Any Opinions On The Dell Inspiron 510m?

Hypomixolydian · Post by **Hypomixolydian** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:21 am

As the header says, any opinions on the Dell machine? Too expensive? Is it reliable? Is there a better option? Are the Latitudes better? Plus any other relevant details.

Thanks

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 4:59 am

DELLs
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thumbs down.

(in my humble opinion) Sorry if that seems snarky but they hurt my feelings (on the inside where it counts)

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:49 am

I feel I should elaborate as you asked for details and not silly ascii art. I have an Inspiron 8000. It has been problematic since early on. Real bad grounding, line noise, and a case that is so loose that screws unthread are the biggest issues I have with it. The audio jacks are directly mounted to the motherboard and are not supported at all.Mine cracked and broke off after a few months. The service that I received when trying to deal with it was rude and unhelpful at best. They are known for having these issues so I wouldn't give them my money again. You do get a lot of features and computing power for the money, but to me quality is more valuable. They may have improved since then but they blew it with me.

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:45 pm

Dell laptops are not suitable for pro audio.

You need to look for something more powerful.

Check out www.mtechlaptops.com

High-end gear, at great prices.

robin · Post by **robin** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:26 pm

i had an inspiron 8200 for a couple of years. it worked ok i guess but the onboard audio was useless and the quality of the hardware was very low.

i have a mate who's bought a 510m in the last year. he doesn't like it particularly for the above reasons. he wished he'd saved a little more and bought an apple.

commuter · Post by **commuter** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:08 pm

Dell laptops are not suitable for pro audio.

I have an Inspiron 8600C (centrino, see my sig)
It's the best audio workstation i ever had...
Powerful, silent, 100% stable..
It run the performance test at 25/27%....
I simply love it, it's the best investement i've made in a computer so far.
(but now i'm waiting for those Macintel powerbook..

)

treysmith · Post by **treysmith** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:23 pm

subterFUSE wrote:Dell laptops are not suitable for pro audio.
.

Now that's a pretty silly statement, and I don't own a dell (have before though).

I have even used a P4 1.0ghz Dell Laptop at a "professional" gig.

jasefos · Post by **jasefos** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:50 pm

treysmith wrote:
subterFUSE wrote:Dell laptops are not suitable for pro audio.
.

Now that's a pretty silly statement, and I don't own a dell (have before though).

I have even used a P4 1.0ghz Dell Laptop at a "professional" gig.

Agreed that is B.S!
Sweeping statement.

A "Pro" audio user would never bother with a laptop's inbuilt audio system.
Avoid Dell models which have shared video RAM.

My primary criticism of non-Centrino based Dell laptops (I don't have a Centrino) is the build quality of the chassis ... nowhere near as well built as a Apple Powerbook12" for example. Like any piece of delicate gear in your studio however if you treat it carefully this won't prove to be too much of a problem.

Pure CPU grunt is what us laptop based musicians need!
That's why I bought a Dell Inspiron 5150 Pentium 4 3GHz (with 7200rpm internal hard drive) 1Gb of RAM ... not as light and nimble as the newer Centrino models however certainly gives impressive performance. I don't buy computers for cosmetics - I base my decision on what will give me the best CPU performance/

My system has been working well now for almost 2 years currently running Nuendo 3, Reason, Live and many VST instruments, etc ... The only crashes I've experienced is when doing stupid things (running Beta versions, placing my RME Multiface on top of my external hard drive chassis making the Multiface overheat, regularly swapping between several audio interfaces, etc).

There was one shit aspect I encountered with this laptop however - the cooling exhaust vent gets clogged with dust which causes the CPU to run hot. This is easily address (blow compressed air into the exhaust vent once a month). This is a known design flaw which Dell admit to and thus they have no fix for it. I've accepted that fact and just do my periodic maintenance which has solved the problem.

I see people regularly speaking of laptops getting dead screen pixels ... I move this system to 2 locations daily, travel with it, use it pubs, clubs, cafes, beach and I haven't got a single dead pixel (screen is 1600 x 1200).

To the person who posted simply "Dells suck" - ???
WTF ? ... substantiate your statement please!

cHEERS

phunktion · Post by **phunktion** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:14 pm

dont know anything about the 510m but i have 700m and i love it. 1.8ghz Pentium M (very fast) and it has shared video ram which hasnt been a problem (2d graphics only use a few MBs). i use it strictly for audio work.

my biggest complaint about mine is the placement of the firewire port in the front, as its only 4pin and tends to come out easily. and could be disaterous onstage. i have resorted to gaffer tape to hold it in

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:31 pm

jasefos wrote:
treysmith wrote:
subterFUSE wrote:Dell laptops are not suitable for pro audio.
.

