Which Dell Notebook Should I Get?

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun May 02, 2004 8:28 pm

I have heard that I should get a Dell Notebook because they have the TI cardbus, but which one should I get? The basic celeron is so much cheaper. Is this okay?

I edited this since I first posted it. I think Maybe the Dell Inspiron 8600 is the one to get but a thought occured to me. Maybe I should get the least possible memory and card and then add those myself? It seems that could save a lot this way, or is this a mistake? and why is 2 gigs of RAM so expensive from Dell?

[ This Message was edited by: braincell on 2004-05-03 09:54 ]

ronnie · Post by **ronnie** » Fri May 14, 2004 5:18 pm

I got an Inspiron 8600, added a Travelstar 60GB 7200rpm drive and 1 GB RAM. The drive and RAM were purchased elsewhere (cheaper). It definitely has the TI FW400 bus (X2) which is what is required for the MOTU 828 MKII. I tried an Inspiron 2650 (Celeron) and I could never get it to work, even with TI Cardbus FW cards. The 8600 is a 1.4 Centrino with a beautiful 15.4" wide screen. I bought a refurb from Dell Outlet for around $1100 - with the drive and RAM the whole thing was around $1400. There was a great article in SOS a couple months back on Centrino based laptops for music. That's where I got the idea and also the advbice on the 7200rpm drive. Works flawless and runs cool.

[ This Message was edited by: ronnie on 2004-05-15 21:39 ]

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun May 16, 2004 9:47 pm

Okay you needed it for the MOTU 828 MKII. I keep hearing from musicians that Dell is best but then everyone else tells me to avoid them like the plague because they are cheaply built and will break down. Then I got to thinking I should get a Toshiba. I can put more RAM and a 7200 RPM drive in those as well. I'm not going to be using a magma nor a fancy audio output other than the echo indigo. I gather that would work on any fast laptop. I do understand that Centrino M is best and a dedicated graphics card. The price you paid is pretty incredible for what you're getting though.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon May 17, 2004 9:21 am

A friend of mine told me last night that Dell has improved in quality so I am looking at them again. It seems they are the only company that offers all the features I want but I still can't decide but then again there is the Open Labs Neko 64, but then again other companies are said to be copying the Neko, maybe I should save my money for now?

[ This Message was edited by: braincell on 2004-05-17 10:50 ]

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Mon May 17, 2004 12:50 pm

The Open Labs stuff won't be cheap. I too can recommend the Inspiron 8600.. rock solid performance here, and decent build quality.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon May 17, 2004 6:14 pm

Open Labs dropped their price. The Neko 64 bit starts at $3,500.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue May 18, 2004 2:19 pm

I got the lowdown from my geeky friend. The Dell Inspiron is very fast but cheaply built. The Dell Latitude is very expensive but well built.

ronnie · Post by **ronnie** » Wed May 19, 2004 11:20 am

I think the Dell Inspiron 8600 I got is pretty well made. According to the SOS articles the key features for an audio laptop are: Centrino M, 7200rpm drive, TI Firewire. There are models from IBM, Toshiba and Dell (and possibly HP) that fill the bill. Again my setup is the Inspiron 8600 which works flawlessly with MOTU and the Indigo. My Dell Inspiron 2650 would not work at all with the MOTU and had frequent CPU overload with the Indigo (with RTPlayer Pro and Project5).

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed May 19, 2004 11:59 am

Was installing a 8600 for a friend last week. And wow! did it impress me. It had 2GHz Pentium M, 512MB RAM, 80gb drive. TFT can be set from 800x600 to 1600x1200 resolution (a software hack?). There's a PS2 and two Firewire connections.

I put a whole afternoon and evening in setting the machine up as lean and secure as possible. I'm sure he'll use it for MSN, sending phoney emails and a bunch of fantastic shareware programs. Doh.

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Wed May 19, 2004 12:03 pm

Atom, you sure about that? The 2gHz Pentium M chips have only just come out in the last week or so and as far as I'm aware are only available in the US for now. Also, no Inspiron 8600 I know of has a PS/2 port!

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed May 19, 2004 12:11 pm

I am sure of the 2GHz, it said so on the boot screen.

Was mistaken about the PS2 tho, I tried it and didn't fit. Probably video out then or smth...

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Thu May 20, 2004 9:51 am

Okay I got the lowdown from a good friend of mine Tom Oehser who is pretty well known in the Linux world for his Linux bootloader.

The company he works for supplied him with a Latitude. He says the Inspiron is very fast but cheaply built. The Dell latitude is made for corporate use and is very sturdy.

Since I don't plan to buy a new laptop every 3 years I think I will go with the Latitude.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue May 25, 2004 3:25 pm

I settled on Fujitsu. They are said to be better than Toshiba which is highly rated. I ordered this one:

Fujitsu Notebook LifeBook N5010 Pentium4 3G, 16.1"TFT, ATI Mobility RADEON 9600, 512MB, 40GB, DVD/CD-RW, 56K, WirelessLAN, WinXP Home

Model# FPCM60171
Item # N82E16834110101

Specifications:
Part#: FPCM60171
Weight: 10.34lbs
CPU: Intel Pentium4 3GHz(800 FSB)
Display: 16.1"TFT(1400X1050)
OS: Windows XP Home
Memory: 512MB DDR333
Graphics: ATI Mobility RADEON 9600, 64MB
HD: 40GB
Optical Drive: DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Communication: 56K Modem, 10/100 LAN, Wireless LAN (802.11a+b/g)
Ports: 1x VGA, 4x USB, 2x PC Card, 1x IEEE1394, 1x RJ11, 1x RJ45, S-video
Average Battery Life: 2hour(s)
Dimensions: 14.01"(w) x 11.85"(d) x 1.57/1.73"(h)
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year

I'm very excited. I got it for about $1,850 USD.

[ This Message was edited by: braincell on 2004-05-25 16:28 ]