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5.1 Dell·Inspiron 700m
·Inspiron 8200
·Latitude C600/C610/640
·Inspiron 6000D review
·Dell Inspiron 2500
·latitude d810
·Dell Inspiron 9300
·Dell 9300 Review
·Dell XPS generation 2/XPS M170
·dell 9300
·Dell XPS M140 Review
·Dell Inspiron E1705 Review
| | | So far I am impressed by the size and capabilities of the 700m. It is a very tiny notebook at 4.5 pounds, but performs very well!
One main rant but you get used to it, is the placement of the period key. After awhile though I started to get used to it, and could press it with no problems.
The screen on this laptop is amazing: 1280x800 widescreen resolutions and it is very bright! I had no problem using it the other day in the car when the sun was very bright. I used to have a hard time seeing the screen on the HP in the bright sunlight.
Thread on my Review found below:
»My New Dell 700m review
My config and cost is as follows:
Inspiron 700m
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 745 (1.80 GHz/400MHz FSB)12.1-in WXGA, Microsoft Windows XP Professional - For networking with work or school Qty: 1
Unit Price: $2,149.00
Inspiron 700m Intel® Pentium® M Processor 745 (1.80 GHz/400MHz FSB)12.1-in WXGA
Memory 1GB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
Hard Drive 80 GB Hard Drive
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional - For networking with work or school
Network Adapters Integrated Network Card
Modem Internal 56K Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD ROM/DVD ROM 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability
Wireless Networking Card Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) WordPerfect® 12 - Word processor only
Security Software No Security Subscription
Digital Music Dell Jukebox - easy-to-use music player and CD burning software
Primary Battery 65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Limited Warranty, Services and Support 2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr Technical Support
Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months America Online Internet Access Included
Digital Imaging or Digital Photography Photo Album™ SE Basic
Financial Software No QuickBooks package selected- Includes limited use trial
Dell Media Experience Dell™ Media Experience
Dell Home Customer: Save $750 on select Inspiron™ notebook purchases $1499 or more (before tax and shipping)!
Expires on 2005-04-19 05:59:59 - $750.00
ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS AND COUPONS
Dell Home Customers: Free Ground Shipping on any Dell Inspiron order greater than $899!
Expires on 2005-04-14 06:59:59 - $49.00
Dell Home Customers: Save 2% when you use DPA! Special offer - Expires: 04/13/05. Save 2% instantly (before tax and shipping & handling) when you purchase online using the Dell Preferred Account as your payment option with approved credit.
Expires on 2005-04-13 23:59:59 - $27.98
Sub-Total $1,371.02
Shipping Discount -$49.00
Shipping and Handling $0.00
Tax $82.26
Total $1,453.28
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 feedback form
by fire100 
last modified: 2005-04-28 16:22:48 | | | I've had this notebook for 2.5+ years. It was my first notebook and when buying one I wanted the best I could get and afford. It had a 1.8GHz Intel Mobile Pentium 4m when I bought it along with a 40GB IBM/Hitachi 5400RPM HDD, NVidia 440Go video card with 32 MB RAM, 15" SXGA+ screen (1400x1050 resolution), side CDRW drive and 256MB RAM (never buy extra RAM from Dell when making the purchase, more than likely you can buy it elsewhere and even from Dell cheaper than you can with the system or at least that has been my experience). I have since installed a 2.4GHz Mobile P4m CPU, ATI 64MB Radeon video card, 1GB RAM and changed the HDD out to a seagate 40GB 5400 RPM model. I also added a DVD-ROM/CDRW drive to the media/modular bay which I can take out to install a second battery.
I liked it a whole lot when I got it but I really needed a notebook to take with me almost everywhere I go for various reasons and the i8200 is big and heavy. Not bad if you move it around the house from one room to another but to throw it over your shoulder, along with the bag and all the junk you need or choose to carry with it in the bag, it gets REALLY heavy in a short period of time. The design of the i8200 CPU heatsink and fans leave a little to be desired. The heatsink has a heat pipe going from the plate locked down on the CPU to a fin area where the fans are. It does have 2 fans but these fan only blow air across the CPU heat pipe fins and do nothing for the GPU which sits near the middle of the notebook. At times, when ripping music CDs or gaming, the GPU can get to 60-65 degrees C along with the CPU going over 70C. Once you stop using the full power/speed of the CPU the fans cool the CPU down fairly quickly but the GPU still stays hot. There is a heatsink on top of the GPU with a heat pipe mounted to the bottom of the keyboard to try and take some of the heat away but it isn't that efficient. The battery life isn't bad when you have both batteries installed, about 4+ hours, but with only one battery the run time drops to around 2 or less hours. All in all it has served me well and I have never had any problems with it. It is fast, the screen is crisp and bright and has not failed to run any game I have, including Doom3. I like the layout of the older Dell notebooks more than the new ones. If Dell had kept the older 3 spindle design with the option to have 2 batteries installed at the same time and have a CD drive installed with the newer Pentium M CPU I would of bought a newer one buy now. Look for my review of the Dell C610.
