Dell Inspiron 8100 questions? (Order placed)

[Submit]

I am going through the options on the order page and a few things have a puzzled..

1. What is the difference between fixed and modular CD/DVD drives? Does modular mean removable?

2. If modular mean removable, can I use a second battery instead of second cd-rom

Thanks


edit: changed title.

 

[Erasmus-X]

The modular drives are removable, meaning they can be swapped out for an additional battery, CD-R, Zip drive, etc. Fixed drives can't be removed without taking apart the laptop.

So, I think you actually answered your own question.

 

[Stealth1024]

I have the built in DVDROM (it fits on the side) and then I have the two bays in the front for two batteries (or I can swap one battery out for the floppy drive)

 

[Derango]

If you're going to get both DVD and CD-RW drives, either get the combo drive, or the fixed DVD drive and removable CD-RW. That way you can have two batteries while watching a DVD, greatly extending the maximum running time of the movies you watch

 

[AppleTalking]

There are three bays in the Inspiron 8100. There is a fixed bay on the back half of the left-hand side of the machine (looking at the screen face-on). This drive cannot be removed. Then there are two modular bays in the front of the machine that can be swapped in and out. You can put a DVD-ROM, CD-RW, Zip, LS-120, another battery, or any number of other drives in these two bays. They are hot-swappable (at least under Windows XP).

Good luck!
Nick

 

[Submit]

Thanks so much to replying.

I was thinking a fixed DVD/Cd-RW combo and a second battery in the modular drive bay.

Would I need to swap out the second battery with the original battery to charge it or could I charge both at the same time ?

 

[AppleTalking]

You can charge them both at the same time.

Nick

 

[Submit]

ah, great. Dell offers 3 choices for video cards. Nvidia2 G2go 16 mb or 32mb or ATI Radeon 7500 64mb. Anyone have experience with any one of these?

Also, as per the Nvidia site, the Nvidia G4go is available with some Toshiba notebooks. Will Dell ever offer it? Is it worth waiting for? Will it outperform the ATI Radeon 7500 by much?

Thanks in advance.

 

[John]

Radeon 7500 is the fastest of the (3) video options. It is also available only with UXGA screens.

Dell should offer ther GF4go very soon.

 

[Submit]

Any guesses on how the

NVIDIA GeForce4 440Go graphics controller w/32MB DDR external VRAM video memory

will perform against the

64MB 4X AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500

Thanks

 

[John]

nvidia claims that the GeForce4 Go is the world's fastest mobile GPU. With that in mind I expect it to meet or beat the Radeon mobility.

 

[Eug]

Several of my colleagues have the Dell Inspiron 8100 with Geforce 2 Go. I had the Dell Inspiron 5000e with ATI Mobility 128 card (slow). Now I have a iBook.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but I can't say I'm overly impressed with the 8100 setup:

1) It's huge.
2) nVidia's graphics drivers are suck when using the VGA port. Knowing what I know now I'd rather have a slow ATI card than a fast nVidia at this point. They really need to work harder on their laptop drivers. If you don't use the VGA port however, then they're fine.
3) The Firewire port is 4-pin and non-powered, which essentially defeats the point of a Firewire port IMO. Firewire ports should be 6-pin powered ports. (For instance, my Lexar Firewire CompactFlash card reader draws power from the Firewire port. It won't work on an 8100. Neither will many external portable 2.5" drives, or an iPod, etc.)
4) You can only get the ATI card with the monster sized 15" screen. I doubt I'll ever buy a laptop with 15" screen again, unless it's still ultralight.

ie. Depending on what you're looking for the 8100 might be fine, but if you really want an all around machine, I'd look elsewhere. Or if you decide you don't need all the "features" the 8100 claims to provide (but only does so in a half-@ssed manner), I'd save your money and get a model with "less" features.

 

[Dug]

You might want to also look at the Toshiba.

