Thinking of buying a Dell laptop

seamus

They're cheap enough, and I get 5% (wow) discount through work on any model.

Just looking for opinions. I'd probably go for the cheapest Inspiron, and soon after would upgrade the RAM, and eventually the HDD.

How easy/cheap is it to upgrade the hardware on these, and should I bother my arse?

Cork Skate

seamus wrote:

They're cheap enough, and I get 5% (wow) discount through work on any model.

Just looking for opinions. I'd probably go for the cheapest Inspiron, and soon after would upgrade the RAM, and eventually the HDD.

How easy/cheap is it to upgrade the hardware on these, and should I bother my arse?

A friends dad just bought an Inspiron and it is very poor. He paid 1300 euro and he was robbed, no mouse port (he doesn't like the mouse pad, it is crap) and only two USB ports (so one is taken up now with the mouse) ... the performance is really very poor and takes a while to startup. No floppy drive, he has to pay extra for that. They seem to be using really cheap parts now and their support hasn't been the best either.


Hearing alot of bad reports about them from previous customer and people with reasoned arguments.


I dunno ... i'd steer away from them to be honest. Their biggest selling point is they are cheaper ... but when you look at it, they are not really. It doesn't matter what spin they put on it, it is the final figure held against another one is what it comes down to.

uberwolf

yeah, I've heard an awful lot of bad reports about support and quality of materials as well.

Denying consumers options like AMD as well isn't endearing them to me either.

Apple TBH

deRanged

I've bought a couple of Inspirons, upgraded the RAM (using crucial.com/eu) no problem, but haven't tried anything else.

I found them to be great machines for the price, but I also wiped the Dell install and re-installed myself. I find that Dell tend to add a lot of stuff in that I don't want.

Dub13

I am thinking of getting one aswell...can anybody recommend were I should buy as I have not got a clue how to build.I will have around 1500 to spend.

jjmax

By about 4/5 years!
But, aren't Toshiba supposed to be da Shiznit?
Expensive though, I believe (4/5 years ago).

Snaga

Ive an inspiron 9100 which Im quite happy with. Its a bit bulky but it is a desktop replacement. Ive never had to ring for support so I cant comment on that.

That said I have heard complaints about build quality on the lower end inspirons, Id recommend trying to get a look at the model you want to buy first to make sure your comfortable with it.

Acer do some nice, pretty cheap AMD based laptops at the moment. Do a search on www.elara.ie for acer laptops to get an idea of the price/specs you would get versus a similarly priced dell.

RicardoSmith

Inspiron are their "cheap" range. You'd expect cheap parts.

2 to 4 ports is usual on all laptops. My Sony laptop has 3 USB ports. I use a HUB for everything so I'm not plugging everything in and out all the time. With the hub, its one cable and everything is connected.

You can upgrade Dell memory and harddisks afterwards. Yes you'd be better doing that yourself since adding things above the basic spec is very expensive on Dell.

With a latop warranty is everything. Place like lidl and aldi and some other manufacturers give you 3 years warranty without paying extra (with Dell its extra). Some even include insurance which is very hard to get if you are not a homeowner, or a business.

The last Aldi laptop was a great deal. Dunno if you can still get them.

Cork Skate

Snaga wrote:

Do a search on www.elara.ie for acer laptops to get an idea of the price/specs you would get versus a similarly priced dell.

Try www.komplett.ie aswell to compare !!

Matt Simis

RicardoSmith wrote:

Inspiron are their "cheap" range. You'd expect cheap parts.

2 to 4 ports is usual on all laptops. My So
The last Aldi laptop was a great deal. Dunno if you can still get them.

Inspiron = cheap range is a sweeping, incorrect generalisation.
Inspiron is the "normal" range, and goes from basic setups (like the ones those above are bitching at) to the multimedia, high end laptops (like the Inspiron 8600, 9100 and 9200).

