Beltfed

My buddy told me to get the Inspiron 8200, but also to look at the workstation models (built off the Latitude line).

I know very little about these things, so your thoughts/opinions would be helpful.

tmk70

I have extensive experience with both Inspirons and Latitudes and I can tell you that Latitudes are WAY more reliable. I've had Inspirons with faulty motherboards, LCD panels, HARD DRIVES GALORE, bad RAM, I could go on and on. Go with the Latitude, you won't regret it.

Beltfed

Hmm, interesting....... Do you recommend any of the Latitude models? C840, X200, or Workstation M50. There are so many variations its ridiculous, at least it appears to be that way.

limuas22

Latitude's are the way to go. Inspiron's are very flaky and are geared towards "home" users, Latitude's on the other hand are geared toward "corporate" users so they are more reliable and robust.

As far as models go it depends on what you want, size, weight, processing power. I have a Latitude C640, it's light and powerful. If you are looking to something more equivalent to a desktop, then go with the C840 or the M50, they are going to be bigger and heavier and also more pricey.

Beltfed

Thanks for the info.......this is my question, while I was at my buddy's place (some of his coworkers were there) and they were saying that if you go with one of the lighter models, not everything is built in. So by the time your done packing stuff up to bring with you, it will basically weigh the same as a desktop oriented laptop (around the 7 pound area) that has everything included internally.

Is this the case of the C640 vs. the C840/M50?

KavexTrax

Inspiron 8200 is the top model for Dell and year after year it's highly rated by PC magazine.

I think Tommy (Tw112), one of our moderators knows a lot about the Inspirons. Feel free to msg him.

limuas22

True the lighter models don't have everything built in, for example my C640 has 2 bays open, one for the battery the other is open for either a DVD/CD-R, CD, or floppy drive. I've had a DVD/CD-R combo drive in mine and rarely use a floppy drive so I usually leave that out of my bag. It's also lighter due to the size, the screen size for the C640 is 14.1" while the C840 and M50 have a 15" screen and is about 0.4" thicker.

The C840 and M50 have the DVD or CD drive built in and two bays, one used for a floppy drive or another peripheral and the other bay for the battery. These also have a better graphics card and also 2 USB connectors compared to one for the C640.

If you aren't going to be traveling much and you really need power and graphics capability then go with the C840 or if you have the money the M50 (this one is about $1000 more than the C840). If you are going to be traveling and need something powerful yet light and small go with the C640.

Beltfed

Cool......again thanks for the detailed response. So let me ask this, what advantage does the M50 have over the C840?

I don't travel much, so the weight isn't that big of an issue.


KavexTrax- If Tommy doesn't chime in at some point, I'll drop him a line.

nvpscore

I just bought a inspiron 8200, sat nite. Its already kitted and built on monday, today they are doing the testing. They quoted me october 11th shipping date, but the sales rep said, it will be here wayyyy before that.

I got the inspiron 8200 because i need a zip drive.

Mine cost 2500 with all the goodies, i have a 500 dollar off coupon, so 2000

Nick out

rabs99

i bought my 8200 two weeks ago and i just love it. im not having any problems whatsoever. i researched for several months before purchasing. the inspiron 8200 is the way to in my opinion.

Beltfed

Nice, so if you didn't need the zip drive.....would you still have bought the 8200?

Where in the world did you get a $500 rebate? Thats great

nvpscore

It was not a rebate. It was a coupon that I entered on the dell site, one time use though. I got it because I have been long time customers of Dell for.....I can't count.

If I did not need to get the Zip drive, I would go with the 4150, or the 2650. You can get the fastest speeds, P4 2.2 ghz, full of ram.

This is what I was considering in the first place. You save alot of money not going with the 8200.

Now heres whats the diff:
The 4150 is lighter, smaller screen, little bit faster p4, thin, little bit more money

The 2650 is a mobile multimedia machine, allows two drives, 1.9 ghz max p4, about 1 lb heavier stock, cheaper

Right now on both you can get free memory upgrade or savings on upgrade. Another deal is free upgrade of HD, 30 gb to 40 gb.
Also on both drives u get 50 bucks OFF!!!!

Now, if you didnt want the fastest and baddest processor for Mobile, the 2.2 ghz, you may want too look at the bundled systems.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/offers...ok_special.htm

These pack a punch, and have the best of all worlds, high memory, HD, etc. Also the combo drive which Im not so great about. Combos dont work as well as stand alone. period.

any other ?s
hit me up on AIM sn nvpscore13
or PM me

Hope this helps you out

nvpscore

Also, most ppl like to have their laptops looking good, to do that, ull have to go with the 4150 or 8200 to get cool colors

8200



4150



2650



The 8200 and the 4150, these are the standard colors, you can change them. The 2650 you are just stuck with plain.

nick

nvpscore

If you cant get enough of that black leather:



Patriotism:



Birch blue:



and there is like 3-4 more for 8200. I got the standard ion silver.

