in public view.

Like the Dimension E521 we reviewed, our sample Inspiron 531 came with a 2.6GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ dual core processor. This new model has 2GB of faster 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, though, as well as a more recent 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8600GT 3D card. The hard drive actually got a little smaller, down to roomy-enough 250GB from 320GB on the older Dell, but then the price of this system is actually about $50 less than the older system. We expect you'd be able to upgrade to a larger hard drive for about that price, giving the Inspiron a stronger config on balance.

Compare the Inspiron 531 to PCs from other vendors, though, and you'll find that this system stands out in both features and performance. Two key updates bring the Inspiron 531 in line with and even beyond its competition. Finally, Dell offers 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi via a PCI card. And it won't be available until "shortly after launch," according to Dell, but our review unit also came with Bluetooth functionality built into the 13-in-1 media card reader. You can get Bluetooth in a few other systems if you purchase an expensive Bluetooth-connected mouse-and-keyboard set, but no other mainstream midtower PC that we're aware of has an option for effectively integrated Bluetooth, as Dell has here.

We were also surprised by the Inspiron 531 on our performance tests. Most of the systems we've seen in the $1,000 to $1,500 category aim for speed on either basic applications or games. The Inspiron 531 is just as fast as it should be games-wise, giving you solid-enough Quake 4 performance as long as you keep the resolution reasonable. More exciting are its Cinebench and iTunes scores, which tied or outperformed the pricier Gateway DX430X. You can perform most any mainstream task with the Inspiron 531, and in some cases, much faster than we expected.

In addition to the speed and the various means of wireless connectivity, Dell rounds this system out with the standard optical drive combination of a DVD drive and a dual-layer DVD burner. We're a bit surprised that Dell doesn't even offer a Blu-ray drive as an option with this PC, but we suspect it's keeping that feature exclusive to the higher-end XPS line. We're at least glad to see one feature carry over to this system from more performance-minded systems--a new standard mouse that has two thumb-side buttons. Just know that once you go down the two-thumb-button road, you won't want to veer off.

Dell's service and support pulls more-or-less even with HP and Gateway with this new system by including a useful software front-end similar to HP's Total Care and Gateway's BigFix applications. Dell's support center is as easy to use as HP's software, and both include tools and how-to information to help you maintain your own PC. Dell's support center links primarily to online resources, which could put you in a bind if your Internet connection becomes a source of trouble. Still, it's handy to have all of that information presented in an easy-to-find manner.

In addition to its support center, Dell has also gotten a little more enterprising with its software and service offerings. A service called PC Tune-Up will, for "a small fee," perform automated tasks like defragging your system, setting restore points, and cleaning your registry. To Dell's credit, it also tells you how to do most of those things yourself via Windows' built-in tools.

Dell has also moved DataSafe, its name for redundant RAID 1 hard drives, online, giving you 3GB of online storage for one year. After that you can extend the duration of your storage for an amount to be determined, or upgrade to up to 30GB for $40 a year. We wouldn't exactly call that fee exorbitant, and it's, of course, optional. Still, it's hard for us to get too excited about it when you can get even more storage for free with no time limit through the creative use of various online e-mail providers.

In addition to the new software and the optional storage, Dell's basic support offerings remain largely the same. You get one year of parts and labor warranty coverage, as well as 24-7 toll-free tech support. Online, you'll find the same resources as outlined on Dell's new software, and Dell also continues to offer its Dell Connect service, which, with your permission, gives Dell's techs the option to take over your computer remotely to solve problems.

Dell Inspiron 530s

Secondly

Taking advantage of Intel's new Core 2 Duo E6700 desktop CPU (Conroe) and paving the way for a new range of Vista Ready PC's, the Dell Dimension 9200 looks stylish and is diverse in its application, but also employs some different design ideas to make this PC efficient and manageable.