Also, comparing Dells Warranty and Support to Lidl and Aldi is a bit laughable. Lidl/Aldi are a mere reseller of bulk purchase goods (Dells machines are now custom made).. they havent a clue what they are selling (currently or next). Dells 3 year warranty is a next business day, call to your house type affair. Aldi/Lidls warranty is handled by the guy between the car oil and fruit and veg sections.. :eek:

I wouldnt recommend lower end (upto €1200) Dell laptops, but the mid to high end stuff is solid.


Matt

seamus

Cheers lads.

I don't want to buy something that is just as-is and won't let me upgrade or add peripherals later on.

I can get my hands on this for €1200. Whatchya think?

voakesy

how about ajp

i bought the 8050d
cost me round 2500ishy

they do best bang for your buck but customer service is awful. i was on to them a while ago and the guy who answered the phone was so uninterested in what i was saying he starting humming the titanic tune to himself, needless to say i gave him a peice of my mind.

and they warrenty is only for uk mainland so any repairs your pay p&p.

i got a good deal off them & btw dell is not cheap, i got 1.8 centrino, 1gb ram, 80gb hdd 5400rpm, 15.4 wxga, 128mb ati m11, usb fdd ect ect.
my point is this would of cost me 4 grand off dell the robbin bastards!!

as i said more bang for your buck, if anything goes wrong your ****ed.
they've had my machine 19 days now(took a week after they recived it to start work on it) and now they reckon its fixed, i hope to jasus christ it ****in is or im drivin over n shovin it down someones neck. and eh, yeah, dunno whatever.........

Gurgle

In my experience, the Dell hardware is still reasonably good but their after-sales and support have absolutely gone to the dogs in the last couple of years. It took me 4 months last year to get a refund when I was overcharged.

If you're buying a laptop, buy it off the shelf in a shop.

Then if you have a problem you can march in, plonk it on the customer service desk and keep making noise until they either fix, replace or refund.

- edit - I used to have a Toshiba Laptop, it was bulky and heavy but the best and most reliable piece of electronics I ever owned.

Tom Dunne

Cork Skate wrote:

...no mouse port (he doesn't like the mouse pad, it is crap) ... No floppy drive, he has to pay extra for that.

This is standard on most new laptops - my work laptop (Thinkpad T40, less than a year old) and home laptop (HP Pavillion, three months old) are the same - no floppy drive and no mouse/keyboard ports.

With Dell, as with most places, you get what you pay for. If you want top of the range, with everything on it, be prepared to pay.

RicardoSmith

tom dunne wrote:

....With Dell, as with most places, you get what you pay for. If you want top of the range, with everything on it, be prepared to pay.

That kinda common sense is beyond most people apparently.

As for AJP, some deal, if you can't use it!

seamus

RicardoSmith wrote:

As for AJP, some deal, if you can't use it!

That's what I was thinking.

Everyone seems to be recommending Toshiba, and their machines seem nice. Is there anywhere that sells them retail in Dublin?

TBH, I'm not going to part with any amount of cash, even if it seems like a good deal. No point in giving Dell €700 if, 12 months down the line, the thing is slow as a hog, and I can't do anything to improve it, and Dell won't help me.

I'd rather pay €1200 and get a solid machine. I'm probably going to be financing it anyway, so what the hell

So best options as I see it are:
Dell for > €1200
Acer for ~= €1,100
Wander into PCWorld, etc and pay ~=€1,200

Matt Simis

seamus wrote:

That's what I was thinking.

Everyone seems to be recommending Toshiba, and their machines seem nice. Is there anywhere that sells them retail in Dublin?

TBH, I'm not going to part with any amount of cash, even if it seems like a good deal. No point in giving Dell €700 if, 12 months down the line, the thing is slow as a hog, and I can't do anything to improve it, and Dell won't help me.

I'd rather pay €1200 and get a solid machine. I'm probably going to be financing it anyway, so what the hell

So best options as I see it are:
Dell for > €1200
Acer for ~= €1,100
Wander into PCWorld, etc and pay ~=€1,200

Forget PC World.
Dell Inspiron 8600c €1120 (PM, Centrino, dedicated GFX)
Dell Inspiron 510m €940 (Celeron M, Wifi, low end but competent)

Both come with free "gifts" (printers or MP3 players usually)

The 8600c can be upgraded with various CPUs and upto a ATI 9600Pro GFX. These prices are standard retail (you said you get 5% off) with a 1 Year RTB warranty.

