Dell Inspiron One 2320: Stuck in the Middle With You
by Dustin Sklavos on November 17, 2011 12:30 AM ESTApplication and Futuremark Performance
The HP TouchSmart 610 we reviewed had one of Intel's fastest desktop processors at its core but was hopelessly hamstrung by a dire 5400-RPM hard drive. Dell's Inspiron One 2320 has its fortune flipped; the 2TB hard drive is speedy by mechanical drive standards, but the processor is a low-voltage desktop part, peaking at just 2.6GHz on all four cores. This is still decent, but it's actually no faster on all four cores than Intel's slowest notebook quad-core CPU. I have to wonder if Dell saved enough money by going this route instead of just using a notebook quad to justify its inclusion. [Ed: Dell is a large OEM; of course they saved money!]
Unfortunately, the Inspiron's i5-2400S winds up being one of the slowest processors we've tested in recent memory, at least in a desktop system. It's still plenty fast, but I have to wonder if Dell didn't do themselves a disservice by employing the underpowered i5-2400S. Maybe they should've just split the difference and gone for an i7-2630QM?
Meanwhile the GeForce GT 525M is worlds behind desktop cards we'd consider the bare minimum for gaming at 1080p, essentially tying in performance with the AMD Radeon HD 5570 in the TouchSmart 610. If Dell wants to match the performance of its competition, that's fine, but that performance was one of the major problem areas of the TouchSmart 610. Gamers, consider yourself warned for what we'll see on the next page.
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JarredWalton - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
Just to help avoid confusion, I've added a bit to the offending paragraph. Here's the updated version, so if you still have complaints with this wording please let me know what you disagree with and why:"When I spoke to HP's representative about the meager graphics hardware in the TouchSmart, she suggested that it was really meant to be more of a family computer and thus didn't need particularly aggressive graphics hardware. That may be the case, but it undermines the necessity of a dedicated GPU to begin with. If the integrated HD 2000/3000 graphics are inadequate, you probably plan on doing at least some gaming, so you'll want more. The fact is that these mobile graphics chips were designed for notebooks with 768p screens, and at that resolution they're fine. On an all-in-one, though, they're much harder to justify and really speak to a fundamental problem with the all-in-one ecosystem: we need an in-between point for graphics hardware. What we really need for "upscale" 1080p AIO systems is at least GT 555M or (preferably) GTX 560M level hardware; we've seen such chips in 14" and 15" notebooks; would it really be that hard to stuff something faster into a significantly larger AIO system? The GT 525M upgrade from the base model Inspiron One 2320 ends up costing over $200, and for that price it just doesn't add enough performance."
tzhu07 - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
This looks like the retarded younger brother of the iMac. Steve Jobs is fundamentally correct when he said that Dell makes boring beige boxes. Dell hasn't really done anything to prove him wrong.And God damnit those fucking stickers (lower right corner) keep appearing on Windows based machines. Stop, just stop already. I can't roll my eyes far back enough at this practice.
JarredWalton - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
NOTE: Sigmatu, personal attacks on people is not something we like to see in our comments, and they have been deleted. tzhu07 has expressed an opinion that this looks like a crappy knock-off of the iMac, and that's certainly a valid opinion. Complaining about the stickers on systems is also valid. Your attacks suggesting he... whatever... are uncalled for. Any more of that and I'll pull out the banhammer.sigmatau - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
I guess when I was told to "stfu" when I was talking about my horrible 3gs in another one of your articles, that was ok because I was talking the truth about Apple? gotcha.JarredWalton - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
I don't read through every comment on every thread, but your attacks were personal and I saw them. If someone makes unwarranted attacks on you, feel free to drop me an email. If it's in the forums, though, don't talk to me -- talk to one of the forum moderators. The bottom line is your comments here were out of line and I saw them. Instead of pointing the finger at a vague "other post", accept that your posts were inflammatory and personal attacks that contributed nothing, and move on with better posts. It's what helps separate the AT readership from, say, the DT readership (though there's obviously overlap); we like to hold our comments to a higher standard. :-)sigmatau - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Fine, next time I will just say how fucking stupid Macs are and go on a diatribe about that since that seems to be fine by you. Fuck Macs! I guess that's the higher standard you are looking for?In all honesty, both of our comments should have been deleted. By you posting about this instead of a personal message, then you should not be surprised by a response.
Anyways, I got it. I will not call people names, but apparently I can throw up all the profanity about products and that is fine. Sounds fairly hypocritical to me but whatever man.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Or you could just behave yourself in the first place.That is also an option.
sigmatau - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Fuck Macs.sigmatau - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Macs are fucking grossly overpriced.I am expressing my opinion and "that's certainly a valid opinion".
niva - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
Right on about the stickers, they're so hard to remove... I wish companies would stop doing that. Their main logo is obtrusive enough.Same about bloatware sold with the machines. I want a clean windows install on it.
Agreed with the sentiment that this is a VERY cheap iMac. Hate Apple but props must be given in terms of design. Dell failed in execution of this AIO.