Dell Inspiron 537MT Desktop Computer Review

It was time for an upgrade from our older computers. I do digital editing and my wife does photography and a lot of intensive graphic work. While needing a computer that can handle the graphics, we wanted to remain in the economy range. With the Dell Inspiron 537MT Desktop Computer, we got both with little compromise.

For video editing I built an AMD X64 dual core 5200+ computer. The Dell Desktop Computer has a Celeron 450 2.2Ghz CPU, but we were pleasantly surprised at the performance of this computer from WalMart for just under $300. My only complaint about the computer was the operating system, you guessed it, Windows Vista Home Premium. Being one who builds computers, I had access to XP SP3 and installed it on the computer instead. Here is one of my key attractions to Dell, many other manufacturers do not support Windows XP. I tried installing XP on an HP recently and could find no motherboard drivers, video drivers, or any other hardware drivers for WinXP. With the Dell computer, I inserted the Dell utilities disk and it had drivers for all the hardware for Windows XP. Thank You Dell for understanding your customers wants and needs.

Just to test it for comparison I ran a digital crunch using the same software and the same quality settings, then I compressed the same piece of video into Divx format and compared my $300 AMD 5200+ with the Dell i537. I was surprised to see the video crunching at about 58 frames per second on the Dell as opposed to about 74 fps on my machine. This means the Dell could compress 1 hour of video in about 30 minutes which is quite respectable. My wife and I are both very pleased with the performance and reliability we are getting out of this computer.

The computer specs are an Intel Celeron 450 @ 2.2GHz, 2 Gb 800MHz RAM, 350Gb SATA hard drive, 16X DVD RW drive, 56k modem, 5.1 audio, and 10/100 LAN.

the Dell Inspiron 537MT Desktop Computer also comes complete with Keyboard and Mouse, speakers, and an 18.5 inch widescreen Dell LCD monitor, (which has a beautiful picture by the way). We are using the monitor on our media center and my wife is using a 17 inch I-Inc monitor.

The computer is not a gamer, but for the basic home & small office computer, this 64 bit Win 7 ready computer is not a cheap plastic toy. It is solid, looks beautiful, and runs like a competitor. I would not hesitate to buy more of these for the kids home school. I give the Dell Inspiron 537MT Desktop Computer 10/10 stars for balance of price and performance.