Just FYI, dont be scammed by "extended warranties", Dell are offering a 1 year guarantee by default, as a EU Citizen you are automatically entitled to a 2 Year Warranty by law. The only thing to be aware of is with the EU Warranty the burden of proof is with you, to show any defect was there at time of purchase. This is likely to change in the future, but generally most companies will not demand you prove defects in this manner (too time consuming).


Matt

Woden

Recently went through a range of laptops with my mate trying to find something that for a decent price with decent ram, hdd and the graphics

we ended up coming up with this one which we thought was a nice combination of all the above, the only thing you need for it is a wireless card if you're going in that direction. (i think an updated 1672 model has the integrated wireless perhaps elara will stock it soon or someone else?)

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE960018&productID=103039.

Third_Echelon

I have a Dell Inspiron 5150. its about 1 year old now and is still in tip-top condition. It is still running as fast as the day i got it.

I've only done an XP install once after getting rid of the dell xp home install. No problems at all OS-wise since.

I've had no major problems with it. I had some niggly problems with my network card, but thats sorted now.

The screen quality is fantastic. I upgraded to get the highest possible resolution. Well worth the extra few quid.

It was just over 2 grand i think.

My Spec is:

Intel P4 3200 MHz
512 MB RAM
60 GB HDD
64 MB NVIDIA GFX Card
CD Writer/DVD Drive Combo
Built-In Wireless 802.11 b card (its g as well i think)

As other posters have said PS2 ports for a mouse were made extinct a long time ago. USB all the way now.

There is 2 usb ports on the 5150. If you need more, a usb hub is cheap and effective.

I'd recommend the 5150 range to anyone. Its robust, good quality and very little problems.

seamus

Third_Echelon wrote:

I'd recommend the 5150 range to anyone. Its robust, good quality and very little problems.

It also seems to be discontinued , replaced with the 5160.

dell.ie is doing funny things today. It says one price, but when you "customise & buy", and even remove all extras, the price is nowhere near the cheaper one they stated.... [Edit: My bad. WTF do dell keep moving things around on their site? ]

CyberGhost

Third_Echelon wrote:

I have a Dell Inspiron 5150. its about 1 year old now and is still in tip-top condition. It is still running as fast as the day i got it.

I've only done an XP install once after getting rid of the dell xp home install. No problems at all OS-wise since.

I've had no major problems with it. I had some niggly problems with my network card, but thats sorted now.

The screen quality is fantastic. I upgraded to get the highest possible resolution. Well worth the extra few quid.

It was just over 2 grand i think.

My Spec is:

Intel P4 3200 MHz
512 MB RAM
60 GB HDD
64 MB NVIDIA GFX Card
CD Writer/DVD Drive Combo
Built-In Wireless 802.11 b card (its g as well i think)

As other posters have said PS2 ports for a mouse were made extinct a long time ago. USB all the way now.

There is 2 usb ports on the 5150. If you need more, a usb hub is cheap and effective.

I'd recommend the 5150 range to anyone. Its robust, good quality and very little problems.

I too have 5150 model, and I love it! IMHO it's the best laptop dell has ever made! it's very fast(with programs, it's not a gaming machine) and not very big like 9100, now if it had a Radeon 9800 video card :eek:

CyberGhost

seamus wrote:

It also seems to be discontinued , replaced with the 5160.

dell.ie is doing funny things today. It says one price, but when you "customise & buy", and even remove all extras, the price is nowhere near the cheaper one they stated.... [Edit: My bad. WTF do dell keep moving things around on their site? ]

5160 just has different colour panels/TP(gray) and presscott processor, though it's still running on 533mhz bus.

Matt Simis

If the price seems different its because Dell put the 3 year warranty on default, knock it back to 1.


Matt

zepp

i have a dell inspiron 8600 comes with a mouse/keyboard port.

nice bit of kit. big though. but thats proably to do with the big screen. not sure of the size with smaller screen.

