- Room For Secondary Hard Drive
- Larger Number of Half-Height Expansion Card Slots
- Available in Multiple Colors
- No Digital Video Connectors On Base Model
- Lacks a Number of Newer Expansion Ports
- Pricing Not Competitive Enough
- Intel Pentium E5300 Dual Core Desktop Processor
- 3GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Memory
- 500GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 16x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
- Intel GMA X4500HD Integrated Graphics
- Intel HDA 7.1 Audio With Dell AX210 2.1 Speakers
- v.92 56Kbps Modem, Fast Ethernet
- Six USB 2.0, VGA, 19-in-1 Card Reader
- 14.9" x 4.2" x 17"
- Vista Home Premium, Works, McAfee Security Center
Sep 22 2009 - Dell's Inspiron 537s is their latest version of their slim desktop model. While the case has changed with an option for multiple colored faceplates, the internals of the system are actually quite dated. This is most apparent in the variety of expansion ports and connectors that are missing from the system. Sure, it has a fair number of USB ports, but it doesn't have any FireWire or eSATA ports. Even worse, the graphics supplied by the system only feature an analog VGA connector preventing it from potentially being used with HDCP video sources that require either HDMI, DisplayPort or DVI connectors.
Of course, users can always upgrade the system from the base specifications or do so on their own. After all, the Inspiron 537s has room inside for a second hard drive and even half height PCI Express x16, x1 and PCI slots. This can allow one to install a dedicated graphics card and second drive which many slim desktop systems may not have room for.
Performance on the Inspiron 537s falls behind much of the competition. This is probably because Dell has focused on low cost on used older parts such as a Pentium E5300 dual core processor over the more common Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor and only 3GB of DDR2 memory. Some of these can be upgraded but the memory is restricted as the system only has two memory slots.
Much of this can be corrected via customization through Dell's web site. The problem is that all of these upgrades add to the cost of the system. The problem is that the base price of $500 is already close to better offerings from Acer, Gateway and HP. Even Dell's own Studio Slim has more to offer unless of course you want a specific color desktop case.
