Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop 5680 Review: Attractive, Affordable PC Gaming


Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop 5680: Software And User Experience

Long gone are the days when you have to spend the first half hour uinstalling a bunch of trialware and other third-party cruft when booting up a new PC for the first time. There are still some exceptions out there, just not here.

Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop 5680 Desktop

We booted to a clean desktop. Behind the scenes is a 12-month subscription to McAfee LiveSafe, which is sort of an all-encompassing security package (more than just antivirus software), so it's not totally devoid of third-party software. But at least in this case it's an actual unlocked product and not a 30-day trial. Whether or not you choose to use it is another story.

As for the operating system, the default option is Windows 10 Home 64-bit. Dell does offer an optional upgrade to the Pro version for $60 more, if you need it.

Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop 5680 SupportAssist

Software represents another area where the Inspiron Gaming Desktop differs from the XPS Tower. The only custom utility on this system is Dell's SupportAssist. This provides a GUI front-end for downloading drivers and auditing your system, though it can also analyze your hardware to look for problems or predict if a component is likely to fail. This is done by running a Hardware Checkup.

This system comes with onboard 802.11ac Wi-Fi, but unlike the XPS Tower, it's not using any Killer products from Rivets Network, therefore there's no fancy Killer Control Center (or any advanced wireless controls). It also lacks a software equalizer for the onboard audio.

Since there's not much to see here, let's dive into the benchmarks...

Related content