RicardoSmith

seamus wrote:

It also seems to be discontinued , replaced with the 5160.

dell.ie is doing funny things today. It says one price, but when you "customise & buy", and even remove all extras, the price is nowhere near the cheaper one they stated.... [Edit: My bad. WTF do dell keep moving things around on their site? ]

I have that problem a lot with Dells Website. Whenever I've contacted them about it, they've never got back to me.

jank

What do people think of the 510mDell Inspiron

Seems a good price but im worried that im buying another cheap dell laptop that will give me problems later on. Not too keen on the Integrated Direct AGP Graphics Card, either.

What do people make of the new 9200 inspirion
Inspiron 9200

Has loads of ports (4 USB and a firewire port) a nice big 17" screen and a ATI MOBILITY RADEON T 9700 128MB, but wonder what the battery life is like?
From 1400 it doesnt sound bad and it looks really nice! :cool:

Personnally im going to wait till they have one of those free RAM ugrades with a bit off money off (like they have now) untill id get it.

Matt Simis

jank wrote:

Inspirion 9200
Has loads of ports (4 USB and a firewire port) a nice big 17" screen and a ATI MOBILITY RADEON T 9700 128MB, but wonder what the battery life is like?
From 1400 it doesnt sound bad and it looks really nice! :cool:

Personnally im going to wait till they have one of those free RAM ugrades with a bit off money off (like they have now) untill id get it.

Ive been seriously considering the i9200 as well. Very fast and sleek machine. And its got the Pentium-M CPU (5 hr battery life!).

Two issues I have with it are:

- No option for Radeon 9800 (The 9700 is good, but the 9800 is much better)
- Some people unhappy with the screen quality of the WUXGA screen (shimmer effects). Some people love it however.


Still, the best all round laptop out there IMO..



Matt

jank

I dont understand! shimmer effect??

Third_Echelon

just did up a dew specs on the 5160 on the dell site... there is good deals to be had on the top spec 5160s....

check it out

RicardoSmith

Matt Simis wrote:

Ive been seriously considering the i9200 as well. Very fast and sleek machine. And its got the Pentium-M CPU (5 hr battery life!).
....
Matt

Theres no way you'll get 5 hrs from that machine.

Theres a mobile x800 on the way now.

You'd be better waiting for one of those deals. You'd be mad not to.

Matt Simis

RicardoSmith wrote:

Theres no way you'll get 5 hrs from that machine.

Theres a mobile x800 on the way now.

You'd be better waiting for one of those deals. You'd be mad not to.

What are you basing that on? Sure, I wouldnt expect 5Hrs at full throttle, but those numbers arent pulled out of the air. The 5Hr battery is an optional extra (tho last week Dell.ie offered it as standard, only €84 anyway), a 92WHr beast of a thing.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1723549,00.asp
"Thanks in part to the latest 2.1-GHz Pentium M 765, the Inspiron 9200's battery-life score was off the charts, at 4:59" (I assume thats the enhanced battery).


True.. there are bigger and better GPUs on the way, but thats always the case. Incidentially, the current Mobile 9800 is actually a "X800", just ATI want to hold onto the "X" branding for PCI Express mobile GPUs.


Matt

CyberGhost

btw, if you are interested, check out
http://notebookforums.com/
guys there know tons about laptops!

oh yea one more thing, I don't know about 9100 but maximum Inspiron XPS gets is 1 hour 20 mins on standard batt

I have inspiron 5150 and I get something like 4:30mins on standard batt when I don't push it too much

Matt Simis

CyberGhost wrote:

btw, if you are interested, check out
http://notebookforums.com/
guys there know tons about laptops!

oh yea one more thing, I don't know about 9100 but maximum Inspiron XPS gets is 1 hour 20 mins on standard batt

I have inspiron 5150 and I get something like 4:30mins on standard batt when I don't push it too much

For some odd reason I cannot access notebookforums.com from home, but works fine in work. Just times out here.. anyone know the IP address?

