Wayne Johnson wrote:
I just rec'd a small windfall & I'm buying a Dell laptop because Dell
will finance the thing. Please no Dell bashing but otherwise I'd like
your opinion on the specs below.
Latitude D830
Intel® Core 2 Duo T7700 (2.40GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800Mhz Dual Core
Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2, with media
15.4 inch Wide Screen WUXGA LCD Panel
2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Is this a free upgrade from 1GB? Otherwise you may find it cheaper to
buy ram from Newegg to upgrade to 2GB.
80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM
IMHO I'd get a bigger drive.
8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD
256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 140M
Intel® 4965 802.11a/g/n Dual-Band Mini Card
A nice solid wifi card. I have the Dell equivalent that sucks (for
Linux, anyway.)
Dell Wireless® 360 Bluetooth Module for Windows XP
I have the same card and had problems with it in XP. I have two
bluetooth mice that it would just stop communicating with. Only a reboot
would fix. If I turned the card off and then back on I would get a
"Bluetooth license check failed - No valid devices found."
Standard Touchpad
9 Cell Primary Battery
D/Port Advanced Port Replicator
You should be able to find these on ebay for way cheaper than what Dell
sells. All of the D series replicators work with all of the D series
laptops, so you can find one a few years old for cheap.
90W A/C Adapter
Western Digital 160GB Passport USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive
No Floppy Drive
McAfee ® SecurityCenter 3 Years Subscription
3 yr Limited Hardware Warranty with Next Business Day On-Site Service
Good choice. Their mail in warranty sucks.
3 Year CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service
AFAIK this only protects you once. So if you drop your laptop down a
flight of stairs they will replace it. Do it again and they won't.
Gold Technical Support, Latitude, 3 Years
If it's not costing you a lot, gold support is good. IMHO silver is
fine, and if you use their web chat support you get really good service.
