The Dell's most significant speed advantage comes on our multitasking test. We'd expect the Gateway and its triple-core AMD CPU to have an edge here (that standard desktop system also offers better features than the Dell, for only $50 more), but we'll give Dell credit by outpacing the Acer by a significant margin. We attribute this to the fact that the Acer uses an energy-friendly chip design, which might not handle multiprocessing as well as a comparable full-power CPU.
The Dell's Photoshop and Cinebench scores speak to its ability to process images quickly, but that it lags on iTunes suggests that the 2.5GHz clock speed on the Acer's AMD chip can provide an advantage on standalone, CPU-sensitive tasks, such as file encoding. Neither of these systems will impress any serious digital-media editor, but each is competent enough for day-to-day photo editing, audio file conversions, and other lightweight tasks.
Dell competes well enough on its basic support offerings. The standard warranty provides one year of parts and labor protection, and you also get 24-7 toll-free phone support. We were surprised to find that this off-the-shelf Inspiron 530s doesn't provide as much bundled support software as some of Dell's direct-order PCs, though. Dell's onboard support software is not the best in the industry, but some of its system information programs gather useful stats in one convenient place. This model lacks that software, although we're also glad that it's free of annoying desktop icon clutter.
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
Dell Inspiron 530s
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.2GHz Intel Pentium E2200; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Intel GMA 3100 integrated graphics chip; 3200GB 7,200 rpm Western Digital hard drive
Acer Aspire X1200-U1520A
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.5GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 8200 integrated graphics chip; 500GB, 7,200rpm hard drive.
Dell Studio Hybrid
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit); 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics chip; 250GB 5,400rpm Samsung hard drive.
Gateway GT5692
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.1GHz AMD Phenom X3 8450; 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive.
HP Pavilion Slimline s3500f
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics chip; 500GB, 7,200rpm hard drive.