It is now available with the Geforce4go 32MB chip.
It's available at CompUSA so you can play arround with it.
Remember to enable cleartype when you get there, because they never do. (Makes a world of difference on laptops)

As far as speed- reading through some notebook forums I have found that both cards are very similar in speed, although the Radeon does pull ahead. It's about 300 more on 3dmark2k1. This could also be because Ati resently released drivers in the last 2 weeks that work really well on the M7.

I would definately consider the Toshiba if you are going to be moving around a lot. Otherwise the Dell would be fine.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Get the 4100 IMO. Or look for the Latitudes - they are much better.

 

[VBboy]

Which videocard = ATI Radeon Mobility 7500, TWICE as fast as GeForce2Gone

 

[John]

If the GF4go is a true winner like nVidia claims, I look forward to testing one out.

 

[Submit]

Spikesoldier, the 4100 is not available with a 15in UltraXGA screen, and I really want one..

I was not aware of the Firewire issue, thanks for brining it up.

I might check out the Toshiba if it is on display....

Question...

The 15in UltraXGA screen with (ATI Radeon 7500 lets say) has a max resolution of 1600x1200. Anyonw know if it also supports the other standard resulotions?

1280x960
1280x1024
1400x1050

Thanks.

 

[Dug]

You can change the resolution to anything you want but it won't look good. It'll look a little fuzzy.
That's true for any lcd screen.

I personally like to run the UXGA screen with large fonts and 120dpi. It makes the screen look like its at 1152x864 without it becoming fuzzy.

The other thing you might want to consider is that the p4 mobile processors are due out in March.

I would definately wait for that. It will be based on Intel's 845 chipset with DDR memory.

Even if you don't want the p4 I would still wait until March because that will cause the price of the p3's to drop dramatically.

 

[Submit]

I was thinking about the 1ghz p3. I don't think I will see that much more overall performace with the p4. I would rather get a second battery and/or a better video card.

 

[Submit]

Just placed the order. This is what I ended up getting:

Intel® Pentium® III Processor 1.0GHz-M 15in UltraXGA TFT Display
Memory: Special! 256MB,SDRAM,2DIMM,for the price of 128MB,SDRAM,2DIMM
Video Card: 64MB 4X AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
Primary Hard Drive: Special! 30GB Hard Drive for the price of 20GB
Floppy Drive: Modular Floppy Drive
Operating System Software: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Modem: 10/100 + 56K Capable V.90 NIC/Modem, Internal Mini-PCI
Fixed CD/DVD Drives: 8X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Roxio's Easy CD Creator®
Bundled Software: Microsoft®Works Suite 2002 with Money 2002 Standard
Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MusicMatch 6.0 for XP
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 1Yr Ltd. Warranty- 1Yr Mail-In Service + 1Yr Phone Support
Internet Access Options: 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Digital Imaging Software: Image Expert®2000 for XP,Dell Edition
Additional Battery: LI-ION 2nd Primary Battery
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL: $1,976.00

The reason for the Dell is becasue the last 2 of 3 Toshiba Satellites I bought(within the last 3 months) came with dead pixels...argh....Hopefully this Dell will not have any dead or stuck pixels..

Anyone have a similarly configured Inspiron 8100 ? How has your experience been with Dell Laptops?

Thanks

 

[Eug]

Glad you went with the ATI. Not only is it fast, but you'll appreciate the ease of use of ATI laptop drivers even more. Smart move to go for internal Ethernet too.

As for stuck pixels, all brands may have them.

Dunno if 256 MB will be enough for you. Depends on what you do.

 

[Submit]

If 256 is not enough, I will give www.crucial.com a visit. They have much better prices then Dell and adding a stick of Ram is easy


As for stuck pixels, all brands may have them.

I agree with you, but I bougth 3 Toshiba notebooks within the last 3 months and two of them had dead pixels from the start. Those are not good odds of getting one without dead pixels....

Anyone know how long Dell takes to build and ship?

Thanks