Opinions on the Dell Lattitude c600/c500 laptop.

[bupkus]

I'm thinking of buying this laptop from someone. What's your opinion/experience with this performance wise.
What's inside:
P3 @ 600MHz
128MB RAM (don't know if it's ddr or sdr)
10GB Hdd
Software doesn't matter as the WinXP Home with probably be replaced with Win XP Pro. IOW, upgrades would be necessary.
BTW, the back of the case says it's a model PPO1L.

I know, I already posted a similar thread in the "For Sale/Trade", but there I was more interested in the $$ value and not the performance. However, if you would like to venture an opinion of what it would be worth in $$ I would read it here. 🙂

Thanks.

 

[chocoruacal]

"How will this perform?"

You're leaving out an important piece of info...what the hell are you using it for?!?!

🙂

 

[bupkus]

Originally posted by: chocoruacal
"How will this perform?"

You're leaving out an important piece of info...what the hell are you using it for?!?!

🙂

Ideally, I would dual boot WinXP and Linux and use it for email, learning RedHat while I'm away from my home. Hmmm, maybe just use it for linux only, assuming I could get all the broadband/wireless/dialup connectivity working that I would need where ever I may find myself.

 

[bupkus]

Additionally, I have never owned a laptop and I'm wondering how I go about upgrading the ram and what/where to buy for the best price.

 

[Nemmeh]

The C600 is a good system. I've supported quite a few of them. They come with either a 600 or 733mhz PIII.
They hold a total of 512MB PC100. I don't think you'll have any problems out of the system.

Are you purchasing from a person or online from Dell_Financial_Services (seller name) on ebay? If you're buying from a person you may want to compare prices with what Dell has them for on ebay to see if you're getting a good deal. I believe you can usually get a C600 w/733mhz PIII and 256MB Ram for around $350-400.

As far as adding more ram, it's simple. There is a small plastic cover on the bottom of the notebook. It is held in place by one small philips head screw, just unscrew it and pop in your additional memory. In my opinion, I don't think you really need to upgrade to 512MB of ram with the uses you outlined in your post. I would buy (1) 256MB PC100 SDRAM stick and just have a total of 384MB. It'll save you some money.

Where should you buy the memory from? Well, whoever has the best price/brand available. Check www.pricewatch.com for prices on the memory, keep in mind notebook memory is not the same size as regular system (desktop) memory. I'd recommend getting the memory from newegg or you could jump on ebay and find a good seller that has some for cheap.

Hope this helps in your decision.

 

[bupkus]

Originally posted by: Nemmeh
The C600 is a good system. I've supported quite a few of them. They come with either a 600 or 733mhz PIII.
They hold a total of 512MB PC100. I don't think you'll have any problems out of the system.

Are you purchasing from a person or online from Dell_Financial_Services (seller name) on ebay? If you're buying from a person you may want to compare prices with what Dell has them for on ebay to see if you're getting a good deal. I believe you can usually get a C600 w/733mhz PIII and 256MB Ram for around $350-400.

As far as adding more ram, it's simple. There is a small plastic cover on the bottom of the notebook. It is held in place by one small philips head screw, just unscrew it and pop in your additional memory. In my opinion, I don't think you really need to upgrade to 512MB of ram with the uses you outlined in your post. I would buy (1) 256MB PC100 SDRAM stick and just have a total of 384MB. It'll save you some money.

Where should you buy the memory from? Well, whoever has the best price/brand available. Check www.pricewatch.com for prices on the memory, keep in mind notebook memory is not the same size as regular system (desktop) memory. I'd recommend getting the memory from newegg or you could jump on ebay and find a good seller that has some for cheap.

Hope this helps in your decision.

It sure has, and thanks. As it was, I was going to build a desktop for my brother who wanted to trade his old laptop. Just got a call from him saying he just recalled that his wife bought a Dell desktop that's in an office building they're selling so he'll just use that and give me the Dell laptop. It'll be cool to finally try out owning my own laptop.
Crucial can sell me a 128MB module for about $50, and a 256MB module for about $106. THis SDR mem costs considerably more than DDR mem. I wish it was a DDR mobo.

sigh.