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feedback form
by Shootist edited by 2kmaro
last modified: 2005-08-14 00:54:00 | | | I have had one of these for about 2 years. I bought one of these because they are light and easy to carry. I first bought a Latitude C600 model but it was slow compared to my Inspiron 8200 so I looked for a faster model and got a Latitude C610 and then bought a second one to run other than MS OS's on and to use for older games on a second HDD with Win98SE installed on it. I have also owned 2 C640's with a mobile P4m CPU. Even though the C640 has a P4 CPU I like the C610 model better. The C610 is a great model. The P3m CPU in the C610 gives you the best of both worlds. Long battery life, low heat output and a 133MHz bus and with a 7200 RPM HDD it loads programs just as fast as any of the MP4m notebooks I've owned. It is different than the P3 CPU's in the older C600 model and goes to 1.2GHZ. The C640, Mobile P4m model, puts out a lot of heat and uses batteries very fast. Where as the C610, with a high capacity battery, gets about 4+ hours of run time with one battery and over 8 hours of run time with 2 installed. It has a slot for a MiniPCI card and I have a Dell TM1350 B/G wireless card in that slot. The one C610 I carry everyday has a Mobile P3m CPU at 1.2GHz, ATI Radeon 16MB video card, XGA screen (1024x768 resolution, it also could be bought with a SXGA+ screen and I have owned one of them but find that resolution on a 14" screen a little hard to deal with), built in 100Mbs NIC and a Modem daughter card. (the C600 needed either a combo NIC/Modem or just NIC card in the MiniPCI slot to use the Ethernet port on the side of it so that limited you to having a PCMCIA slot card for wireless) (The C640 also has a built in NIC and modem daughter card leaving the MiniPCI slot open for a wireless card), S Video port, PS/2 port for a keyboard or mouse, parallel and serial port, one USB port (which can be limiting in to days world but a with a small 4 port USB hub you can overcome that limitation) and I have a Hitachi 40 GB 7200 RPM drive installed. I have not even looked at newer notebooks because the C610's just do everything I need them to do. If you are looking for a good notebook look on the Dell auction site there are still a lot of C610 available and at a good price.
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by Shootist edited by 2kmaro
last modified: 2005-08-14 00:54:43 | | | My main concern when buying a laptop is price. This time around, I waited for 6 months for that time when I actually had the funds, and Dell dropped a great coupon for laptops. The one I used was for $750 off any Inspiron over $1500, total shipped was $767. Config is Pentium M 1.6, 512 DDR2 in dual channel PC3200. Indeed it is running async @200 mhz fsb, with the Pentium M running @133 mhz fsb. 8x DVD+-RW drive, 40GB 5200 rpm 8MB cache hdd. Radeon X300 PCI-E video card for playing even the latest games. On board Intel wireless a/b/g included.
I wanted a laptop for the living room, in front of the couch on a caddy that did the following-
Be able to do distributed computing projects, since I'm a big fan, and do leave the laptop on all the time. The Centrino Inspiron 6000 with a Pentium M 1.6 cpu does the job admirably, while staying cool.
Large screen. Not particularly fond of widescreens, but this 15.4 is acceptable, giving me a wider screen, but loosing some height over my last 15" tft laptop. Just the standard WXGA screen, with res. of 1280X800. Fairly sharp display, somewhat limited viewing angle, I've found.
That's about it for my needs. I generally do all my surfing in the living room while slouched on the couch while the wife watches TV. Any serious work that needs to be done, typically is on the main rig.
On to the review. First impression was great. Solid feel, lid assembly has no flex, which over the years pays off in lid cracking. Keyboard is slightly firmer than the 4-5 older laptops I've used in the past year, refurbbing them, using for a month or two and selling. I like the firm keyboard.
Touchpad. Don't use it, as I have a short cord Logitech optical mouse on the caddy with it. It does have an extensive array of adjustments, however, for those that do.
System feel is sluggish compared to my main rig. Pretty much a given, as no laptop runs the higher fsb's today's desktop systems use, because of heat concerns. You loose that overall system snap and big memory benchmarks of say, a Prescott cpu. Also, hdd response seems rather slow, contributing to the sluggish feel compared to a desktop. Still, it's liveable for basic needs.
DVD Burner. Painfully slow compared to my desktop rig for DVD ripping. It does do the job, though. Movies played on the 6000D without a hitch.
Intel wireless a/b/g integrated NIC. Works perfectly with good range when linked to a USR 125mb/s AP.
Radeon X300 PCI-E graphics. Have yet to play any newer game on it, but is a lot of video card for a laptop.
