Dell inspiron 6000 or a inspiron 9300

snowman · Post by **snowman** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:18 pm

Hey everybody,

if this is the second post I apologise, don't think the first one worked.

I'm thinking of getting a dell, either an inspiron 6000 or 9300, anybody using either at the moment?

And also just wondering, it comes with XP, do you guys re install it yourself or just use the XP that Dell supply?

Hope you can help.

Snowman

Comfy · Post by **Comfy** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:36 pm

Hey Snowman,

Ive recently got myself a Inspiron 6000, and its flying!! Have had no problems with it so far. Have kept the pre installed windows and have uninstalled all the rubbish on it..... AOL, tiscalli, etc.
Got rid of Norton AV that came with it cos Norton is such a resource hog.
Went for a screen upgrade to a WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) LCD Panel... its Very nice but if your eyes aint that good best go for the lower rez one and the 9300 perhaps. I only went for the 6000 because of portability.

Specs i went for:

2.1Ghz M processor
1Gb Ram
100Gb 7200rpm hard drive
128mb Radion Graff card
Im in the process of getting an Indigo I/O

Things to note though are:

1) Only has a four pin Firewire connection on it, so no bus powered Firewire Devices.

2) Make sure you turn Power Option schemes to "Always ON" ... I was baffled for about hour wondering why CPU level was so high in Live, this was because i had that set to something else.

Hope that helps..... feel free to ask anything else!

snowman · Post by **snowman** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:45 pm

Cheers Comfy,

Looks like you got a good spec there, the one I was looking at is

1.6 pentium M
512 RAM
80 Gig HD ( 5400)
ATI Mobility radeon X300 Graphics

I have a M-Audio firewire 410 that I wanted to use with it, but as you mentioned it only has the 4 pin fire wire. I take it that means I will also need to plug the 410 into the mains as it wouldn't get power from the firewire port?

Want to use it with

Reason 3.0
Recycle 2.1
Ableton Live 5
Sound Forge
Rebirth
photoshop
I tunes
DVD Shrink.

Mainly want to use it for music but I also want to be able to rip/burn dvd's etc.

The specs ok?

Speak soon,

Snowman

Comfy · Post by **Comfy** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:59 pm

Yup, the firewire 410 will need to plug into mains power to work. Where about are you buying this from.... cos in the UK Dell are doing some good deals like double memory etc

As for the programs you listed.. im sure they will all work with the spec you gave, but they will all run better and quicker with more Ram + faster processor + quicker HD....

How much you wanting to spend on it??

Cheers

the comfster

snowman · Post by **snowman** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:06 pm

I can get a deal through my work, doesn't look like I can upgrade the 6000 though.

The specs for the 9300 are

Pentium M 1.7
1 GiG RAM
100 Gig HD (5400)

Bit faster, but it is also a bigger machine, 17" I believe. The 6000 is more portable.

Speak soon,

Snowman.

Comfy · Post by **Comfy** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:32 pm

Cool.......

Well all i can really say is that.... If you are going to spend a fair amount of money on a Laptop that you are going to use a lot for Tunes etc. Its probably best to get something thats pretty good from the start. For serious tune writing on Live and any other music app i wouldnt go less than 1Gb Ram else your gonna run into probs when using lots of VST's. HD speed you could get away with a 5200rpm one. As for processor speed 1.6 I would find a bit slow and would prefer a 1.8+.

I say treat yourself...... Go for an uber Laptop..... You only live once..... "ALL OR NOTHING"

Sloth_uk · Post by **Sloth_uk** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:05 pm

I've got the 6000 and it rocks. One thing I did, and I'd advise anyone to do the same, is to cut the amount of RAM down to as low as possible and then buy it seperate from Crucial.com. Dell really do charge through the roof for it. I've got 2GB of Ram in mine now, and it flys through things.

suburbanbather · Post by **suburbanbather** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:41 pm

DON'T BUY A DELL!!!

Comfy · Post by **Comfy** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:43 pm

suburbanbather · Post by **suburbanbather** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:02 pm

I have a Dell Insiron 8600 with Win Xp Pro, 2.0ghz Pentium M, 1gig ram, 128mb ATI radeon vid card, DVD RW/CD RW, 60gig 7200 rpm hdd.

I have to hit the power button more than 4 times almost every time I go to turn it on.

Contacted Dell support. They had me download a BIOS update and it did not work. Then they had take out the harddrive(to see if the hdd was conflicting with powering on)Nope same prob. After I did all of this the guy on the phone said, "Hmm? very strange!" I said to him, "Well obviously this laptop needs to be sent to you for repair" He then told me he has to send the report to the RD department and would get back with me via phone or email, which would be either that same night or the next day. Well its been a week and no response.

Last night I called to see what the hell was going on. And I got put on hold.

It is clear to me that Dell does not have their customers best interest in mind.

I have an extended warranty coverage on this machine which includes mail in support.

Dell is avoiding this. I'm never buying anything with Dell on it.

As you can see in my sig. I have Mac, which I'm very happy with.

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:59 pm

I had a few Dell laptops in the past, and had the opposite service experiece as you.

One of my laptops, I stepped on it the first day I had it and broke the screen. I called Dell, and told them I broke the screen and needed to buy a new one. They sent FedEx to my place the next morning. The FedEx guy had an empty box with eggcrate foam inside. He took the laptop, packaged it and was off. 24 hours later, FedEx was at my door.... with the same box. Inside was my Dell, screen fixed.... no charge.

THAT is service. I told them the screen was my fault, and they paid for a new one anyway. Had to be at least $1200 screen. No questions, just fixed in less than 24 hours.

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:02 pm

How long ago did that happen?

markaugust · Post by **markaugust** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:47 pm

listen..
computers are computers
as long as it runs on electricity, it will have problems now and then, doesn't mather if it's a mac or pc, doesn't mather which brand.
sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not
friend of mine has numerous problems with a PB 1.67; same story with a friend on a sony vaio...I will now not say DON"T BUY APPLE OR DONT BUY SONY
it's stupid.
I got a dell 9300 with a pentium M 2,3 ghz, 1gig ram and a 5400 rpm disc...with a firewire digi002 on the pcmi-card
it totally rocks my world.
no problems whatsoever
one thing though; I heard the combo dell and m-audio has it's share of problems...or say m-audio and pc-laptops...
but that is secondhand info though.....

Sloth_uk · Post by **Sloth_uk** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:27 pm

If you do end up getting one I can recommend the Emu 1616m PCI soundcard. Mine works a treat with the Dell.

I agree with what someone else said, computers will always have problems. But as a rule Dell are excellent in dealing with them. I've only ever brought dells and when I've had a little prob, they've been straight on it.

Soulman · Post by **Soulman** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:46 pm

Well, I've got to tell you that I have the Dell Inspiron 6000 and have had nothing but trouble with audio dropouts. The laptop has been tweaked with every trick in the book and still no better. I can't use Live 5 on it, however, Live 4 seems to be OK when used on it's own, can't run anything else with it.