Oh yea, forgot the back of the laptops as well.



Just substitute the color of your choice on the back and imagine it.

Nick

nvpscore

the 4150 has lots more options for styling your notebook.

The standard ion silver is shown at the top

Tahoe Blue (big favorite):



Golden Yellow



Theres a storm coming in with STORM GREY:



And many more, but this last pic for your sexuality?



Nick

Beltfed

Hey, nvpscore........I'm going to send you an IM, I have some more annoying questions

tw1112

Hey beltfed, sorry for the late response...been really busy today!

Anyways, yeah I have one of the original 8000 series, well...the 8000 Inspiron I've had it for about 2 years now and it's been great so far. It is a bit heavy, but for a guy that lugs around a barrett, it ought to be no problem

Reasons for why I went with a 8000 series.
Well basically my brother in law works in a place where he can get certain parts for me and he hooked me up really well on this. I bought the barebones system with a 800mhz pIII. Then after that I upgraded by installing the gpu on my own. I was able to get the geforce2go gpu card, new hard drive, 512 ram and was able to install that all on my own because with the 8000 inspiron, you are able to take it apart. I heard at the time that the other models were not able to do this, but now adays, I'm not too sure.

You said that you aren't going to be traveling too much right? Well then the extra weight shouldn't be a factor. The extra bay for a dvd, cdrw, hard drive, zip drive, disk drive....so on and so on comes in handy when you want to move stuff from one drive to another. I use my laptop as a main computer for....eh...80% of the times and I think it runs smoothly and perfectly.

What are you going to be using this for mainly? As a desktop replacement, mobility, gaming, graphics, programming, work, etc?

I recently just got a 60gb docking bay extra hard drive and am working on getting the newer nvidia gpu and a faster cpu.

Let me know how everything goes

PS - I sent a message over to my brother in law to ask him what he thinks of the laptops because he has currently in his work area, about 10 dell laptops of all different models. I will let you know how he thinks of the different models.

Beltfed

How dare you respond this late!!!......... , no problem my friend (thanks for replying).

I don't play video games, so thats not an issue. But I'll be doing business related things with it. I have a desktop, so it won't be replacing that. I'm leaning towards getting the Latitude C840, I would definitely be curious as to what your Brother in law thinks. But thats good to hear your Inspiron hasn't given you any grief.

Hehe, agreed.....with the metal I haul around (a little heavier of a laptop isn't going to break me).

nvpscore

exactly u haul around a CLS piece of metal

btw. you can give me the viper, the laptop doesnt go so well with it, only the CLS

JRock

I think it's funny that people offered advice without first asking what he intends to use it for.

Personally I think Dells are a massive ripoff, just like most major brands that sell laptops, so unless money is no object or the company's paying for it, I'd get one custom built by a friend who builds computers (we all have one of those, right?).

I priced out a high-end Dell laptop a couple months ago and was pushing $3k for something that would cost maybe $2400 to have someone build me. My goal was to replace my PC, so it would be used for everything - internet, gaming, work, etc. It just wasn't worth it.

Anyway I'm late to this thread, so I should probably read the rest before I offer any actual input other than the above comments on what I read on most of page 1.

edit - oh I did think of one other thing: Unless something has changed in the past month, don't even think about buying a Gateway laptop - they use the crappiest display panels my eyes have ever seen. While Dell is using UXGA+, Gateway (as of the last time I checked about a month ago) didn't even offer a regular UXGA panel.

SinnedTL

Why not get a sony VAIO notebook, they are reliable as hell and has almost all the features that you can get on a Dell Latitude but maybe 100-200 dollars less...

Achance

I have the 8100 512mb ram, 64mb video ram and I haven't had any problems with it since I bought it (6 months ago) I wanted it mainly for games and it is my only windows computer. I travel with it every day and the thing is a heavy beast. The battery life isn't very good playing games so I added a second battery. But I still like it and takes the beating of everyday travel. Also I like the fact that it has a joystick and a touch pad. Most laptops only have the touchpad. But if you aren't going to be playing games and need the battery life then probably get a latitude. But I wish the alienware laptop was out when I was looking. Now that is a true desktop replacement.