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and the hits just keep on coming :-( (dead DVD drive now)

M

Mucman

Diamond Member
I am finally getting sick of all the desktop towers I have. I want to start shoving them into my little network room (I have an 8' rack at home 🙂) and use a laptop for my primary computer. I've never purchased a brand new laptop and realized that my approach will be totally different since I am used to building a desktop box to fit my needs.

I currently own an IBM 365DX (P100 42MB 3GB) and it is a solid beast! I'm impressed on how durable this little unit is, and how
easy it is to get in and out of the guts of it. I was able to upgrade the HD, RAM, and battery simply by propping open the keyboard.

To start off my search, I would like to know what brands to look at and which ones I should shun. I will update this thread with some
more detailed requirements, but before I start my search, I want to know where to look... I don't want to waste my time checking out
some 'too good to be true' type laptops out there. I do not want to buy used, and I must be able to pay by the month. My budgest is
~$2000cdn, give or take a bit depending on how it translates to monthly payments.

Another perk would be a company who can give a discount if you don't want an OS. I will most likely be dual booting BeOS and FreeBSD.
Also, the Mac Powerbooks aren't out the question either.

Thanks

EDIT
I purchased a Dell 600m last night! After looking online a while it turned out the 600m has everything I need. I didn't make any
compromises and it just squeaked in my budget.

Here are the specs :

Pentium M 1.3GHz
1GB 266MHz DDR RAM
AIT Mobile Radeon 9000 64M
4200rpm 30GB HD
14.1" XGA screen
8x DVD-ROM
Centrino (it's got the wireless nic)
expanded the warranty to 3 years.
Windows XP Home (going to put it on a 10GB parition and let FreeBSD have the rest)

The grand total after taxes (ugh $320 taxes 🙁), shipping and rebates is $2550 cdn. Since $2500 was my budget
I think I did pretty good. The only thing this laptop doesn't have is the stubby mouse pointer... I know I can
get used to a touch pad after a few hours.

I'll keep you guys informed on how it is!

End Edit

 
Originally posted by: Mucman
Argh... is Dell the only OEM that I can do monthly payments?
Click to expand...

it's the only one i've seen with it's own financing group.

if you go with an hp/compaq or something available at retail I think some places have financing options though.

or you could get a 0% for the first year credit card and pay it off in the first year...
 
Ugh... Mac is out now... Can't afford the 15" powerbooks.

Looks like the Dell 600m is looking like the one I am going for now.
 
Originally posted by: Vcize
you can do montly payments over at hpshopping.

And the x1000 over there is VERY popular and a GREAT deal.

Check out the x1000 forums.
Click to expand...

Wow! The x1000 looks pretty good too... similar specs to the 600m. I wonder if there are any good side by
side comparisions of either?
 
Originally posted by: Mucman
Originally posted by: Vcize
you can do montly payments over at hpshopping.

And the x1000 over there is VERY popular and a GREAT deal.

Check out the x1000 forums.
Click to expand...

Wow! The x1000 looks pretty good too... similar specs to the 600m. I wonder if there are any good side by
side comparisions of either?
Click to expand...


The x1000 looks like a nice laptop if you want a widescreen laptop, the 600m is lighter and more portable (and cheaper).

definately check out the x1000 forums, the one time I went there it was about 50/50 good/bad reviews, but that was a few weeks ago. also be sure to check out the dell forums, there really aren't that many complaints about the 600m, only the inspiron 8500 keyboard.

Also if your going to go with widescreen doublecheck the price comparison with the dell latitude d800.
 
Originally posted by: kayatai
Originally posted by: Mucman
Originally posted by: Vcize
you can do montly payments over at hpshopping.

And the x1000 over there is VERY popular and a GREAT deal.

Check out the x1000 forums.
Click to expand...

Wow! The x1000 looks pretty good too... similar specs to the 600m. I wonder if there are any good side by
side comparisions of either?
Click to expand...


The x1000 looks like a nice laptop if you want a widescreen laptop, the 600m is lighter and more portable (and cheaper).

definately check out the x1000 forums, the one time I went there it was about 50/50 good/bad reviews, but that was a few weeks ago. also be sure to check out the dell forums, there really aren't that many complaints about the 600m, only the inspiron 8500 keyboard.

Also if your going to go with widescreen doublecheck the price comparison with the dell latitude d800.
Click to expand...

