The Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV Desktop is one small factor desktop designed to occupy as little space as possible on your work desk. It features a simple and elaborate design with no frills but is quite reliable for home and office use. We recommend it for photo editing, working with spreadsheets, MS Office and of course your home entertainment (movies and streaming Netflix).
It basically is a replica of the Dell Inspiron i3252-10050BLK Mini Desktop and Dell Inspiron i3650-1551SLV Desktop which both come from the same small form factor (SFF) Dell family.
Pros
- Small portable form factor
- Simple and elegant design
- Modest specifications
- Great for home entertainment and office work
- Great price point
Cons
- No dedicated GPU so no much gaming can be done
- This refurbished product is tested and certified to look and work like new. The refurbishing process...
The right desktop can mean the difference between good work experience and a bad one. You need the advice to make sure you make an informed decision so you don’t end up regretting later. Fortunately, business desktops have been well-reviewed online and it is their home desktops counterparts that still kind of have a hazy covering (in terms of reviews).
The past decade has seen a considerable dwindle in the home desktop demand. This is major because of the entrance of new tech in the industry (tablets, phone, iPads) which completely took the world by storm. But the silver lining for the home desktop market is that mobility is not a major concern all the time, hence the demand for this commodity.
I’m proud of the Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV Desktop, and that’s because of its simplistic design that’s both dignified and elegant at the same time, and its respectable specs that promise non-compromising delivery.
Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV Specs
| Processor | 6th Generation Intel Core i3-6100 Dual Processor (3M Cache, 3.20 GHz) |
| RAM | 4GB Single Channel DDR3 1600MHz (4GBx1) |
| Storage | 1TB 7200 RPM HDD |
| Card Reader | 5-in-1 Media Card Reader and USB 2.0 |
| Connectivity | 802.11 ac/ Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Dimensions | 11.6 x 3.6 x 11.4 inches |
| Weight | 10.6 pounds |
| Ports | 4 USB 2.0 ports/ 7 USB 3.0 ports |
| Color | Black with silver trim |
| Optical Drive | Tray load DVD Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD) |
Design and Features
The general theme of the Dell Inspiron i3650 campaign was made around a space-saving design and a multimedia hub desktop for both home and office use. Well, from a glance, the Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV Desktop sure nails that theme with a svelte body that can literally fit any desk space. We loved that and the neat black finish this desktop came with.
Moreover, Dell did a neat job with the port system (discussed below) by having some of the most important ports located right at the front. The front face also features a silver border around the edges; a neat feature also duplicated on the mouse and keyboard edges as well.
The front is also home to the power button at the top right and mesh-themed in-lets at the bottom. As far as dimensions go, the Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV Desktop is a fine choice for Small and Medium-sized businesses which need to save office space. Its size is one to fit in most cubicles and open-workspace desks.
The Dell Inspiron 3252 measures 11.3 x 6.1 x 13.8 inches (16.5 pounds) and reminds us of the Dell Optiplex 3040 Small Form Factor measuring 11.5 x 3.6 x 11.4 inches (HWD). Compared to the Dell Inspiron i3252-10050BLK Mini Desktop, (15 x 4 x 10.5 inches, 8.67 pounds) our unit has a smaller footprint.
PORTS
The port system is well thought out with the most important ports at the front. The front houses 2 USB 3.0 ports, a 5-in-1 SD card reader and a DVD RW drive. The back is home to 2 USB 2.0, an HDMI port and finally a VGA port. You can have two monitors installed through the HDMI and VGA ports which is a great advantage.
Dell offers a Dell KB216 Wired Keyboard and a Dell MS116 Wired Mouse Black with the Desktop. The two are pretty standard and quite nice to use. However, there’s always the option to upgrade to one’s fancy in the future once you get tired of these.
PERFORMANCE
Dual and quad-core processors are the norms for business desktops in the industry. The Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV was created to cater to both home and office needs. It comes with an Intel Pentium G4400. This is much faster than the Celeron and processors, and thanks to the 4GB memory and Hyperthreaded processor, users can multitask at will.
Despite being a low-end chip, this processor should allow you to watch movies, stream Hulu, or browse the web. Moreover, you can do some Photoshop, run Office apps and perform light computing tasks while maintaining power consumption at the minimum.
Storage
If you’re using this machine as an office desktop, the 1TB storage should be plenty for saving your data. Home users can enjoy plenty of space for movies, music album collection and Internet downloads. The front has a slot for DVD RW tray should you need to burn your data for extra storage.
While well equipped for low-key gaming, the Dell Inspiron i3650 processor isn’t cut out for playing triple-A titles. Avid gamers might just have to look elsewhere for their perfect match. Integrated into the Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV Desktop is the Intel HD Integrated Graphics unit. It can handle day-to-day graphics applications quite comfortably, but falling short in when compared with dedicated graphics chips.
Upgrading to a dedicated graphics chip is not be possible in this unit since no provision is made for that. Also considering its small form factor, cooling will be a clear challenge now that it was not designed for such stresses.
Upgrading Potential
Speaking of upgrading, one can’t do much especially when it comes to storage space. With such a thin form, there literally isn’t space for a memory upgrade and not SATA slots have been availed to cater for such needs. The only option may be to replace the existent 4GB with a larger capacity one.
On the bright side, however, the Dell Inspiron i3252-10050BLK Mini Desktop (a better configuration of this desktop) offers double the memory (8GB) for those who can’t do it themselves. But for those with a way around screwdrivers, adding an extra 4 GB of RAM can prove quite helpful to harness the most power out of the Dell Inspiron 3650.
Dell also included two free expansion slots for video and a 56W Power supply. The Dell Inspiron i3650 preinstalled with Windows 10 with plenty of Microsoft Office programs for work.
CONCLUSION
Though this desktop isn’t exactly flashy, nor does it possess much gaming DNA as other desktops we’ve reviewed in the past, it is a fine desktop for you and your family. Its Intel Core i3-6100 Dual Processor, 4GB of RAM and 1TB storage is sufficient to power through your home need; I’m talking about YouTube and Netflix and watching movies during your free time.
Fortunately, you can also multitask with the 4GB RAM and store your favorite photos to your family’s digital library, add videos, documents and other data files on the 1TB hard drive.
We recommend the Dell Inspiron i3252-10050BLK Mini Desktop, a sister configuration which offers 8GB RAM for other higher multitasking needs. Otherwise, the Dell Inspiron i3650-5609SLV Desktop makes a solid statement in our books and is a testament of reliability for the home user at a rock bottom price. Lenovo also shows some promise in the SFF arena.
For a slightly higher amount, you can have the Dell Inspiron i3252-10050BLK Mini Desktop, otherwise, our unit is a great choice for budget users. It receives our Editor’s Choice for best budget small form factor desktops.
- This refurbished product is tested and certified to look and work like new. The refurbishing process...
