Dell Inspiron desktop now $300

Dell has cut the price of its budget Inspiron 530 by $140. The $300 configuration includes a 2.0GHz Pentium E2180 dual-core processor, 1GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, Intel GMA 3100 graphics, and Windows XP.

The deal is part of a Dell tax rebate marketing gambit that also includes an Inspiron 1525 15.4-inch laptop starting at $600 and a XPS M1530 15.4-inch notebook starting at $1,200. The rebates are good for two weeks.

How good are these deals?

For comparison, the HP a6400z desktop also starts at $300 with a 1.8GHz AMD Sempron dual-core, 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, Nvidia GeForce 6150 SE graphics, and Windows Vista Home Basic SP1. Gateway lowest-price desktop, the DX442B, is $450 after a $100 rebate. But it has better specs including a 2.20Gz Pentium E2200 dual-core processor, 2GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, Intel GMA 3100 graphics, and Windows Vista Home Premium.

In retail, Best Buy offers an eMachines T3646 for $300 with a 2.2GHz AMD Sempron dual-core, 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, Nvidia GeForce 6100 graphics, and Windows Vista Home Basic with SP1.