Buying a Dell Inspiron 6400

dango

I saw this lappy on dell.ie and thought it looked like a good deal. I'm going back to college so i'll need a lappy. Although i don't want a 7900gfx ultra super edition in the lappy i would like something that can play a few games that would also give me some battery life.. (I have a geforce 4600ti in my desktop, would the x1400 be better or worse than it? By much?)


Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
2048MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
80GB (5,400rpm)
256MB ATI® Mobility™ Radeon® X1400 HyperMemory™ graphics card
9 Cell, 80Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only

~€1,301.10

Also i'm uncertain as to what screen to get:

15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display [Included in Price]
15.4" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WSXGA (1680x1050) TFT Display with TrueLife™ [add € 157.30 or €6/month1]
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™[add € 84.70 or €3/month1]

Would the wsxga be worth the extra money?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Edit*
I know memrom proc's are coming out soon, how much longer will i have to wait for them? For what i'll be doing (a bit of gaming, and the usual) will it be worth it? ( i know the graphics card will be the main bottleneck...i think...)

TerrorFirmer

The x1400 is pretty weak. Better then a Geforce Ti series card but in fairness the Geforce Ti series is ancient and can't run any new games. The X1400 though is still weak and equivilent to about an X600 card...

New games will only run on low-medium...However, given the good memory and processor, if you do plan gaming, I'd opt for the X1600 - I'm fairly sure DELL did offer that in their 6400 range....nice card, runs games at medium pushing high, good for mobile use.

If there is no other option the X1400 is perfectly fine for games provided you don't mind playing with the options turned down. It depends what sort of games you plan playing as well - games like Half Life 2 and CS: Source will run on fairly high settings on an X1400, while demanding games like Oblivion and FEAR will not...if you're a WOW or general RPG/RTS man though the X1400 should do you fine.

dango

Thanks Havok for the prompt reply.
The x1600 isn't an option on the website. Could i push them on the phone for one? If i did get one would the battery life be seriously cut down? Off-hand would you know the sort of life i'd get? and any ideas about screens? Thanks.

CGorman

I ordered that exact machine (exact same spec plus truelife) on Friday. Estimated delivery time is this Friday. I spent an awful lot of time looking around and ended up going for the Dell 6400 instead of an Acer 5600 series model solely because I couldnt get as good spec for the dell price (the free double memory, and the 2Ghz Duel Core sold it for me!). Plus the acer models seem to have poor battery lives by comparision. I put a huge effort in looking for a better deal, looked at hundreds upon hundreds of laptops... but nothing could beat the 6400 at about €1400.

Hopefully it'll arrive before Friday. If theres anything very bad or good about it, i'll let you know.. but i'm fairly sure it'll do what it says on the tin!

dango

Small world, eh?
Thanks for any info. I'd appreciate it.

TerrorFirmer

I'm not sure about battery life to be honest - sorry. I have a 256mb Nvidia 7400 in my Laptop - pretty much identical to the X1400 performance and spec wise. I get about 2 hours casual use or an hours gaming out of it on battery alone.

And by the way, while I said the X1400 is a weak card, its still capable and WILL run the latest games, just not at very high settings...but then again I think most of us don't expect our notebooks to play games at those levels unless we put in serious cash, I know I'm happy with my notebook and I game all the time on it.

I'm not sure about the X1600 - I had thought DELL offered it in the 6400 but I might have been mistaken!

dango

I've been over on notebookforums.com like a bad smell today and it seems to be only x1300, 1400 and nvidia 7300 that are compatible with the i6400

Yeah i get you about playing games etc.

I'd like to get it now but seeing the advantages merom has is holding me off. i know i could upgrade but that seems like a lot of trouble (effort and money and what would i do with a proc that nobody would want to buy?) The extended battery life and to a lesser extent power is seriously alluring me. I won't need it until i go back to college in mid-september so i have time to wait for the merom proc's. Will the same computer setup be around with a slight increase in price in about a month's time??

dango

BASE Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (incl Operating System Re-Installation CD)

SUPPORT SERVICES Standard Package, 2 Year At-Home Service

LCD 15.4" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WSXGA (1680x1050) TFT Display with TrueLife™

MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)

HARD DRIVE 80GB (7,200rpm) Hard Drive

OPTICAL DRIVE(S) Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW with Software

GRAPHICS CARD 256MB ATI® Mobility™ Radeon® X1400 HyperMemory™ graphics card

9 Cell, 80Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Dell™ 2 Button Optical USB Mouse

with

Dell Photo All-In-One Printer 924 for free

& - €50 because i confused her into giving it to me

It came in at €1634. I'm happy.:)

ro_chez

Do any of ye who have one of these with the WSXGA display know if its any good? Can it rival the screens on the VAIO's?

myownslave

dango wrote:

MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)QUOTE]

Was thinking of getting this machine myself as well Dango. Just wondering though how you managed to get the 667MHz - on the site it has it down as a 533MHz. Did you ring them up?

dango

It says 667mhz in a couple of places. when i told the rep my sob story and that is was advertised several times she obliged.

It is located in the "Also included with your system" under "Promotions Hidden Option Class" at the "confirm and add to basket" it is also on the sidebar that changes as you configure the laptop under "also included". Yikes talk about hiding it!!

CGorman

Got mine today at half nine. Using it right now. So far so good (touch wood) - great screen (with truelife), fast and nice keyboard layout. I think not only is it a desktop replacement for our current pc (2yr old dell), but it's a desktop improvement - everything is better.

I also bought a 250GB My Book external hard drive and it works great with it.

ro_chez

CGorman wrote:

Got mine today at half nine. Using it right now. So far so good (touch wood) - great screen (with truelife), fast and nice keyboard layout. I think not only is it a desktop replacement for our current pc (2yr old dell), but it's a desktop improvement - everything is better.

I also bought a 250GB My Book external hard drive and it works great with it.

Does it make much noise? Did you get the 9 cell batery? What's the weight of it like?

myownslave

I presume it has at least three usb ports? Like ro_chez, I'd also be interested in hearing about the noise, weight and battery life...

Aedh Baclamh

Bump

TerrorFirmer

Yes?

Aedh Baclamh

Does it make much noise? Did you get the 9 cell batery? What's the weight of it like?

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