Dell Inspiron 537s-002B

CNET editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Design : 6.0
  Features : 4.0
  Performance : 5.0
  Service and support : 7.0
  Overall score: 5.2 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Rich Brown
• Reviewed on: 07/06/2009

Editors' note: This review is part of our 2009 Retail Laptop and Desktop Back-to-School roundup, covering specific fixed configurations of popular systems that can be found in retail stores.

This retail version of Dell's Inspiron 537s is the most inexpensive PC in our back-to-school desktop round, but that doesn't let Dell off the hook for offering such underwhelming features. We don't expect the world for $480, but when your specs look outdated next to not only your current competition, but also systems from six months ago, we can't help feeling disappointed. We recommend you pass this system by. It's not worth your money.

The Inspiron 537 line debuted back in March, and if you configure one online you can select from multiple case colors as well as a much better array of features than this retail model. This unit comes in attractive-enough black. As a slimtower system, the Inspiron 537s also lends itself to a variety of different usage models. You can use it as either a vertical or horizontally-oriented desktop system, but its small profile also lets you put it in your living room or some other more visible location without it causing too much of an eyesore.

We don't want to overwhelm our reviews with exhaustive features lists, but there's actually a much larger difference between the Inspiron 537s and its closest competition, the Gateway SX2800-01 aside from its price and the CPUs. You have only to look at our performance tests below to see how badly Dell lags behind not only the quad-core Gateway, but also its dual-core budget competition. While Dell's other components line up well enough against the Gateway, Dell skimped badly on the motherboard connections.

You get four USB 2.0 ports, a VGA video output, a modem, an Ethernet jack, a set of analog audio jacks, and a pair of mouse and keyboard inputs on the back of the Dell. That's it. Turn the Gateway around and you'll find all of those features, plus digital audio out, an eSATA external hard drive connection, and an HDMI video out. Throw in the Gateway's more compact size, and it's clear that Gateway has joined its brand-parent Acer, as well as Asus, in offering slim towers that live up to the full potential of their versatility. We realize Dell has Studio Hybrid units to move, but that doesn't excuse it from letting the 537s languish at retail.

Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering multi-CPU

Rendering single CPU

Gateway SX2800-01

10,085 

2,773 

Asus Essentio CM5570-AP002

5,832 

3,046 

HP Pavilion Slimline s5120y

5,757 

2,912 

HP Pavilion p6110y

5,717 

3,042 

Dell Inspiron 537s

5,391 

2,917 

With quad-core PCs readily available for about $500, along with reasonably fast dual-core systems at the same price, the Dell and its 2.5GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 chip looks inordinately slow. Again, we understand that this system costs $20 to $30 less than its competition, but that's not enough of a price cut to justify both subpar features and such slow performance. Sure, the Inspiron 537s will handle whatever basic tasks you might ask of it, but with so many faster systems available for just a few dollars more, we find little reason to accept this system's laggard speed.

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