Battery life for the standard 6 cell battery gave me 3 hours run time. Good enough, as I rarely run it on battery.
Dell included software. Can't say much about it, as I put up with it for a week, then wiped it with a clean install of XP. Dell no longer ships cdroms with OS and apps on it, you can burn one copy of the cdroms from an image on the hdd. You can also call Dell for the cdrom's, mine came in two days. I hear they are charging $10 for them now, but there was no charge at the time. Since the clean OS install, it's been up for 5 weeks, though!
Overall, happy with the laptop. Awesome price for a really nice machine!
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feedback form
by paul edited by fire100
last modified: 2005-08-14 08:56:56 | | | I first purchased my Dell Inspiron 2500 in March, 2004 for use in some of my college courses that I was enrolled in at that time. I had been looking for a decent used laptop for a while when I saw it on eBay for about $550. I noticed that I was quite a bit faster than a relatives Dell Cpx J 650 laptop they had me pick out for them.
I had never owned a laptop before this one which I have upgraded slightly by replacing the small amount of ram 128 Mb with 512Mb which sped things noticeably.
This laptop has an Intel P3-M 800 MHz processor that works fast and can run on the battery for about 1-1/2 - 2 hours.
In addition to the ram, I added a 24x/8x CD-RW/DVD combo drive, to watch movies and to record to blank compact discs. I’ve watched a few movies on it, and it is much better picture then a regular television. The laptop has a mini-PCI slot that is currently occupied with a modem / Ethernet combo card. The wireless A/B/G PC-card I have gets used mostly at home to connect to the wireless network i've setup.
[My network setup can be viewed here: /metashare/82cc7c .]
The Inspiron 2500 has all of the usual ports like serial, 2 USB, parallel port on it, instead of having to use a USB port replicator. I use a standard Microsoft Optical mouse which is easier for me to use instead of the built-in mouse touchpad. I have had no need to look for a faster laptop since this Inspiron 2500 currently meets my mobile computing needs.
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by AMDUSER edited by fire100
last modified: 2005-08-14 20:12:31 | | | [2kmaro note: submitted by yazdzik - System ate his name!]
Price - 1892.75
Dothan 2.13, ati x600, dvdrw, 60g at 7200 rpm, wuxga, 1024, dell wireless 1450(broadcom chip)
Ordered from refurbished, new machine from cancelled contract.
Observations:
Arrived on date promised, everything ok.
Windows preloaded, worked.
Carrying case barely fits $2k laptop, so is of little value, orth what I paid, to wit nothing.
One call to dell tech support was answered in less than two minutes, the information about a fairly complex partioning issue was answered in less than five minutes, with absolute accuracy.(I slid a partition and needed to fix the hal.dll error)
The case is not Sager(Clevo) or IBM quality, and the keyboard appears to be far flimsier than the Sager I own, on the other hand, the cover near the screen seems to be very rigid and protective.
No dead pixels at all!
For most video apps, ati x600 is more than adequate, for hard core gamers, this box does not enter into consideration.
This is my first centrino box, and, in all honesty, while I am amazed at the ability to work uncabled for almost three and a half hours, there is an apparent penalty is speed of rendering, although until I can run tests, this is just a guess. On the other hand, during non graphic-intensive uses, the response is in every way immediate.
Dreadfully cheap "feel" is offset by genuinely cheap price. Note that for $169 complete care is added to the three year warranty, whereas the same protection is not offered by sager at all, and by the reseller pctorque but at $370.
(the sager 3880 at same exact spec, including three year adp, would be $2309, without windows, which is the big advantage to buying from pctorque, $2184,. Naturally, one has to provide one's own credit. The price above for the dell includes 3 year adp as well.)
My first experience after three weeks with a "major"?
All things being equal, and had Sager the facilities to provide the credit, I would go with the Sager 3880, since my 5680 was so superb.
However, all things are not equal, and given Dell's marketing clout, ten percent or more savings in a business purchase is a massive amount of money, and for a home buyer, I suspect the same only moreso.
As to running linux, the choice of parts being broadcom and conexant is unfortunate, although we all know the workarounds.
The question remains as to whether the flimsiness is real or apparent - I'll update this is six months. My laptop lives in the back of a cabrio, on planes, in recording studios, going from NYC 100% humidity and 98^ F to freezing NYC offices- in short, if I were a laptop owned by me, I would ask for protection from family services. We shall see if the vaunted Dell latitude reliability is for real.
In the meantime, I can say that what is supposed to work works well, the services have been all they were hyped to be ----the price, less than $2k for a laptop with the specifiation noted including three years adp on site service, unbeatable.
Not a bad start.
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by 2kmaro
last modified: 2005-08-15 14:14:40 | | | I recently ventured into the notebook world, knowing what I wanted, and knowing what I wanted to pay, made it a little more difficult than expect. I saw notebooks from Sager that looked promising, but no incentive to buy. I saw a $750 off coupon from dell and decided to look at their notebooks, for gaming and portability reasons.
