Best Dell Desktop with Processor Speed Atleast 2.50 GHz

The bottom line: The retail version of Dell's Studio XPS 8000 desktop might lack some of the charm of its direct-from-Dell counterpart, but its strong price-performance offering makes it easy to overlook the minor cosmetic deficiencies. That and its admirable power consumption make this system an impressive all-purpose midrange desktop.

The Dell Studio desktop is exquisite with its exterior of black-on-white available online than the all black exterior available in stores. *

If you want more oomph for running Vista and other applications, you can upgrade to a dual-core CPU for a reasonable price. Dell includes fairly fast memory on these desktops: you get 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM. Storage is a bit more respectable on these desktop computers, with a 160GB 7,200rpm hard drive. Basically preconfigured RAID 1 hard drives, DataSafe comes with a second hard drive that mirrors the first to keep a constant backup of your data. It's not the most cutting-edge graphics option available, but it'll definitely give you a boost over the integrated graphics. *

Price range: $439.00

Dell's first desktops to carry the Inspiron name look good, inside and out. *

Dell's Inspiron 530 desktop is a very flexible system that can be configured as a low cost budget system or as a mainstream system. In terms of those looking for a moderately priced performance system, it has potentional for those willing to go through the process of customization and parts selection to get it configured just right.

Price range: $739.00

There's a decent but not great PC hiding behind the Studio One 19's touchscreen gimmickry.

The bottom line: We suspect lower-end configurations of the Dell Studio One 19 all-in-one desktop will draw consumers looking for a low-cost, "fast enough" PC. But even its multitouch interface can't save our expensive review unit from other vendors' similarly priced all-in-ones with better features for the dollar.

The new Studio One 19 is as nice to look at as it is functional," said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dell's Consumer products. *

Excellent performance. *

The touch interface The main touch interface is even more prominent. *

The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line

The bottom line: The Dell Studio XPS 435 successfully overcomes our bias against desktops that claim to be experts at everything through charming case design and a strong configuration at a relatively fair price. It misses greatness because of a handful of minor missteps, but if you need a do-it-all mainstream tower system, this Dell more or less covers all the bases.