Laptops

dell's

If you are going to go Dell's look at getting one from the corporate range.

I dont think much of the Inspiron's but I do deal with a lot of the Latitude's for work and even have one myself. The D800 is the one I use and im pretty happy with it...

Waz11
 
Bit hard to say without knowing what options you're considering getting in it and what you intend to use it for.

We usually buy Dells at work, but I personally bought an HP Compaq recently and have been very happy with it so far.

If you think you might want more RAM later, get the notebook now with only a single memory module in it so that you can just add another later rather than have to replace the ones you get now (and if you do that, check that that's what you actually get, as I know someone who ordered a single module and got given the two smaller ones anyway).

And this model has no parallel or serial port, if that's an issue at all. Most people don't use them any more so it may well not be a problem for you (plus you can get USB versions if you need them - at least for the serial port).

But it looks pretty good from the spec.

Cheers,
GP
 
I use office / myob / and a browser - so Im hardly pushing the PC

My current P500 does the job fine.

Although I do want widescreen / dvd burner but thats about it...

Id prefer to go buy from a physical store today than wait for delivery it just seems the Dell offer is really cheap (I cant find a Pentium M series 755 2ghz laptop anywhere near $2000)
 
A couple of my workmates have Dell 8600's. GREAT screens, but pretty bulky and heavy. Pretty cool covers :) I like the red lava one :)
 
From a quick look through the customize options for the 8600 755, about the only changes I'd make for a basic notebook would be XP Pro instead of Home (but I use networks a lot) and 1 x 512MB RAM instead of 2 x 256MB to allow easy upgrading to 1GB later (with XP, you can't have too much RAM!). You may also want the floppy drive if you still have stuff on floppy disks.

That brought the price up to about $2700. And if you also wanted the professional edition of Office, you'd be hitting $3K.

Personally I wouldn't bother with the Norton Internet Security package. You can get good-enough stuff for free. But I would get an external mouse, although not necessarily the Dell one there. I hate using those touch pads unless I really have to.

GP
 
My 2c

I personally would steer away from the Dells. As mentioned before they are heavy and quite bulky, but the biggest drawback is the software Dell loads up with the package. Most recommend formatting the harddrive and reinstalling Windows when you receive it. theres so much extra crap in there that it slows the thing down so much. Service is a big issue too, my father in law bought a Dell and had so many problems with both it and service.

Also, go for the centrino packages, the battery life alone makes a big bonus.
As well as the wireless networking aspects.

I just bought myself an Acer travelmate, very good system for the price and from analysis they had the better service and warranty record. Its a Centrino and I get about 3.5hrs battery life out of it :)
 
Hi XBenX,

I just picked up the 2.1Ghz 8600 model two weeks ago and agree with the need to reformat to clear the crap out of the system.

I opted for the screen resolution upgrade and 3yr complete guard insurance and have been very happy. It has one of the nicest screens short of the Toshiba ClearView (?) technology which is amazing but pricey.

If cost had not been an issue, I would have stumped up for one of Toshiba's new Satellite M35's or Quismos'.

For a work machine where insurance is important, the policy is quite comprehensive, covering theft via forced entry to home/office/vehicle as well as accidental damage. This is crucual for the fragile and expensive screens.

Single module ram was a good suggestion. I wish someone had mentioned that to me! It will cost you as Dell seems to act like car dealers and extract most of the profit from the addons.

My suggestion is to buy basic and add third party stuff as necessary if you feel comfortable doing so. Dell uses generic components for the most part.

Good luck with the choice.

regards,

Kenny
 
Ordered 2 last night - definately the best value around - read a heap of reviews on the tech sites - hardly any bad comments (unusual)

The single ram module was only ~$30 extra

15" widescreen 755 M series 2ghz 128mb ATI Radeon 9600 dual layer dvd burner - nothing even comes close price wise

The 755 Mseries 2ghz chip is $639US alone...
 
Hi XBenX,

You bought 2! One for home and one for ?

Since you have gone with Dell, I thought I would mention that it one of my friends had delivery hassles (delays of over three weeks etc) and recommended to me to call the customer line a couple of times over the next few days to track the shipment. You will likely speak to someone outsourced to a call centre in India etc but it may save you some worries.

Just a thought.

Regards,

kenny
 
I bought a Dell laptop earlier this year. First boot-up took over half an hour as the virus scanner checked all 50,000+ files that were already loaded!!
 
For the non-tech types. How hard is it to get rid of all these extra files? And is there a way of ordering a machine without them already having been loaded?

Sleeper
 
Sleeper said:
For the non-tech types. How hard is it to get rid of all these extra files? And is there a way of ordering a machine without them already having been loaded?

Sleeper
Click to expand...

Hello Sleeper,

I tried very hard to convince the Dell staffers to deliver us a clean machine but was told that was not possible unless we were a large corporate client.

It really not difficult to remove the baggage via XP's Remove Program utility but I found it easier to start from scratch as I was re partitioning anyway.

Good luck,

Kenny
 
XBenX said:
Ordered 2 last night - definately the best value around - read a heap of reviews on the tech sites - hardly any bad comments (unusual)

The single ram module was only ~$30 extra

15" widescreen 755 M series 2ghz 128mb ATI Radeon 9600 dual layer dvd burner - nothing even comes close price wise

The 755 Mseries 2ghz chip is $639US alone...
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good purchase. :)

You've already bought your laptops, but I thought I'd just mention Apple's offerings. Prices are here, and speicifications are here.

Anyhoo, congrats on your purchase.
-Merovingian.

PS: Widescreens are nice. :D
 
Sorry Sleeper for the jargon. Must have slipped into work mode for a sec.

Thanks Acey for the save!

Regards,

Kenny
 
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