Dell Computers - Reviews

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 Desktops 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 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.

(Read more at http://www.notebookreview.com)

Click Here to go directly to DELL Computers Australia

Dell Inspiron 530s

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 Desktops 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 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.

(Read more at http://www.notebookreview.com)

Click Here to go directly to DELL Computers Australia

Dell Inspiron 531s

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

(Read more at http://www.notebookreview.com)

Click Here to go directly to DELL Computers Australia

Dell XPS 720

The XPS 720 looks likes it fell off the back of Doc Brown’s time-travelling, fusion-powered DeLorian DMC-12. Of course, no DeLorian, sci-fi or conventional, was built with a quad-core processor or USB ports.

Lending strength to its sexy first impression is the front and rear-mounted LEDs. With two sets of tiered lighting on the front fascia and a single set of LEDs over the rear IO ports, the lights not only add character to the system, they’re very useful when it comes to plugging in connections at the back of the unit. These LEDs can be programmed from within Windows to change colour, strobe, and more. This definitively adds to the ‘bling’ factor.

acked with a Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4GB of DDR2 memory and an NVIDIA 8800 GTX, one would expect this system to be a beast in the performance stakes. With styling reminiscent of an 80’s sports car, you can’t help but think of the performance as being reminiscent of an 80’s computer.

The 3DMark06 score reached 11049 marks. This may not seem bad – the 8800 GTX pulls the system over the line in the graphically-intensive tests and the Q6600 covers the CPU tests with its almighty four cores. Once the memory is isolated from these components, however, the system performs much like an E6600 dual-core in single-threaded applications. Horrifying stuff.

In the Super Pi 4M calculation the XPS 720 returns an utterly humiliating and shameful score of 2min 6.890s. This is a solid thirty seconds slower than an equivalent system built by the average enthusiast. The reason for this massive performance gap is down to the configuration and specifications of the RAM.

To get the ball rolling down a steep hill of ‘OMG, why?’ the 4GB of memory is supplied in the form of four individual modules. Any enthusiast is aware of the downfalls from such a configuration. These include, and are not limited to: increased strain on the chipset; the potential to lose tight timings; potential to lose the ability to run high frequencies; loss of overclocking headroom; and poor memory access. And just as the doctor of bad performance would suggest, the Dell XPS 720 is hit by many of these configuration issues.

Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t stop here. With the system packed with 4GB of memory, but only running a 32-bit version of Vista Home Premium, the 4GB, by default, cannot be accessed by the operating system. Therefore Windows shows 3GB due to the memory address space taken by other components such as the 768MB on the 8800 GTX. There is a workaround for this issue, though Dell did not appear to have implemented it.

In addition, not only is the memory limited to a lowly DDR2-667 frequency, it runs on extremely slack timings of 5-5-5-15 2T. No worries, we thought, we’ll just jump into the BIOS and pull the pants up on the slackers.

We almost died inside when we found the BIOS utterly empty. Feeling as if we’d just walked into an abandoned Wild West town, complete with tumbleweeds, we poked our head around the place to see whether anything could be salvaged.

Much to our dismay, there was still nothing. We couldn’t change the CPU multiplier or FSB, let alone touch the voltages. Not just the CPU, though – the voltages of anything. Not a memory divider or latency setting in sight. The BIOS was, without a doubt, the most barren BIOS we have ever ventured into, especially for a system marketed at the enthusiast.

Replacing the motherboard with something more potent will also prove a pain, thanks to the BTX form factor.

Adding to the feeling that the design wasn’t thoroughly thought out was the fact that the two 160GB Western Digital Raptors were set in a striped RAID array using the motherboard chipset’s in-built support. This configuration creates great concerns for the safety and security of any of the data stored on these drives. An additional storage and backup drive would have complemented the Raptors nicely.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. What Dell manages to do well, it does very well. The internal case structure, as well as the hardware placement and wire management, is superb. Everything is precisely secured to present an overall tidy and visually impressive system, both on the inside and outside.

The system does have some strong points, but as an enthusiast gaming system, it simply falls short of expectations.

(Read more at http://www.atomicmpc.com.au)

Click Here to go directly to DELL Computers Australia