PC vendors have very few tricks remaining to differentiate their systems from the competition, which makes the built-in Bluetooth in the Dell Inspiron 530 unique. There's little else that makes this system stand out, but if you need Bluetooth in your budget desktop, we can recommend no other.
Since Dell has stopped selling its AMD-based Inspirons, that leaves the Intel-powered Inspiron 530 and 530s leading its budget desktop charge. The Inspiron 530 is a modest $539 configuration that offers some surprising features for the price. Hewlett-Packard competes very well in this price range too, but Dell's one differentiator is that it has Bluetooth built into its media card reader. The Bluetooth module makes this Inspiron 530 an excellent anchor for your other devices, as well as a reasonable affordable budget desktop. If you need such a system, we recommend it.
The $500 desktop is becoming a bit of a luxury these days, with plenty of $300 and $400 PCs out there providing perfectly serviceable computing. The starting point for the configurable Inspiron 530 is about $379, which includes a Celeron processor, Windows Vista Basic, and a configuration that, in general, looks a lot like the recently reviewed HP Pavilion a6400z. Bumped up to this $539 configuration, the Inspiron 530 provides a little bit more performance, as well as a few more features. The lesson is that if all you need is a spare Windows PC, a lower-end configuration will get the job done, but if you spend a little bit more, you can turn on Vista's snappy visual effects, get some wireless connectivity, and enjoy better performance overall.
| |
Dell Inspiron 530 |
HP Pavilion a6400z |
| Price |
$539 |
$340 |
| CPU |
1.8GHz Intel Pentium E2160 |
1.8GHz AMD Sempron 2100 |
| Memory |
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
| Graphics |
128MB Nvidia GeForce 8300 GS |
128MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 6150SE |
| Hard drive |
320GB, 7,200 rpm |
250GB, 7,200 rpm |
| Optical drives |
16x dual-layer DVD burner |
16x dual-layer DVD burner |
| Operating system |
Windows Vista Home Premium |
Windows Vista Basic |
Compare the Inspiron 530 with the Pavilion a6400z and we can see the basic differences between budget and budget. The extra money spent on this Dell configuration gets you a more capable dual-core CPU, a larger hard drive, as well as a full-fledged graphics card. Make no mistake, as configured this Inspiron 530 is no gaming PC. The chief benefit of its low-end GeForce 8300 GS card is that it has its own memory, unlike a built-in graphics chip such as the one in the HP. With its own memory, the GeForce card won't siphon off the main system RAM for video purposes. Between the better CPU and the discrete graphics card, the Dell most definitely will get you faster performance than the less-expensive HP configuration.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple iTunes encoding test(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Multimedia multitasking test(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
CineBench test(Longer bars indicate better performance)
|
Rendering multiple CPU | |
|
Rendering single CPU | |
Dell Inspiron 530
3,212
1,724
You can see the performance disparity between the $539 Dell and the $340 HP on every benchmark test. We can't say we're surprised that the more expensive computer won, but Dell didn't exactly bury the HP system. Our results show that the Dell will probably save you a few seconds here and there as you go about your day-to-day computing tasks such as photo editing and converting audio files. For pure bang for the buck, that $429 eMachines T5246 looks like a better deal, at least as far as raw performance since it actually beats the Dell on two of our four tests. While the T5246 is no longer on sale, we suspect eMachines' $400 replacement, the T5254, will fare similarly well (we're reviewing that system next). That means that although the Inspiron 530 does offer some performance benefit for its added cost, it still has more persuading to do. Whether it will sway you depends on what other gadgets you own.
We've mentioned the Inspiron 530's graphics card, and that it likely helps overall performance, even though it's not suited for 3D gaming. HP offers a similar low-end 3D card upgrade on its Intel-powered Pavilion a6410t series systems (the Intel-based counterpart to the AMD-powered Pavilion a6400z mentioned above), so that's no great differentiator for the Dell. The two also compete on hard-drive size and other basic features, right down to the wireless mouse and keyboard set.
The Dell's biggest standout feature is the Bluetooth module built into the Inspiron 530's media card reader. HP doesn't have a similar upgrade. By adding Bluetooth, Dell invites you to use the Inspiron 530 as a ready-to-go nerve center for any Bluetooth-capable devices you might own, including cell phones and printers. Alternatives include adding a USB Bluetooth receiver to the HP or any other system, but at the expense of a USB port. We search for, but could not find a third-party media card reader with Bluetooth built-in that you could add yourself. However, even if you could find one, we suspect most of you shopping for a budget PC are happy to let Dell do that work instead.
If you do have a mind to upgrade, the Dell gives you some flexibility. There's room for one additional PCI expansion card, and there's also four memory slots. Our configuration came with two of them populated, but it's nice to know that you can add more RAM without throwing your current memory away. There's also room to add a second hard drive, although you'll need to mount it by screwing its underside into the metal panel that serves as the drive cage. That installation method might be a little unorthodox, but it's certainly not the worst we've seen.
For service and support, Dell offers the traditional one-year-parts-and-labor warranty, along with its 24-7 toll-free phone support. Online you get the usual support pages tied to your configuration's unique ID number. Dell also includes a reasonably helpful support application on the system that helps you maintain your PC's drive space and overall health. We're also glad to see Dell ship this system with little in the way of superfluous icons on the desktop, unlike HP, which is the worst offender in this area.
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
Acer Aspire M5100
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.19GHz AMD Phenom 9500; 3GB DDR2 667MHz SDRAM; 256MB (shared) ATI Radeon HD 1250 graphics chip; 500GB 7,200 rpm hard drive
Apple Mac Mini
Apple OS X; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 64MB (shared) Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics chip; 120GB 5,400rpm Hitachi hard drive
Dell Inspiron 530
Windows Vista Home Premium; 1.8GHz Intel Pentium E2160; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM 128MB Nvidia GeForce 8300GS graphics; 320GB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive
eMachines T5246
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.21GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 6100 graphics chip; 400GB 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive
HP Pavilion a6400z
Windows Vista Home Basic; 2.1GHz AMD Sempron X2 2100+; 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 6150 SE graphics chip; 250GB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive
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