The Inspirion 9100 is a Prescott based power hog.. the Inspirion 9200 on the other hand is a Pentium M machine.



Matt

CyberGhost

Matt Simis wrote:

For some odd reason I cannot access notebookforums.com from home, but works fine in work. Just times out here.. anyone know the IP address?

The Inspirion 9100 is a Prescott based power hog.. the Inspirion 9200 on the other hand is a Pentium M machine.



Matt

Bah my appologies man! I forgot about 9200, when I saw 9 I just assumed it was 9100 that you were talking about,

Yes! 9200 can reach 5 hours!

here's the IP: 69.44.60.96

Sarunas

Matt Simis wrote:

anyone know the IP address?

69.44.60.96

Matt Simis

Sarunas wrote:

69.44.60.96

Thanks, but still wont work!? Tried flushing DNS already.. odd.


Matt

lomb

the best dell is there lattitude line VERY GOOD MACHINES much better than inspirions they have good deals on them thru dell outlet wait till january and ul get a bargain on a lattitude thru outlet due to overstocking. expect to pay 1500 or 1600 for a centrino with 3 year warranty. i cant emphasise enough the inspirion is dirt in comparison to the slim and handsome centrino lattitudes

Matt Simis

lomb wrote:

the best dell is there lattitude line VERY GOOD MACHINES much better than inspirions they have good deals on them thru dell outlet wait till january and ul get a bargain on a lattitude thru outlet due to overstocking. expect to pay 1500 or 1600 for a centrino with 3 year warranty. i cant emphasise enough the inspirion is dirt in comparison to the slim and handsome centrino lattitudes

You tried to play a game on a Lattitude recently? In the past I would have agreed, but these days all the newest and best tech is in the consumer lines (Business types dont need such things)..

Just go have a look at the specs!


Matt

CyberGhost

Matt Simis wrote:

Thanks, but still wont work!? Tried flushing DNS already.. odd.


Matt

erm firewall?

ISP?

Sarunas

I'm in a market for a laptop. I'm considering both new and old. For a new laptop I choose 12" ibook. Just because: it "just works". it is quality and would last me for years. And I dont seem to find anything that will match in its price range (~1000 euro) + its quality.

Refurb toshiba and ibm thinkpad t22 or t23 are on my used laptop list. Because they have great keyboards, are quality and last for years.

Unfortunatley, I'm not considering dell anymore. I heard a lot of bad things about them. From people (read computer/unix geeks) who really use the laptop, and usually the laptop falls apart or shows rather large amount of wear within first half of year. For usual tasks, the laptop might just do fine.

And another thing about dell, their laptops rather look cheap. They don't look good value for money either, if you look at the components that they are built from (integrated video cards on lower models, yuck!).

thats just 2 cents from a person who newer had a dell laptop.

Matt Simis

CyberGhost wrote:

erm firewall?

ISP?

No funky firewalls (just SP2) and using Eircom DSL. I would suspect those things too, if it wasnt for the fact no other sites pose a problem, nor do tricky things like torrents. Tried turning off the SP2 Firewall anyhow, no difference.


Matt

RicardoSmith

Matt Simis wrote:

What are you basing that on? Sure, I wouldnt expect 5Hrs at full throttle, but those numbers arent pulled out of the air. The 5Hr battery is an optional extra (tho last week Dell.ie offered it as standard, only €84 anyway), a 92WHr beast of a thing....

Because laptops with the same (or slower) processor, but smaller screen, slower HD and low powered GFX cards are barely hitting 4.5 even though the spec quote 5. But I was thinking of the supplied battery, not the whopper of a 2nd battery you are talking of. Thing must weigh a ton.

Matt Simis

RicardoSmith wrote:

Because laptops with the same (or slower) processor, but smaller screen, slower HD and low powered GFX cards are barely hitting 4.5 even though the spec quote 5. But I was thinking of the supplied battery, not the whopper of a 2nd battery you are talking of. Thing must weigh a ton.

Not a light machine, but the lightest in its class (baring Apple Powerbooks) at 3.5Kgs (with standard battery, little heavier with upgraded battery I imagine).


Matt