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Need quick help from those more familiar with laptops (not tech support type help, info help).

D

Double Trouble

Elite Member
I have the option of purchasing a Dell Lattitude CPx H500GT at a VERY deep discount. Not being familiar with many lappies, I'd like some info on the following...

  • Can you upgrade processors in these things?
    Can I purchase a DVD drive from someone other than Dell to put in the machine and use it as a portable DVD player? (is the PIII500 in there good enough to produce good DVD quality using software MPG2 decoding?)
    Anyone have experience with this particular model?
    What's the battery life like with these kinds of lappies (from dell or otherwise)

Any info would be appreciated.
 
1) You can take the CPU out and put another one in, if that's what you are asking. This completely voids the warranty (because you will need to take off the entire case and usually some other parts). You can buy mobile processors on Pricewatch.com. Your laptop motherboard will probably have jumpers to set the voltage and other things for the new CPU.

2) You cannot buy a floppy drive or a DVD-ROM drive from someone else because IBM, Dell, Sony, etc all have different layouts and sizes. It simply won't fit. Hard Drive is probably the only thing that is totally interchangeable.

3) PIII for DVD? Hmm.. What videocard? Ati or GeForce2Go will do it, but a crappy one that also shares the main memory will be baaad.

4) Ask dell about the battery life or do some search on the web.
 
You can buy an external DVD drive if you want. And your laptop will be able to handle DVD playbacks. My friend has the same laptop as I do 300mhz, 96mb of ram, OLD... and it plays DVDs fine. Harddrive is a bit slow for DIVX though.
 
Thanks for the info guys..... I had already gone to Dell's site to get some basic info on the unit, but they're pushing the inspirion line now, so they're very skimpy on the Lattitude unit info.

<<You cannot buy a floppy drive or a DVD-ROM drive from someone else because IBM, Dell, Sony, etc all have different layouts and sizes. It simply won't fit.>>

Doh! That's what I was hoping would not be the case. I'd bet DVD drives for these puppies cost quite a bit through dell.... I was hoping I could snag a DVD drive at a reasonable price and add it to this unit without too much fuss.

<<300mhz, 96mb of ram, OLD... and it plays DVDs fine. >>

Hmmmmm that's good, that means this unit shouldn't have too much of a problem playing DVD's then, provided I can get a cheap DVD player for it.
 
I'm typing this message on a Dell CPxj P3 750 right now.... Just bought it today as a matter of fact.. hehe... I'm testing out the battery life on this puppy and it seems to be pretty good so far. I've had it on for about a 1.5 hours and still have 68% batter life remaining.
 
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