I came along the Inspiron 9300, 17" WideScreen WXUGA w/ TrueLife ( glossy ). I fell in love with it and configured to purchase and used the incentive ($750 off coupon), and bought it.
Here is my review and specs:
Inspiron 9300
1.6Ghz Pentium-M 2MB L2 cache
1.25GB PC2 DDR 4300
256MB Nvidia 6800Go
60GB 7.2K HDD
IntelPro 2200b/g WiFi
CDRW/DVD-Rom
17" WUXGA w/ TrueLife
Weight: Very light-weight for the size of the notebook, weighted at around 7 lbs, which is very good. 10/10
Size: It's big, but very easy to haul with you. As long as size isn't an issue with laptop, this sucker is big but light-weight to easily carry around. 9/10
Keyboard: Beautiful keyboard layout. Sturdy, responsive, very well put together by Dell. Easy to type on, and very easy to get used to. 9/10
TouchPad: Pretty good touch-pad, though it could be more exciting, it's functional and works wonderfully. 8.5/10
Performance: 1.6Ghz P-M 2MB L2 cache ain't nothing to laugh about. I run Adobe Photoshop CS and multi-task between Photoshop CS and Dreamweaver MX and it doesn't flinch! 9/10
Gaming: WOW! This is where the 9300 shines! I've got the 6800Go 256MB DDR 16x PCI-E, beautiful graphics card. I run Half-Life 2 at 1920x1200 and maintain a good 75FPS. I run Counter-Strike: Source at 1920x1200 with a good 80FPS. I run Need For Speed Underground 2 at 1600x1200 with 70FPS. Very good gaming machine, video card is overclockable. My 3dMark 05 score is 4600+ on a laptop! INSANE! 9.5/10
Screen: Definitely get the 17" w/ TrueLife WUXGA. I have an LG screen and the screen is beautiful! I love my screen, wouldn't trade it for the world. Though, if you plan on using the notebook outside constantly in sunny conditions, then glare will be a problem. highly suggest you make your decision based on what conditions you plan to use the laptop in. 9.5/10
Price: With the discount $750 off coupon, I ended up paying $1303 w/ tax for the above system! AMAZING PRICE!!!!
Final Words
If you're short on money, and want performance and a very well built laptop that rivals toshiba/ibm in build-quality but at the fraction of the cost, go with the Inspiron 9300 or XPS Gen2
-Joe
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by SVTRanger edited by fire100
last modified: 2005-08-24 05:48:43 | | | I've always wanted a laptop but felt there were none out there that could handle my photo editing needs. They simply just couldn't handle the more powerful programs. Well after searching long and hard and with a little help from Dell Coupons I decided to build up a Dell 9300:
1.) Pentium M 730
2.) 17" Wide Ultrasharp XGA display
3.) 512 megs of ram
4.) ATI Mobility 300
5.) 60gig HD
6.) DVD/CDRW combo
and other goodies
. At first I was worried it would be too cheaply made, I have prior experience with dell laptops from work, their C series are good but the newer D600's we got at work seem too cheaply made and flimsy. So needless to say I was a little worried. Well, when the laptop came in the first thing that came to mind was "HOLY *(&(&, this thing is huge". I was very satisfied right off with its build, its way more sturdy than other laptops I've tried and looked at. But where this laptop really shines is the DISPLAY and SPEED. It handles just as good as my Desktop which is what is really important to me. I can edit photos on this baby with ease using Photoshop CS2. I have so much resolution and desktop space coding with Dreamweaver or Visual Studio is perfect. Its also very very quiet you don't even know the fan is on.
PROS :
1.) Display
2.) Speed
3.) Build
4.) Looks
CONS:
1.) Size
All in all I can say I'm 95% satisfied with this laptop, size being the factor that takes away 5%. Finding a good bag for a 17" laptop is hard and expensive.
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feedback form
by AzzKicker edited by fire100
last modified: 2005-08-24 15:35:40 | | | Well this XPS 2 is the 2nd notebook I ever owned. I got this as my personal entertainment system, and I have yet to be really disappointed in the 2 months I have had it. First off the screen is gorgeous, the Trulife coating makes my old Toshiba look so dim and dirty. I will never order a screen again with a non glossy coating. Regarding the "sparkles", it is a fine coating of dots, you can only see them if you are staring at a solid white background for a few minutes or so. I noticed it when I first got my machine, but you soon get used to it.
Graphically this thing is fast! I run CS:Source, Halo and Guild Wars on max settings and everything is smooth. I also have HL2, it runs excellent at UXGA resolution. For normal web browsing, I run the display at 1440*900, and I use the Opera web browser and use the built in zoom function at 150%.
