Finally received my Dell Inspiron 530 (thanks Slickdealers!) today - bought it with the EPP 15% and $350 off $999 coupons. Mine was built with the following specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6550 (4MB L2 Cache,2.33GHz,1333 FSB)
• 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
• Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
• 20 inch SP2008WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel w/ Webcam
• Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
• 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
• Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package
• Genuine Windows Vista& Home Premium - English
• 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
• 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
• Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
• 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support
• Dell Bluetooth Wireless Media Hub (13-1 Media Reader w/Bluetooth 2.0 EDR)

I kept the extras to a minimal as I was planning to add in a few upgrades. The total came to $565.61 before taxes, it would cost me just as much to build a PC (minus monitor) with similar specs.

Here's the upgrades I got:

• BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT OC Graphics Card - $251.99 before tax (Best Buy sale)
• Antec Earthwatts 380W power supply - $29.99 BT (Newegg promotion code)
• G.SKILL 2GB (2x1MB) PC400 DDR2 CAS5 - $46.99 (Newegg)

I have one SB Audigy 2 from my old PC that got transplanted too - it has the added advantage of having a Firewire 400 port, not that I really need one right now.

Did some performance numbers out of the box, Vista was giving 4.5 for memory and PCMark05 memory benched at 5022. The onboard graphics yielded a 3DMark05 score of 258. Upgrading this to 2GB and removing the slower Dell memory got me to 5.9 memory in Vista, PCMark05 memory 5196 and 3DMark06 322. A definite improvement going from DDR2-5300 to DDR2-6400 memory. I did not test what disabling dual channel memory would do (should definitely cause a drop in performance and the integrated graphics that is dependent on system RAM).

The stock PSU is a 300W AcBel that provides +12V of 18A. It has only 4 SATA power connectors, the 2 motherboard power connectors and one connector for a floppy drive. If anyone is planning on getting a graphics card that requires Molex connectors or PCIE, you're most likely better off buying a whole new PSU. There isn't a lot of room between the PSU and the DVD drive, so keep that in mind when selecting a replacement. Stock power draw was around 48W idle, 88W peak at the wall outlet (checked with a Kill-A-Watt meter).

My replacement is the Antec Earthwatts 380W - it is about exactly the size of the AcBel PSU, but has dual +12V rails and 17A per rail (total of something like 27A on both rails). Thoughts differ amongst people if its good enough for an 8800GT but in this application I believe its a perfect replacement and my numbers after upgrading show something like 178W peak at the wall outlet with the 8800GT. It takes some cable ties to manage all the extra long cables it comes with though. The Antec is about as silent as it gets.

To get an 8800GT into the case, I had to move the drive to a different bay. I could have left it there if I had a replacement SATA cable, but I don't. Because the drive is hung upside down, it uses a weird right angle SATA cable... the best is to just get straight SATA cables without any right angle connectors as replacements. I plan to add a 2nd HDD. The fit of the 8800GT wasn't as bad as I thought - it does get a bit tight in there but given my last PC was a Shuttle HTPC, the Dell seems to have tons of room. Given the cooling problems with 8800GTs, I upped the fan speed with RivaTuner, but I might add a single slot cooler to draw more hot air out of the case too and improve airflow further.

The HDD that came is a 250GB Seagate 7200.10 - its pretty slim, and that helped with a bit more spacing. I have about maybe 1/2 inch between the drive and the 8800GT... definitely something to think about if you plan to add a long PCIE graphics car into the case.

Attaching some before/after photos and a few benchmark numbers of the post upgrade. I plan on installing XP as a dual-boot since most games are faster with XP still, and adding a 750GB drive later on, plus maybe a TV tuner card to play with the Media Center features in Vista.

The monitor - I opted for the 20-inch Dell SP2008WFP - don't have enough desktop real estate for the 22-inch, and I prefer a smaller screen of same resolution (too used to seeing small text on small high-res laptop screens). A nice replacement for my old 17" LCD. Happy to report that in analog mode, I could get 1680x1050 to work fine on my old Belkin KVM (was a little afraid it wouldn't display right and I have some old systems to hook up).

Hope this helps those who might be looking to upgrade their Inspiron 530s or get it and do some upgrades.