My new (first) Laptop

[spyder913]

Ordered this on Monday cause it was too good of a deal to pass up:

Order Details
Inspiron 9300,Pentium M 740 (1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
17 inch True Life Wide Screen UXGA for Inspiron 9300
FREE UPGRADE! 512MB, DDR2, 533MHZ, 2 Dimm, for Inspiron 9300
64MB ATI Mobility Radeon X300,for Inspiron 9300
40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive for Inspiron 9300
Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English, for Inspiron
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron
8X DVD Drive for Inspiron 9200
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g,54Mbps) for Inspiron 9200
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery for Inspiron 9200
Type 3- Third Party At Home Service, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year
Type 3- Third Party At Home Service, 24x7 Technical Support, 1 Year Extended
2 Year Limited Warranty
Soft Contracts - Banctec
Technical Support, Initial Year
Technical Support, 1 Year Extended

Sub-Total $1,227.00
Shipping $0.00
Tax $85.13
Total Price $1,312.13

I had a $800 off any 1999+ inspiron which I used to knock down the price a bit ;)

[E]

I just bought my new laptop too! :)

P3 3.6 GHz, 800 MHz FSB
17 inch wide screen
128 MB ATI X800 Mobility video card
1 GB DDR RAM
100 GB HDD
DVD/CD Burner combo +/- DVD burning
Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g,54Mbps)
A NUMBER PAD!
And all the standard laptop stuff..... NIC, modem, 4 USB slots, firewire, etc....

Its huge... not so much a laptop as a semi portable desktop replacement. I will be paying for two years though... But I have had it three weeks and decided I am never buying a desktop again.

[Tammarion]

Waves 1st red flag.... whats the rpm speed of the hard drive?

I found from my experience that the limiting factor on a comp tends to be the hard drive... you might need to upgrade that part to a 5400k rpm drive, or the hitachi travelstar 7k60 (only 7200 rpm 2.5" drive out there atm)

[E]

Yep, it is a slow 4200. But that does not change my love for it, nor do I feel mediocre. I don't do much other than play WoW, listen to MP3s and spam message people. :)

Just don't ask me to move it from its location....

[Tammarion]

I'm just saying that should you feel the urge to upgrade, thats what you should go for - upgrading the harddrive on a laptop is easier than doing it on a desktop.

[spyder913]

Waves 1st red flag.... whats the rpm speed of the hard drive?

I found from my experience that the limiting factor on a comp tends to be the hard drive... you might need to upgrade that part to a 5400k rpm drive, or the hitachi travelstar 7k60 (only 7200 rpm 2.5" drive out there atm)
mine was not stated, but they DID state the 4200 rpm drives when they were an option (mine only had options of bigger, or 7200 rpm)

[spyder913]

I'm just saying that should you feel the urge to upgrade, thats what you should go for - upgrading the harddrive on a laptop is easier than doing it on a desktop.
also -- how is it easier when to do it on a desktop you can plug in both of them and copy over all your files, but on a laptop you can only plug in one

[Roscoes_C&W]

u put yourself in debt for 2 years to buy a laptop? wow, thats some serious video game dedication, or financial ignorance. However you look at it.

[spyder913]

u put yourself in debt for 2 years to buy a laptop? wow, thats some serious video game dedication, or financial ignorance. However you look at it.hehe yeah... I waited till I could pay 'cash' for mine

[Rooster]

X300 video sucks.. :(

X800 rocks.

[Figtoria]

I'm just saying that should you feel the urge to upgrade, thats what you should go for - upgrading the harddrive on a laptop is easier than doing it on a desktop.


In what way is it easier?

A desktop is easier because you have a couple of options. You can add an additional drive making the older one a slave, or ghost one to the other.

With a laptop - if you want to ghost the drive you have to have access to a second computer and the adapter for laptop hard drive. For the average user - a desktop hard drive is way easier an upgrade.

And for surfing, music, word processing - no way are you going to see the difference between a 4200rpm drive and a 5400.

[Rooster]

You may save a whopping .5 to 1 second when opening a large word document.
You may save 10 minutes, if you spend 8 hours surfing (writing/reading thousands of temp files).

But no, you won't see an appreciable difference.

Games, oh heck ya.

[Tammarion]

bleh - I was meaning out of the box - much less fiddling with cables and junk. If its about file transfer though, theres usb drive kits that let you link the old drive up (its much handier too - 2.5 drives don't need a lot in the way of power, an external 3.5 drive is much clunkier in comparison)

When loading up single files, you don't see the difference that much - but when you load up lots of files (games mostly) its a huge difference. Some games are downright unplayable on a 4200 drive.

[Elvtin]

a 4200 HD? What is this you speak of... :ooer:

[Rooster]

RPM

Slower desktop drives (OEM, from like HP, Compaq, Dell), are usually 5400RPM.

Most are now 7,200RPM

The super fast Raptor II's are 10,000RPM

SCSI can reach 15,000RPM

Faster RPM means faster drive access.

[Elvtin]

tee-hee-hee Roo.....
:p

[Tammarion]

but laptop (2.5 in) are lower rpm, coming in 4200/5400 and hitachi deskstar 7200 rpm.

Basically its seek time (time to find a file) where rpm is the most useful. if you are doing things that are continuous access (mp3s, movies), rpm isn't that big a deal.

[Elvtin]

What I ment was.. 4200 HD is so slow.. I don't use a HD unless it's 7200rpm or faster.
:)

[spyder913]

X300 video sucks.. :(

X800 rocks.Yup, but I won't be gaming on this machine so it's all good. Plus it has the ability to upgrade if I want to down the road.

[Rooster]

Not saying it can't - but I don't recall ever seeing an upgradable video card in a laptop.

[Jobius]

As soon as PCI-E came out its possible my laptop video card is now uprgadable. That is one reason I wanted so long before getting my laptop.