Why the hell do I want a Dell?

snakedogman · Post by **snakedogman** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:57 am

I just got a R61 Thinkpad and I love it. Especially the 1680x1050 screen is great to work with. I've got more space than on my 19" desktop

gerard · Post by **gerard** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:48 am

Latitude D820 here, no problems at all.

capo-wear-i · Post by **capo-wear-i** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:24 am

Well - it sems like they have changed the PCMCIA chipset and firewire controller on the D820/D830 (and most likely on the D620/D630 too)
They now use an O2micro chip for PCMCIA, Firewire & Expresscard. Not sure if that's the worst option, but it's not the recomended TI chipset. A few people have been having issues with D820 firewire audio :

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportfor ... ing&page=1

USB audio seems OK.

I've not heard too many reports on the D830 (or D630) yet but i'd hold fire if you intend to use it with a firewire or PCMCIA card. Shame - the earlier D810 worked fine.

capo-wear-i · Post by **capo-wear-i** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:24 am

gerard wrote:Latitude D820 here, no problems at all.

Just out of interest, what Audio card are you using.

glu · Post by **glu** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:04 pm

Well, now I'm jones'in for a Lenovo T61. The new model looks like a slim tank-

gerard · Post by **gerard** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:51 pm

capo-wear-i wrote:
gerard wrote:Latitude D820 here, no problems at all.
Just out of interest, what Audio card are you using.

I don't use firewire. I use Audio Kontrol 1 from NI (USB) and it works really really smooth. 256samples@ about 13ms latency. I record myself playing guitar and I'm feeling comfortable at this rate.
I also use it for djing and again everything works fine.

Ism · Post by **Ism** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:23 pm

After a lot of thought I bought a Dell Inspiron 640 Laptop about a year ago. I use it for djing and producing with Live, reason, recycle and native instruments (plus some hardware) and it’s been perfect for me. It hasn’t got a TI firewire chip set but I just use a USB audio interface which works fine for me. I can understand why people are snobbish about Dells but they have to understand that this is one expensive hobby / career / art form / calling……… and for some us Bedroom DJ’s we have to make a compromise somewhere or we wouldn’t be able to make any music.

Chopper · Post by **Chopper** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:43 pm

Well I have a Dell Inspiron 1501. It has an Athlon x2 processor and 1gb of ram and its awful!

I have a NI Auio Kontrol and it crackles and slows down even in windows. There are some fixes on NI website, but these dont help. I think its cause the laptop uses the standard windows usb drivers which aint very good.

Anyway im mighty pissed off especially after shelling out £150 and the soundcard doesnt make a difference!

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:31 pm

I have had 3 Dell desktops and 3 laptops and 5 out of 6 of them have been great. The other one is fine but needed technical support twice but has been fine ever since.

All computer manufacturers have lemons. Usually about 15%-20% of laptops, including Apple have some problem out of the box, which 50% of the time requires them to be sent back, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo whoever.

Make sure you get a good warranty deal like Dell's complete care where if you spill coffee on it and wreck it you're covered as well as on site warranty rather than return to base.

My Dell Inspiron 9100 is nearly 3 years old and still kicks ass with music production, I run dozens of tracks loaded with plugins, especially in Cubase or Reason, Live requires more juice but is still respectable (I have live projects with 45 tracks, vsts *with freezing* and plugins.) So long as I have it plugged into the mains, given that it runs a pentium 4 desktop chip and 3.2 Ghz processor, giving it a battery life of around 50 minutes or so.

Dell's build quality is no worse than any other manufacturer. Lenovo have had those special anti-HDD break chassis for a while, which sets them apart a bit, hence the higher prices.

ChiDJ · Post by **ChiDJ** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:55 pm

I heard LIVE sounds better on a DELL???

kisses.

glu · Post by **glu** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 9:35 pm

leedsquietman wrote: Dell's build quality is no worse than any other manufacturer. Lenovo have had those special anti-HDD break chassis for a while, which sets them apart a bit, hence the higher prices.

Yeah, I am impressed with the build of the T61, HD protection, the "cage" it is
built in, and the expandability: the optional SATA adapter (for a second internal 7200RPM HD) that you can swap out with a DVDRW or another battery.
Great reviews on the keyboard as well.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... d-T-Series

SubQ · Post by **SubQ** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 12:50 am

where do you find this price?
links?

glu · Post by **glu** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:24 am

SubQ wrote:where do you find this price?
links?

for Brazil

http://www.pc.ibm.com/br/notebooks/thinkpad/index.shtml

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:08 am

before anyone accuses me of being a Dell fanboy, I am not saying that the rest don't make goood computers either, Toshiba, Sony, HP, and the rest are all usually OK too.

And I'm sure that Apple's inbuilt audio in conjunction with core audio sounds better and with lower latency than the crummy sigmatel or realteks put into PC laptops, I would not be advocating my Dell laptop for audio work without the Echo pcmcia card I have for it. The Dell laptop does though provide the raw processing power to make using Live, Cubase, reason etc a snap in conjunction with the additional audio card.

mjl5629 · Post by **mjl5629** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 4:22 am

glu wrote:Dell's business line notebooks have a decent reputation, no?

$1313 w/o tax... not bad?

Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.00GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800MHz Dual Core
XP Home Edition, SP2, with media
14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD
MEMORY 2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM
120GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM
8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD
128MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 135M
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless™ 1390 802.11g Mini Card

I just went to microcenter the other day and bought a new computer in pieces. The whole thing cost me around $1200.

intel duo core quad 2.4ghz
2 gigs of ram
two 320 gig hard drives
video card (dual monitor)
asus p5k motherboard (usb/firewire)
dvd writer
case (usb/firewire)
linksys wireless g card

Notice how I got a faster processor and the total price is cheaper, granted I'm using old monitors and an old copy of XP.

Why the hell do I want a Dell?

Re: Why the hell do I want a Dell?