Dell Inspiron 518 user reviews

3.5 stars

"No problems out of the box." on April 23, 2009 by sh9168

Pros: Quite and fast
Came with Vista 64 and a Monitor

Cons: Cheap keyboard
DVD ROM drive can't be opened except thru the OS

Summary: A good machine overall. I bought it at Walmart for under $800 complete with a 23 inch flat panel monitor.

4.5 stars

"can not find anything to complain about (rare for me)" on February 16, 2009 by SpiceUmUp

Pros: Fast, stable, attractive and versatile. Loaded with USB ports, the tray on top is inspired.. The perfect home office computer.

Cons: Nothing yet.

Summary: We don't play games so super video and so forth are of no value. We were looking for a well equipped box for running our home business and for internet, Office applications and email. FOUND IT. Very pleased to the point that I ordered another one today. The 32 bit-64 bit thing is no longer valid as it ships standard with Vista 64 bit. This will be the box I upgrade first when Windows 7 hits the market place. I have had no issues with this computer and I could not be happier.

4.5 stars

"This PC Represents an Excellent Value!" on January 23, 2009 by rranger1

Pros: I've had this machine for about a week, and I'm very impressed! As with another reviewer, I bought mine at Microcenter. It was pre-configured with a 2.53 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 3 GBs of RAM, on-board Intel X3100 graphics, and a 640 GB 7200 hard drive.

Cons: The only thing I can say I don't like so far is that this came with a 32-bit version of Vista. While it works fine, I'll need to do a complete replacement when I upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit. Bummer.

Summary: There really isn't much not to like. I really didn't care to potentially double my power consumption by getting a quad-core processor, and most reviews I've read suggest that virtually no software is currently optimized for two-cores, much less four.

This PC flies, and I'm coming from a Pentium D 3.0 Ghz that I used to think was fast. It is, of course, but nothing like this!

When I get the chance, I'll probably put a video card in the PCI-Express slot (Yes, of course this PC has one - I don't know what another reviewer was thinking, particularly since cnet's reviewer actually tested with an add-on card. Duh!)

And, this is the first Dell box I can remember that is actually attractive to look at.

Updated on Jan 27, 2009

There actually is one PCIe x16 and one x1 slot. It's clearly in the manual and - I might add - no self-respecting manufacturer in 2008-2009 would build a PC without one.

Stop the dissemination of bad information.

5.0 stars

"Pefect Computer for the Average Consumer" on October 23, 2008 by roomoleum

Pros: Phenominal performance:price ratio as well as a really well-engineered chassis design for the end user. Nothing slows mine down. I plug my Zune in on the top and set it there. There's two USB ports on the top, two in front, and four more in the back!

Cons: If I had bought this as a gaming machine, it would not have been the best choice. There's not really a high-end video card from Dell for this. The front panel will likely blemish easily later on.

Summary: I was really surprised at what I got for only $629. I chose the 2.53Ghz E7200 core 2 duo with 3GB DDR2 RAM and a 640GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive. There's nothing else that I have seen out there currently for this price with this much performance. I bought mine at my local Microcenter, so all the negative Dell support issues don't apply to me; I warranted the system through Microcenter, so if I have any problems all I have to do is take it into the store. I actually built a whole system, one component at a time with a lot of sale-priced items and when I was all done, it cost about $40 more, and it had half the storage but was otherwise virtually identical (exact same CPU, etc.). Buying this already built with one warranty and everything tested and the basic software you need preinstalled was the obvious choice and I love this computer. There is never any lag time during any programs or even Windows startup. I highly recommed this desktop.