Im about to buy this laptop...

[Paddy_g46]

but was wondering if there were any experts on here that could give me their opinion?

its the dell insprion 6400 but i have customised it a little bit and this lot is costing me £515

Components Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2130 Processor (1.86GHz,533MHz,1MB L2 cache)

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English

1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return


15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™


1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]

120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive

Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memory

Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software

6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (53 Whr)

No Floppy Drive












Accessories
Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card (for Dual-Core Processors)



Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data Rate for Vista

No QuickSnap® LCD Back Cover

No Carry Case

Dell™ Optical Scroll Premium USB Mouse




No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English

Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English

No Accidental Damage Support









Also Includes
Internal Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
List N09646 - DHS 6400 (2)
Inspiron Order - UK
English Documentation with UK Power Cord
56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter - UK
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
Save 60£ inc VAT
DHS Promotion Flyer - September - UK
Dell Internet Order.
Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers)
65W AC Adapter

 

[dk]

i personally wouldn't touch dell, they are shocking at the moment.

Plus you will be lucky to get a laptop out of them in the next month, afaik they are all in constraint as they can't get hold of the screens.

 

[Mike_182]

Above comment is tosh - Dell laptops are fine for the money and even the fabled ATG with 8-week waiting list is turning up at my desk 5 days after order.

3 down, 23 to go!!

As for the laptop spec, the only real biggie I'd go for is to try and get a Core2 processor in there rather than the Pentium Dual Core... Other than that it's a sound basic laptop.

 

[Paddy_g46]

well i just ordered the above laptop but i doubled up the ram to 2GB, got 160gb HDD instead of 120gb, also upgraded to vista ultimate and got a 31-in-1 card reader and a laptop rucksack thrown in. all for the grand total of £550 i bougth it under my dads company so got it £250 cheaper then if i bought it is a home package!

 

[DrR]

I'd get a proper graphics card to, not shared memory crap.

 

[Gareth]

I'll echo the comments about Dell, I work with Dell, HP, IBM and Toshiba laptops everyday, the HPs are the best by far and the Dells the worst by far, I've got a stack of about 8 of them stuffed in the cupboard at work, I won't even mention how many of their desktops have failed.

 

[DrR]

^^ what you reckon to Toshiba ones?

 

[b3nje]

personally i wouldnt buy any accessories from dell full stop.

best laptops around at mo IMO;

sony
fujitsu siemans
hp/compaq
toshiba
dell








acer and all those other crappy ones!

 

[b3nje]

oh - and 100% get a dedicated gfx card...none of this shared rubbish.

remember, you can't really upgrade laptops that easily

 

[Dafthead]

wouldn't touch dell with a bent bargepole these days

HP for me

 

[-Leigh-]

personally i wouldnt buy any accessories from dell full stop.

best laptops around at mo IMO;

sony
fujitsu siemans
hp/compaq
toshiba
dell








acer and all those other crappy ones!

You say that, but I've had my Acer laptop for years and it's never missed a beat, where as my fujitsu siemens laptop has been back under warranty twice in 5 months.

 

[Mike_182]

I think it's down to pot luck reading some of these, because we've got 5-year-old dell laptops and desktops still floating around at work still going fine, and we're getting new Dell laptops still and they're fine - not had a single problem with one other than our purchasing guy ordering the wrong parts (but Dell let us keep the wrong parts as well as the right ones anyway!?)

So I think it really is a mixed bag and dependant on the monkey you get on the phone...

 

[Gareth]

^^ what you reckon to Toshiba ones?

the ones I've seen are very prone to overheating.

 

[b3nje]

^ because they try and make them all so damn compact !

@xzibit - acer's i've used in the past or had expierence with have had very cheap components with a lot of failures.

yes, ofc, with anything...you get your good and your bad. you could have 2 laptops identical but one could fail straight away and like you say, could last forever and be fine!

but past experiences...especially with acer desktops, have shown me alot of failures :>

 

[ADY 554D]

i personally wouldn't touch dell, they are shocking at the moment.

Plus you will be lucky to get a laptop out of them in the next month, afaik they are all in constraint as they can't get hold of the screens.

totally agree with you they screwed my Mrs around for a month keep putting the delivery date back saying they were waiting for screens so in the end she cancelled the order and got a sony..

 

[KDF]

Well, i'll go against the flow and say dell have been fine for me..

We have about 5,000 dell desktops and havent had any issues. Having said that, we also have some HP's and they are nice.

 

[b3nje]

all our hp's have been fine...a few hdd failures but everything is backedup on server anyway :>

 

[dk]

I always buy Sony laptops even though my job is HP, i think for consumers and if you don't mind paying the extra they are amazing machines, very ahrd to beat.

FOr work machines I would always go HP though, when you actually take the products from all the different companies and actually compare them side by side rather than just comparing a spec sheet you can see where HP put the extra effort in and where Dell cut corners.

For example, Dell's idea of protecting the HDD is to add an extra foot to the bottom of the laptop under the hard drive, thats pathetic and does nothing.

HP and some other manufacturers use a 3D shock technology to protect the hdd, on a spec sheet they both say hdd protection but they are VERY different technologies!

IBM used to be bulletproof but since Lenovo have taken over you can see where they are cutting corners and using cheaper components like the screen cable from the motherboard to the screen used to be a high quality 2 piece cable routed through and not exposed but now they are using a ribbon which is totally exposed and could easily be damaged. Plus their water protection for keyboard spills is lacking and doesn't work.

Its only when you get to play with them all, take them apart and stufy them side by side that you get to see these types of things though.

Plus I know I can order a Sony or HP and get it next day, show me a Dell laptop you can do that with!

They are cheap, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for!