My primary criticism of non-Centrino based Dell laptops (I don't have a Centrino) is the build quality of the chassis ... nowhere near as well built as a Apple Powerbook12" for example. Like any piece of delicate gear in your studio however if you treat it carefully this won't prove to be too much of a problem.

Wish that were true in my case. I was very careful with mine but it started getting looser and looser every time I'd open the lid. Four people that I work with have the same model and have had to replace the lid at least once.
.

There was one shit aspect I encountered with this laptop however - the cooling exhaust vent gets clogged with dust which causes the CPU to run hot. This is easily address (blow compressed air into the exhaust vent once a month). This is a known design flaw which Dell admit to and thus they have no fix for it. I've accepted that fact and just do my periodic maintenance which has solved the problem.

Dude! blowing air into your computer just puts the dust right back on the mother board. That will eventually cause you some heating problems itself. Either vacuum it out or open it up. You wouldn't put your dryer lint back in your dryer with each load would you?

To the person who posted simply "Dells suck" - ???
WTF ? ... substantiate your statement please!

Hey mate, please read the very next post where that is exactly what I did.

cHEERS

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:44 pm

Now I'm not a big time performer or producer, I do some gigs here and there, I've got some indie movie people interested in some of my music, I did a CD and am putting out another soon. But I have had experience using Dell Inspiron, Dell Latitude, and M-Tech.

I think there is a big difference between the inspirons and latitudes. I used a Latitude D600, it's ok. When I pushed the CPU limit using Live, it would hang hard. At one point, the disc drive went bad on it, not sure what that was attributable to, though-- I used it heavily. So it's just fine if you don't push it too hard. Also, I've had friends use Dell's support, needed replacement drives, they've found it good.

I nhow ave an M-Tech "desktop replacement" notebook, it's tons better than the D600, but of course it cost almost twice as much as a D600, it's a 17" screen, 1GB RAM as, AMD 3400+ processor, so apples to mangos comparison. M-Tech as a provider gets mixed reviews (there are some charges that get added post sale, not bad, but if you don't read the fine print they will be unexpected and people have been pissed as a result) but they have a great range of specs, definitely power user stuff. I am mostly happy with mine: that is, as happy as anyone can be when they see the price of the faster processors dropping after they've bought

.

I have used an inspiron, an older but beefier model (8000, swappable ports, various inputs) for work, not for music, and also HP laptop. Generally heavier but ok computers.

The Inspiron is more compact, nicer looking than my system. If I go to the Dell site and configure an Inspiron 9300 just the way I'd want it, with the fastest processor (2GHz Pentium M) and with the features I have on my current system, M-Tech D470K, it's almost $500 more. I would suggest you at least check out the M-Tech site, build a configuration there, then do the comparable thing on the Dell site.

Rx · Post by Rx » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:25 pm

i got a 6000 a couple of months ago - it rocks. and no one uses the built-in audio for performing, it's just there to listen to mp3s and other non-critical functions.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:25 pm

I'm looking at this page:

http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/not ... 636,00.htm

The model numbers/designations are different in the UK market. The model pictured here is very similar if not identical to the D600 Latitude I mentioned-- you'll do fine as long as you don't get too ambitious: the little guy seems to take all he can until he just hangs-- you may not even get glitching before that point, but it will tend to be a pretty consistent point on the CPU meter, and definitely get an external larger/higher speed firewire or USB 2.0 hard disk to go along with it.

klarky · Post by **klarky** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:40 pm

http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/not ... 458,00.htm

i got one of these from dell outlet uk recently, teamed with an echo indigo dj card its been bullet proof from day 1.

i used to have an old latitude d600 1gig p3 with 512mb ram and it coped well with most stuff, but i wasnt making any complex stuff back then, but my 9100 has a bit more ram, p4 3 gig and a crystal clear sceen that makes all the difference. i too went for grunt over portability and didnt get a centrino - this this weights a lot and you can hear the fan a little when you have no music playing but is disipates heat well, my old latitude keyboard was like a radiator (well it kept the hands warm in winter!!)

build quality on my 9100 seems miles better than the old latitude, i agree dells
rep was a bit iffy but the upper models are better now and with a bit of tweeking and right additions its a great system - but it does still have the evil ground loop problem when on ac power - nothing a £8 loop isolator didnt fix

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:10 pm

All Dells can have a multitude of different CPUs. Be very careful what you choose. Apart from general build quality, there isn't really anything like an "Inspiron" (whatever). That name can cover anything from a slow as molasses Celeron to a very fast 2 GHz Pentium M.

Refer to the performance test thread here and never ever buy anything with a Celeron in it. Celerons are cheap as dirt but really suck at number crunching - which is what digital audio processing is all about.