Do you feel inspired? (Dell Inspiron 530)

Member Name: rune_tune

Product:	Dell Inspiron 530
Date:	25/05/08 (1953 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent for the price range

Disadvantages: Some massive variations in the 530 range. Beware when looking.

Dell Inspiron 530

~ My foray into Dell ~

Well, I put the mockers on it. I did a review on my old Advent, and spoke about how well it has performed, and suddenly the on/off switch is now sticking making turning it on a tad difficult. But fortunately I was unexpectedly given some money and so went scouting around for a new base unit. Eventually after a little hunting and comparison's made on various products within the budget I had, I decided to go for the Dell Inspiron 530 that was available through Tesco's.

~ First thoughts ~

The packaging was nicely done, with enough to fully protect the unit, but not so much as to be over the top. It all came out of the main box without any particular sticking issues (I hate it when the packaging becomes jammed in so tight to the main box you can't move anything). So it was all nice and easy to get out and begin assembly.

Dell is renowned for simple, cheap computers, and as such I didn't expect the base unit to be anything too special. It is different to the older units in that it has silver front and white sides, whereas Dell was always a black case before. I don't know how much this change of colour is going to run through the ranges on offer, and personally I do prefer this silver/white combo far more that the black.

Although I was looking to simply get a replacement base unit, what didn't get shown in the catalogue was that this also came with a keyboard, and wired optical mouse! I didn't really need either, but its always useful to have spares, and actually when I tried out the keyboard, the keys were nice and soft - certainly better than my old keyboard and having arthritis this made typing far more comfortable. A change soon occurred and I'm now happily using the Dell keyboard that came with it.

~ Starting up ~

I'm comfortable enough around computers to happily set the system up, including getting it wired into our home network. It all hooked up nice and easily, although there did seem to be a lack of guides for those who might struggle a little more to understand what goes where. It did have a quick set up guide with some basic information on, but I do feel the more in-depth information was lacking. Apparently its available online, but that's not much help if your struggling to get the computer up and running.

The tower Base unit is a fairly standard size for ones of this type, so you will need a reasonable area to put in into, but since it was going to be a straight swap for my old unit, this wasn't a problem for me. I've had one quick peek inside and at least it looks as if there is plenty of room for expansion if needed in the future.
The unit is well vented, with side, rear and front air holes.

The front has a nice clean look, and again Dell are fairly adept at just having the minimal amount showing, with as much as possible covered with doors and flaps. In this case, there are 3 bay fronts. The top one houses the DVD/CD rewriter, the second one is a spare drive so you can add a further DVD/CD drive if you wanted.
Below that the 3rd bay houses ports and plugs. There are 4 USB 2.0 ports, and although not on my model, obviously a blanking plate for a FireWire port (although I haven't looked I would imagine you could add this if wanted), Jack plugs for headphones and a microphone and finally a 4 in 1 card reader.

The back has minimal features showing, but you get an additional 4 USB ports, a 10/100 Ethernet Port, audio plugs to put a 7.1 sound system in place plus the usual allowing you to hook your monitor and power lead up. Neat, tidy - just enough for what you need and no more.

~ So operating what does it offer? ~

Well each one comes with slightly different bundles depending on where you get the machine. In this case I've listed the Tesco website information at the end of this review, and included in that is also what comes bundled with this particular machine.

When you turn the machine on, apart from an initial noise from a fan (I presume) this is a machine that is ridiculously quiet while operating.
Overall I've found it to be quick and responsive when using it, and compared to my other machine its like going from the cave into a newly built 21st century house. I love playing around with our own websites and graphic design, and often found it hard to have both applications going before. Now I can multitask with ease, and no obvious lag or problems have appeared. The 3 GB of RAM is great, so even though I've got Windows Vista Home Premium installed, which is known for sapping RAM I've not noticed any performance loss.

The 500 GB hard drive installed is far more than I've ever been used to (my previous machine had an 80GB HD) and again its nice to know I've got plenty of space should I want to use it. I can't imagine I will, but never say never.........

The only real possible problem I feel that might occur is when I open the DVD/CD drive, it does feel a little too flimsy for my liking. Perhaps I'm just too used to the old solid drive in my Advent machine, but I'm still not convinced it could take a lot of use without some possible problems. So I handle with extreme care, but if someone doesn't give it a second thought I seriously suspect it won't last for that long.

The DVD rewriter though does do it well and at a nice speed. So far, the DVD authoring and CD Rom's I've done have all been more than acceptable and its been done in good time.

The only gaming I've done so far has been to put some older games on, so I've not taxed the resources of the machine at all. I don't use the computer for a lot of gaming anyway, so I wouldn't like to comment on how this machine might perform in this aspect.

~ Final thoughts ~

Overall so far I've been more than happy with this for the money spent. I don't know how well this is going to perform over the coming months or years, but I do think there is enough room for upgrades as I need them, and so far its done all I've asked of it and more.

Its not as comprehensive as some models might be, but then again for the price I think it does give far more than many other competitors would. If you were ordering from Dell direct you could begin to add in other extras, but then you begin to haul the price tag up dramatically, and I would begin to seriously look at other alternatives from other manufacturers. If, like me you order this unit from a 3rd party, then shop around because there are a vast array of differences in specifications (Tesco is the only place I've seen 3GB RAM offered for example). So a cheaper price might not necessarily mean a better deal.

I would never have a Dell monitor either with any one of their systems, and while I went for the bundle without a monitor, I would always recommend you go elsewhere for one because its always been one of Dell's weakest points.

So Pros.
Good all round performance.
Good graphics on this model.
Excellent keyboard with my model.
Good room for expansion.
Excellent price.

Cons.
Inspiron 530 machines can have a vast difference in specifications. Hunt around.
FireWire port wasn't standard with my version.
Needs to have better printed help when unpacking.
The DVD/CD unit feels flimsy when out.

4 out of 5 stars for me on this.

For the information and technical details that came with this machine, see below.

~ Tesco's website date information on this particular version ~

Accessories Included USB optical mouse and keyboard
Box Contents 530 Resource DVD, OS reinstallation DVD, tiscali and BT broadband CDs, Roxio recovery DVD, retailer specific tech tupport sheet, product information guide, 530 quick start map
Brand Dell
Bundle Contains PC
Card Reader Yes
Graphics Integrated Intel graphics media accelerator 3100
Hard Drive Size 500GB
Hard Drive Type Serial ATA 7200 RPM
Keyboard Type Wired
Mouse Type Wired optical
No of PCI Express Ports PCI - 2 slots, PCIe x1 - 1 slot, PCIe x16 - 1 slot
No of USB Ports 10 ports (4 Front, 4 back) + 2 internal
Operating System Vista Home Premium
Optical Drive Type DVD-ROM / CD-RW combo drive
PC Memory 3GB
PC Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E4500
PC Processor Bus 800 MHz
PC Processor Cache 2MB
PC Processor Model Number E4500
PC Processor Speed 2.2 GHz
Product Depth 17 cm
Product Height 36 cm
Product Weight 10kg
Software Load Microsoft work 8.5, Roxio Ceator and MyDVD 9.0, McAfee 30 day anti-virus trial

Price: £349-00 (reduced from £399-00).

Summary: A great deal for the price range this sits in. Overall a good solid machine.

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