Dell Inspiron 531
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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
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