Audio quality is also excellent, the front mount speakers are pretty loud, and the subwoofer works well, it shakes my flimsy desk. only problem I have is that the multimedia buttons are poorly placed, it is too easy to brush your hands on the buttons, and the volume buttons have no "play" in the settings, if they are on volume 0 and you press volume up, the volume level just jumps up to 4 or 5, there is nothing in between. A manual wheel would of been better.
Case is pretty solid, haven't heard any creaks, screen hinges are stiff as well. Keyboard is crap, sometimes it feels like your fingers get caught under the edges, they could of made the fit tighter. I already scraped 2 keys off, one I got back in but the other won't fit right so I will have to get a new kb from Dell when they are in stock.
I got the 5400rpm 60gbHD. It is pretty fast, now I wished that I had gotten the 100GB for $100 more. Dell installs a lot of crap, but fortunately they include a real XP disc so you can reinstall everything, except a few programs like Cyberlink PowerDVD.
I also have the IntelPRO wireless 2200BG, the bluetooth was extra, but you can buy the modules on Ebay for 1/4th the price. They are simple to install, takes about 2 minutes. or if you can find a good deal on a USB bluetooth adaptor go for it. I am sad to see that Dell does not include port covers, I will have to either put my computer in a case or blast it weekly with compressed air.
DON'T get the XPS backpack, it is HUGE, almost like a camping backpack. If you want a small, nice case get the Booq Powersleeve XXL, although I don't know if it has room for the AC adaptor. Speaking of the AC adaptor, Dell could of made this thing smaller, it is really big, but it is lighter than most I have seen.
Intel Pro Wireless works like a dream, I am picking up my routers signal and also my neighbors, it has a cool autoconfig utillity that lets you make a profile for a certain network, so when you get the signal, it will remember the settings and automatically connect.
Batterylife is good for a machine of this power, with screen at max brightness and wireless on, you can get about 1 and 1/2 hours, turn wireless off and screen at lowest settings you can squeeze out 2 hours. I am rarely away from an outlet so this didn't matter to me much. This system WILL NOT work with an airplane power adaptor, not enough voltage, so leave this in the overhead. I bought a Thinkpad T43 for travelling, and use my XPS for my "desktop".
All in all this is the best power laptop for games, if you like to record tv or anything like that without purchasing extras the Qosimo from Toshiba is also a good deal, but it doesn't have a geforce 6800 Ultra, just a 6600.
Make sure you order one with a coupon from Notebookforums.com, I saved $1500. And even though those new Dell M170s are coming out, I think the PXS 2 is a better buy, the M170's are only about 15-20% faster in 3DMark05 (6000+ vs 5000+) and cost twice as much.
Also I suggest you buy your ram elsewhere, Dell will rape you with the prices of ram, and to achieve the speeds others are reaching in games, 2gb of RAM is a must.
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feedback form
by Iridium edited by fire100
last modified: 2005-10-23 00:31:37 | | | dell 9300 notebook review
I will keep it short, simple and about what i would have cared about if i was still thinking about buying..
Ordered on Dec. 16th around 8pm.
9300 1.8ghz
non-ultra bright 17" widescreen
gig of ram
60gig 7200 rpm
6800go
DVD+-rw
a/b/g wireless
6 cell
extra 9 cell
3 years of McAfee
XP MCE with install CD
dell back pack carry case
1 year warranty.
$1588 shipped with 2 day delivery (after $750 coupon, and free upgrades)
Estimated ship date wasn't until sometime in the first week of Jan, don't remember exactly. Was happy to see they got it built fast, and updated shipping to overnight for free. Got it on Dec 23 as a nice Christmas surprise. Considering i ordered it so late in the day on the 16Th, i thought that was fast.
Having never seen a 17" wide screen in person i was a little shocked when i took this beast out of the box and turned it on. I did notice some light leakage at first but for some reason it has diminished to the point where its almost totally gone and i even use a black background. It's a samsung screen. No dead pixels. I am totally satisfied with the screen. The keyboard took a few days to get used to, but now im typing at full speed again.
Did a format within the first 10 minutes of turning it on and seeing 65 processes running. No problem at all finding and obtaining drivers needed, and burning them to CD before i started.
Since then i have also overclocked the 6800 to 390/790 and played hl2 for a few hours just to see if it was stable and then set it back to default because it was certainly good enough for me. Nice to know when its more outdated i can squeeze a little more out of her though. No 3d scores because it would take to long to DL. But it plays games good enough for me..and when it doesn't I might consider upgrading to a 7800 gtx card ;)
It is a really quiet machine (with the exception of the optical drive). The fan spins up to medium speed every so often when gaming, but its almost silent doing anything else.
Letting the bios control the fans i get temps of about 50 for both CPU and GPU while surfing and listening to music. About 55 cpu and 60 gpu is the highest Ive seen it go after gaming for a few hours. If i let fangui control the fans it would be cooler and also make more noise. I prefer it quiet.
