Dell Churns Out AMD-based Inspiron 546

[btarunr]

Dell introduced its first AMD-based mainstream PC lineup in over 18 months. The company had stopped announcing AMD-based products as its CPU lineup were losing in competitiveness. The Inspiron 546, as American-Statesman's Kirk Ladendorf notes, "could signal a shift in the ongoing relationship between Dell and AMD, which has gone through warm and cold spells in recent years." Inspiron 546 represents one of Dell's most important desktop PC SKUs, that is extensively promoted online.

Priced in the US $270~$710 range, Inspiron 546 models come in four main configurations, featuring Sempron, Athlon X2, Phenom X3, and Phenom X4 processors, with ATI Radeon HD 3200 series graphics. The chassis comes with 8 colour bezel types to choose from. It can further be customised with a variety of Dell monitors, HDD capacities, and memory amounts.



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[jamesrt2004]

i can imagine these doing quite well I know my sis and various friends (mostly girls..) would like a pink or white computer etc..

 

[Semi-Lobster]

So these are going to use the old 65nm Phenom I series CPUs rather than the 45nm Phenom IIs?

 

[newtekie1]

It would seem that way, and knowing Dell they have probably neglected to add support to the BIOS for the newer 45nm chips...

 

[captainskyhawk]

The XPS 625 line has support for the 45nm chips

 

[aj28]

I like 'em. Good for AMD to drop old stock, good for Dell to get good chips at rock bottom prices, and good for consumers to get a slick PC for a more-than-reasonable price. Honestly I didn't think the prices were that great at first glance, but considering the fact that you're getting a halfway decent 17/19" monitor as well and I can't see why a mainstream consumer would bother with much else.

A note though: There seems to be a typo on Dell's site. Header reads 20" but the specs and config page both peg it at 19", which seems a bit more likely.

 

[Mussels]

... Taste the rainbow

 

[hat]

Nice, I like this. Phenom 1 isn't that bad as long as it's the B3 stepping (L3 bug fixed). I sport one myself.

 

[Mussels]

Nice, I like this. Phenom 1 isn't that bad as long as it's the B3 stepping (L3 bug fixed). I sport one myself.

they seem to be about the same specs as my media PC. i can attest to them doing 100% of everything i use my PC for, excluding gaming.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

... Taste the rainbow

Skittles!

That's so random.

 

[hat]

My 7750 is fine for gaming, even at stock. I only overclocked to to 3GHz becaue I can, and always wanted a chip running at or above 3GHz. Lord knows I tried to get my 5200+ to run at 3GHz but alas it was an F2 stepping chip...

They have the 7750 available, seriously the 7750 is a great chip. 90% of PC users dont need anything more than dual core, quad core is mostly a gimmic to get average joe to think it will be faster because it has 4 cores, man... however it does have its uses, like AutoCAD and Photoshop

 

[A Cheese Danish]

Skittles!
That's so random.

I think he is referring to the variety of colors you can choose.
I wouldn't mind getting one for a linux box or just to mess around with.
Glad to see Dell releasing comps with AMD

 

[Mussels]

they do come in every color of the rainbow.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

ah so intel told dell to get a like of AMD laptops out to make it look like dell isnt just a retail arm of intel.......

I don't doubt this, but I think the whole uBuntu push has slaughtered AMD's relationships with dell recently.

Ati's drivers are a Cluster**** for Linux still. My x1800xl, x1600, and x850xt are all out of date for the latest xorg.

 

[mdm-adph]

My 7750 is fine for gaming, even at stock. I only overclocked to to 3GHz becaue I can, and always wanted a chip running at or above 3GHz. Lord knows I tried to get my 5200+ to run at 3GHz but alas it was an F2 stepping chip...

They have the 7750 available, seriously the 7750 is a great chip. 90% of PC users dont need anything more than dual core, quad core is mostly a gimmic to get average joe to think it will be faster because it has 4 cores, man... however it does have its uses, like AutoCAD and Photoshop

Seriously. My next chip is going to be an Athlon II -- two cores is all I need, and the fact that they overclock to nearly 4GHz with a decent heatsink is just fun, considering I can get the chip for only $65 or so.

I don't doubt this, but I think the whole uBuntu push has slaughtered AMD's relationships with dell recently.

Ati's drivers are a Cluster**** for Linux still. My x1800xl, x1600, and x850xt are all out of date for the latest xorg.

I doubt if it's really made that big of a deal -- most Dell computers are just Intel IGP's, and they work great with Linux (most of the ones I've seen with Ubuntu installed are that way, too).

 

[newtekie1]

My 7750 is fine for gaming, even at stock. I only overclocked to to 3GHz becaue I can, and always wanted a chip running at or above 3GHz. Lord knows I tried to get my 5200+ to run at 3GHz but alas it was an F2 stepping chip...

They have the 7750 available, seriously the 7750 is a great chip. 90% of PC users dont need anything more than dual core, quad core is mostly a gimmic to get average joe to think it will be faster because it has 4 cores, man... however it does have its uses, like AutoCAD and Photoshop

I agree, but it would also have been nice to see the 245, 250, and 550 available.

 

[Disparia]

Ugh, not surprising. I just spent a week with Dell sales and the website looking for the "the" configuration for my users - and I wasn't able to find it. There was always one thing that kept me from buying any of the systems in all of their lineups. Oh well, we're now entertaining the idea of just building our own.

With a PII, I'd be very interested. Unfortunately I fall into that other 10%.

 

[Meecrob]

Ugh, not surprising. I just spent a week with Dell sales and the website looking for the "the" configuration for my users - and I wasn't able to find it. There was always one thing that kept me from buying any of the systems in all of their lineups. Oh well, we're now entertaining the idea of just building our own.

With a PII, I'd be very interested. Unfortunately I fall into that other 10%.

give gateway(acer) a yell, at times they will do custom configs for companies if the orders a decent size, and you get full warr thru them, not as good as custom build quility but alot better then dell!!!

 

[ShadowFold]

Great way to get rid of all the old phenoms People who are building machines aren't going to want old phenoms, but the people who buy dells aren't going to be able to tell the difference between a 9550 and a 955.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Ugh, not surprising. I just spent a week with Dell sales and the website looking for the "the" configuration for my users - and I wasn't able to find it. There was always one thing that kept me from buying any of the systems in all of their lineups. Oh well, we're now entertaining the idea of just building our own.

With a PII, I'd be very interested. Unfortunately I fall into that other 10%.

We used a custom configuration and software set where I work(Dell Optiplex's).

But you have to have a pretty good order size(Lol Dell semi docked at our warehouse) to get the "awesome" stuff


That's the same with any company though.

 

[Disparia]

Only 26 new machines here

I was able to push for what I wanted software-wise (Vista Biz with 7 Upgrade) regardless of machine, but they wouldn't budge on most hardware.

 

[thebeephaha]

... Taste the rainbow

I thought the same thing when I saw the pic.

Great minds.