Widescreen isn't something I need... I just have one more thing to checkout now... I want to make sure this lappie supports
dual monitors (not cloning, but two different images on each screen). If it does support it, I am ordering the Dell m600 tonight!

 
remember mucman to check fatwallet for coupons and the like...dell (atleast in the US) will refund you if u find a better deal in 30 days

i too own a 600m

1.3 ghz centrino
30 gig hd
64 meg radeon 9000
sxga+
dvd/cdrw drive
measley 256 megs ram (find me cheap ram)
1 yr warranty

all for 1150 us $(1.5 months ago too!)
 
Jejunum, being an on-line customer in Canada sucks! Almost all deals are for US residents only. The cost
came to $2050 before shipping and taxes... which I guess is around $1400USD. I really fricken hate paying this
14.5% sales tax 🙁. I also didn't want to take the risk of a 1 year warranty. I'm definitely planning on using this
laptop for 3 years.
 
mwhahaha

more 600m converts, let me know if you have any issues with when it shows up.

since you ordered XGA like me it'll probably ship in a week.
 
burek, I was considering the X1000, but I am not a fan of Future Shop and the X1000 is 2 pounds heavier than the 600m.

btw, Dell finance is a complete rip-off! They offered me 21.99%, I have perfect credit rating too! I went to the bank and walked
out an hour later with a $5000 line of credit at 7.25% a divdend paying visa with a limit of $5000 (I already have a classic visa with
a limit of $2800) and got my overdraft improved to $5000 (used to be $500 and on the wrong account!!!).

I just have to wait for the dividend visa to be approved, then I am paying with that, then paying off the card right away with
cash from my savings. I will then have the line of credit as a nest egg while I go to school.

Jejunum, try Crucial for memory... my plan was originally to get 256MB on 1 DIMM and buy some more from crucial.
 
dell won't sell you your ram in 1 dimm, the bastards. that's why I had to take the minimum 128x2 and take one out and put a 512 in. 640mb ram works well and was cheaper than dell's 512mb option. crucial of course.
 
Woohoo! My lappy arrived! I feel giddy 😀

My first impression of this laptop is :

- small
- light
- 14.1" XGA seems bigger than 14.1"

negatives :

- I like the keypad on my IBM 365XD better (old P100)
- going to have to get used to a touchpad

Those are minor gripes though, and will fade away after I adjust.

I am now wiping WinXP and partitioning it the way I want... planning on a triple
boot of WinXP, BeOS, and FreeBSD.

So far nothing is making me regret my decision. I'll keep you all posted!
 
The 1GB Ram upgrade is $1000 alone....how did yout get that whole system for $1,400 US? I specd it out with less memory adn still come up with $1,571?

Dell
Inspiron 600M
$1,721 - $150 = $1,571
5lbs
PM - 1.3Ghz
14.2 SXGA+
266 Mhz 384 Ram
ATI Mob. Radeon 9000 - 64MB
30GB/4200
b/g Wireless
XP Home
1 year
WP Productivity
Free 48Whr 2nd Bay
 
They had some promo that had a free upgrade to 1GB of RAM and it ended on Aug. 22nd
I think... There was also another intstant $100 rebate if the pricetag went over $2099cdn.
My original pricetag was actually around $2010, but I bumped up the processor to a 1.4Ghz
and then got the rebate so it was pretty much a free upgrade as well. Also, I only got the
XGA screen, not the SXGA. I also went with the 1yr warranty and not the 3yr because I get an extra year for paying with my VISA... in total the price came to $2490 after taxs and shipping (cdn dollars).

I've now got WinXP, FreeBSD, and BeOS installed! Installing X Windows now so that will
probably take a while.
 
ok... been using this machine for a while now. I love it! I compiled my FreeBSD kernel in 8 minutes! I am now finding that XGA may have
been too low of resolution, but considering I do a lot of reading and programming as well, the low res might be better for me. I don't have
any problems with the keyboard, and I am getting used to the touchpad.

Now I just need to tweak the touchpad click, and dual monitor support, etc...

dang it... I need to start doing some of my school work now.
 
I turn on the @$#@ thing and all I get is a blank screen now... the machine is booting, the HD light is going crazy, but nothing shows up on the screen. I try attaching a monitor and
nothing gets to the monitor as well...
 
That's what I was thinking too 🙁

Why did I disable sshd on my install? I have crap I need to recover from the HD 🙁
 
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