The Intel a/b/g wireless works great. I can steal my dads wireless from down the block with it if i stand in front of the window (great transmission range for internal IMO). I ordered a range extender to extend coverage to the rest of my house.
Haven't bought any DVDs to try the DVD aspect of the burner. I have watched DVD's and they looked good.
I'm very pleased with it, and the price i paid. I've tried re-configuring the same options over the last few weeks to see if its any cheaper and it always comes out to about 2g's with the best coupon codes i can find. I did not use the epp. I would buy it again in a heart beat. If you watch the coupon codes i don't think you can find this powerful of a machine anywhere for even close to the price of a 9300.
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feedback form
by Phoenix Gold edited by fire100
last modified: 2006-01-11 06:00:54 | | | I’ve been looking for a laptop for quite some time now but finally forced myself to make a decision. My intended use for the laptop will be basic office, internet and DVD viewing. I wanted something I could move about my home and since I am going back to college I needed something light enough to go with me.
I set a budget of $800 max which I thought was fair. That budget would include any extras that I might also have to purchase. The difference between a 4200 and 5400 rpm HDD is noticeable. If a laptop couldn’t be configured with or didn’t include a 5400 rpm option then the price of a drive from Newegg had to be included in the total cost. The same goes for the Compaq/HP AMD systems. HP ships the AMD systems with PC2700 but the ATI chipset and CPU were built for PC3200. A memory purchase would be required and added to the cost of the laptop.
I read reviews, played with laptops in stores and searched many forums for insight. I decided on the Compaq V2000Z with the ML-32 Turion as being the best choice. I was all ready to order but, call it fate or accident, I ended up with something completely different. While I was browsing the Dell Outlet for a friend I came across an XPS M140. I hadn’t considered the M140 since, at the time, it was $999 to start and out of budget. I quickly read reviews and did some quick searches but when I finished and added the M140 to my cart it was already gone. Lesson number one, when in the Dell Outlet move fast.
I ended up ordering an M140 with the Pentium M 740 (1.73/533/2MB L2), 1GB 533 DDR2, 60GB 5400 rpm HDD, Intel 2200 wireless, CDRW/DVD combo drive and Windows XP MCE for $689. $689 was much much less than the new configured price and was certainly with in budget so I was very pleased with the purchase. Warranty time was 1 Year same as new and since it was an XPS I received the specialized XPS support.
The XPS M140 (and its twin the 630M from small business) is a Centrino laptop. It’s using the Intel 915 chipset and includes standard specs as follows:
DDR2 533MHz support, 2 DIMMS
4 USB 2.0 ports
5 in 1 memory card reader
One firewire port
Audio in (Mic), out
VGA connection
RJ-45 Ethernet
RJ-11 Modem
S-Video
One ExpressCard slot
14.1 (wide) WXGA 1280x800 resolution (TrueLife option)
Intel Media Accelerator 900 with up to 128MB shared
Height: 1.5”
Width: 13”
Depth: 9.6”
Weight: 5.5lbs (6 cell battery)
First let’s talk about the XPS name. I have read a good many reviews about this Laptop using the XPS name and they were very disappointed after they received their M140 that it didn’t game well. I would think the integrated GMA900 would have been a huge indication of its gaming possibilities and as such I don’t think you should be too shocked to find it doesn’t game well at all. Regardless of its GPU, it’s still an XPS and as such it receives the same dedicated XPS support staff.
The included software was the basic stuff and to my disappointment it was all in the taskbar at first boot begging for your attention. Start/Run/msconfig and a reboot fixed that and I immediately started uninstalling stuff. I know Dell isn’t the only company who does the bloated pre-install stuff but I would rather have a clean install with a nice software CD for me to pick and choose from. As a computer company I would think you would want the customer to receive the system and be impressed by its speed. Instead you are faced with slow boot time and a busy mouse as you click through all the windows. I certainly would say this was on the Con list for me but like I said, Dell isn’t the only company that does it.
After my order I was a bit apprehensive about XP Media Center Edition. I would be doing a good amount of wireless and XP Pro would have fit my needs better. I was under the impression that MCE was nothing more than XP Home with added media software. Thankfully I was wrong. MCE is based on XP Pro so it contains all the extras that come with Pro vs Home. I can’t comment too much on how I like MCE yet as I haven’t gone much farther than playing a DVD, but it isn’t the resource hog that I feared and stays completely out of your way until you open it.
Those (like myself) that would like to do a fresh install of Windows are going to be surprised to find that you don’t get an Operating system CD like you used to. Dell instead includes a restore partition that takes up about 5GB of your drive. The partition is activated by pressing CTRL + F11 at boot. A DOS based program runs and installs your OS as new, bloatware and all. I have tested it and it does work. The restore partition has a huge Achilles heel though. If anything would happen to the Master Boot Record (MBR) your left with a system and no restore. You can’t alter the partition sizes in any way either and lastly they don’t give you a way to burn the Ghost image to DVD for safe keeping. Fortunately you can contact Dell and they will send you the OS and software CD’s. I used the easiest method by going to dell.com/chat where you enter your service tag number, address and ask a question. I was immediately connected with someone from the XPS staff who put the info through and I should receive the CD’s in 3-5 days. It actually arrived in two via DHL and cost me nothing.
Back to the M140, build quality is outstanding. The shell is plastic but it doesn’t give when you press against it. Pushing on the back of the display does not cause ripples in the LCD like most of the sub $800 systems I’ve tested. The gaps between the different pieces that make up the shell are very tight. The LCD is kept away from the keyboard when it is closed. I’m very impressed with how sturdy the M140 is, big A+.
The design is very modern and pleasing to look at. I really don’t like black laptops. They just seem so dull to me. The M140 has a black bottom with an all silver top. The middle keyboard area has a white border than graduates into silver. The black keyboard looks great against the light colors. On the front there are media keys. One of the coolest features of this laptop is the ability to play music or DVD’s without loading the OS. The system is called Media Direct 2.0. You can access the optical drive and any external drives including memory cards to instantly view pictures, music or video.
I received the TrueLife glossy LCD on my system. Some have complained that the surface is too reflective but personally I don’t think its any worse that the other glossy screens on the market. The default background is XPS wallpaper with black as its main color which causes more reflection to be seen than a lighter color. Switching over to MCE’s default Electric Blue theme removes a great deal of the reflection. Colors are very true and vivid on this LCD. White has a grainy texture to it but nothing you would notice unless you’re really close to the screen. Text is crisp and easy to read and the viewing angle is very wide even at the lowest brightness setting for the LCD.
The keyboard is full sized white text on black keys. Laptop function keys are in blue and stand out just enough to be seen but not become annoying when using the keyboard. The keys make a dull thud when typing, which I prefer over a click. Typing is very comfortable.
The track pad is wide but seeing as this is a widescreen it works very well. The software can adjust the track pad to do just about everything other laptops can do like tap to click and edge scrolling. The scrolling feature works very well with no effort. The buttons are easy to push and don’t make a loud click when they are pressed.
I’m very impressed the thermal qualities of this laptop. The bottom doesn’t get hot, although it does get warm when using the HDD a lot (more on why later). The fan rarely kicks on and when it does its very quiet. I have to commend Dell on the design of this laptop. Since the CPU is located off the keyboard and the HDD isn’t directly under the palm rest neither get hot. It always annoys me to set my hands on overly warm keyboards and palm rests.
Since this is a Centrino notebook it is using Intel wireless. Signal strength is fantastic. Windows controls the wireless by default and since MCE is based on XP Pro you receive the same wireless/networking offerings as Pro.
I received the 6 cell battery with mine but there is also a choice of a 9 cell. With the screen at its dimmest setting you can still read in darker areas or on overcast days. When things get brighter you will want to turn up the screen a bit. Even with the screen set to half bright I can get 4 hours and 15-20 minutes of battery time. With the screen at its lowest, browsing with the wireless and working in office I can get very close to 5 hours. The 9 cell is good for 6-7 hours of battery time.
I discussed this before but it deserves a deeper look. The M140 wears the XPS badge but does not come with dedicated graphics. It relies on Intel’s integrated graphics which can use up to 128MB of system memory. Having built several mATX systems in my life I have come to loathe integrated graphics but I have to say, the M140 is still very speedy. The GPU is using system memory but it is very seamless. As for gaming performance, well there is none. GTA Vice City is my all time favorite game. The GMA will run it, and run it very smooth albeit at very low resolution. It does look good however since it’s only a 14.1” screen.
I have the lowest CPU Dell offers in the M140 but the 1.73 Pentium M 740 is hardly a slacker. SuperPi calculations are 43 seconds for 1 million places and 1:46 for 2 million. The hard drive pulls in a respectable 29/31MB/s read/write in Raptest. This is a very peppy system.
Finally let’s talk about upgrading. One of the best design features of this laptop is the extreme ease in which you can upgrade. The HDD, modem, wireless mini PCI, Bluetooth card and even the CPU and heat pipe can all be accessed but removing small panels on the bottom of the laptop. Memory slot “B” is accessed on the bottom also but slot “A” is under the keyboard. Despite being under the keyboard it’s still very easy to gain access to. There is one “lock screw” holding the optical drive in place and the drive is of standard size. I’m actually thinking of upgrading my current combo drive with a slot load DVD burner later.
Well it has been a long road but I’m very happy where it ended. I think the M140 is a wonderful laptop with great features, speed and build quality. I would highly recommend this laptop to anyone in the market.
For more info on the M140 you can visit Dell’s page here
For more info on Windows media center, including setup, you can visit Microsoft’s MCE page here
A review of MCE can be found at Anandtech’s site here
See Maranello 's review and pictures here: »Dell XPS M140 Review
feedback form
feedback form
by Mospaw edited by fire100
last modified: 2006-02-03 05:41:47 | | | I recently purchased a new Dell Inspiron E1705 through the Dell Employee Purchase Program (EPP), and I am very impressed with it. Before buying it I had researched a number of different portables, but as with a lot of people, the Dell discounts won me over. The combination of the hardware options and the savings was just too good to beat. The cost information below can actually be brought down even more than what was listed. I purchased an additional power adapter so I could leave one at work all the time, and I also purchased a backpack carrying case. These items came to about $59 extra.
Technical Specs:
Inspiron E1705
Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2300 (1.66GHz/667MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
Memory 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
Hard Drive 60GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
AC Power Adapters 90 Watt Spare AC Adapter
Operating System (Office software not included) Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
Combo/DVD+RW Drives 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Sound Options Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD Audio
Wireless Networking Cards Intel® PRO 3945 and Dell 350 Bluetooth Internal Wireless Cards
Office Software (not included in Windows XP) No productivity suite- Corel WordPerfect word processor only
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) No Security Subscription
Primary Battery 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Carrying Cases Large Backpack Carrying Case
Hardware Warranty 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-In Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support
Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Mobile Broadband No Broadband Expresscard technology is available in the market now
Operating System Re-Installation CD Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition re-installation CD
Dell Digital Entertainment Starter Entertainment Pack - Basic digital Music, Photo and Game experience
Ports and Connections:
1 x S-Video port
1 x VGA port
1 x DVI port
1 x modem jack
1 x network jack
6 x USB ports
1 x Firewire port
1 x PCMCIA slot
Headphone and Mic jacks
SD/MMC slot
Cost and Savings:
Configured Total: $2144
Dell EPP/FSS customers $750 Off: -$750.00
Dell EPP/FSS Free Shipping: -$49.00
Dell EPP/FSS 6% Discount: -$83.64
Tax $78.62
Total $1,388.98
I had read about several problems on various sites that were a concern in my choice of this portable, namely: heat problems, backlight bleeding, and screen reflection problems. As it turns out I got lucky and had none of the problems other people had mentioned. The temp. sits around the mid 20s when I'm just surfing the Net, and rose to about the mid 50s while running 3DMark06. The 3DMark06 score with all stock drivers was 3477. I haven't yet tweaked the drivers to see if I can improve on the score.
I have not noticed any backlight bleeding. I've watched several DVDs in the dark and have not noticed any bleeding along the bottom edge of the screen. At first I was disappointed in the look of DVDs, everything seemed grainy, but eventually figured out that the brightness was up to high and that by turning it down it really improved the picture. Although I do have to keep increasing the brightness when I want to do anything but watch movies as the screen is much too dark to be able to do anything in Windows after watching a DVD.
As far as the screen reflections, well the Truelife is one of the glossy screens and if you have a black desktop you can certainly see a clear reflection. I have not yet tried it outside in the sun. The viewing angles all seem to be OK, there isn't much in the way of privacy, anyone sitting next to you on a plane could easily see what you're doing.
The machine came with a lot of bloatware on it, a 90 day trial of Norton Ghost, McAfee, Google Desktop, Musicmatch Jukebox, etc. A lot of people choose to completely reformat upon receiving their new Dell laptop, however I chose to just uninstall the bloatware using "Add/Remove Programs", and then I ran CCleaner to tidy up a few things. If people need help reformatting, there is a reformat guide posted at: »forum.notebookreview.com/showthr···?t=42340
One area of disappointment: battery life. I did not purchase any additional batteries, or upgrade to the 9-cell version, so this is partly my fault. With a full charge, using the wireless card, I get about 2 hours and 5 mins of life. I have not gone through and tweaked the machine to improve the battery life. I may look into purchasing a new 9-cell battery and try one of those.
The native resolution for this screen type is 1920 x 1200, which can be a problem for some people bc of the size of the text. I would suggest making a trip it Best Buy or some other store that sells laptops and looking at the various resolutions to determine what you like. While you are there, lift the laptops and get a feel for the weight, around 8lbs the E1705 is not light.
The laptop does feature the MediaDirect option: instead of booting Windows on the machine, you can power up in MediaDirect mode and watch DVDs that way.
I really have nothing bad to say about the machine. It's solidly built, looks great (although some people don't like the white), and performs great. I have only had it for a few days, so maybe later down the road I will find something about it I don't like, hehe.
feedback form
feedback form
by garethsk edited by fire100
last modified: 2006-06-03 16:06:10 |
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