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Thoughts on Inspiron 1100 as a budget book?

A

ArchStudent

Senior member
Just want to know what people's experiences have been with the Dell Inspiron 1100 series have been 🙂

This is just going to be used for basic Microsoft Office tasks, internet/email, and perhaps burning a couple of audio CDs. I figure that the Celery at 2GHz is sufficient, and I also think that this would be a good starter notebook for a College student's first computer and budget (about $1300-$1400 Canadian).

Just curious to know if there are any pros or cons about the Intel Extreme Graphics that is built in? This will not be used for gaming at all, but perhaps the occasional DVD movie.

 
Inspiron 1100's are heavy and not that sturdy. But the kicker is that celerons are worthless because of their crippled cache. Your better off going with a budget hp notebook with an amd athlon chip. Same price point, weight, and build quality but you will get a much faster machine.
 
It's a great laptop for the money. I purchased one for my 16 year old daughter around Christmas and liked it so much I got another for myself. Wait for a deal where they upgrade the optical drive to DVD Combo, up the memory (I got 384 megs) and provide free shipping. I got all that for 699. after rebates. It's very "sturdy"; I've actually traveled a few times with mine. It's snappy enough (I formatted and installed XP Pro) and basically works as advertised.
I'll give this one to my younger daughter for her high school career next year and then get something else.
Keep in mind, it's a basic laptop with integrated graphics that will run office apps, burn the occasional CD, browse the Web and do e-mail very well. It won't play Quake 3 trillion or crunch SETI for days on end.

Edit: Yes it plays DVD movies very well. Battery life is better than expected as well, at over 3 1/2 hours.
 
arsbanned thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it 🙂



preslove & alexruiz the HP/Compaq notebooks are just a touch out of my friend's price range before taxes at $1400-$1500 Canadian. The Inspiron 1100 comes loaded and shipped taxes and all at a price of $1200.00. She would rather use the extra money to get a printer and some peripherals. Thanks for the advice though 🙂
 
Originally posted by: preslove
Inspiron 1100's are heavy and not that sturdy. But the kicker is that celerons are worthless because of their crippled cache. Your better off going with a budget hp notebook with an amd athlon chip. Same price point, weight, and build quality but you will get a much faster machine.
Click to expand...

NOT THAT STURDY?!?! I dunno where the heck you heard that but mine was thrown from my car during a car accident. Flew about 50ft and hit a curb after skidding another 10ft. I thought it was screwed but turned it on...everything was working...all but the LCD which was cracked beyond visibility...but EVERY single other part of the machine still ufnctions PERFECTLY to this day.
I upgraded mine to a 2.4 P4 and its running like a champ now. The celeron is a crippled chip but for basic programs it works fine i thought. I've done a lot of simple programming and word documents on mine and it was great, just had to move up since doing some macromedia flash/dreamweaver on it now. I'd say the 1100 is by far one of the best notebooks you can buy if your on a budget.
 
Lots of people at my law school have this model of notebook. I think think it is big, heavy, and inelegant, but at least it is fairly well constructed. The keyboard is good, but the touchpad is pretty sucky.

It's a "good enough" machine, not a great one.
 
Originally posted by: Drakkon

NOT THAT STURDY?!?! I dunno where the heck you heard that but mine was thrown from my car during a car accident. Flew about 50ft and hit a curb after skidding another 10ft. I thought it was screwed but turned it on...everything was working...all but the LCD which was cracked beyond visibility...but EVERY single other part of the machine still ufnctions PERFECTLY to this day.
I upgraded mine to a 2.4 P4 and its running like a champ now. The celeron is a crippled chip but for basic programs it works fine i thought. I've done a lot of simple programming and word documents on mine and it was great, just had to move up since doing some macromedia flash/dreamweaver on it now. I'd say the 1100 is by far one of the best notebooks you can buy if your on a budget.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Drakkon 🙂 The last line you wrote is what my friend is seeking 🙂

I've looked at the website, and can not find the 1100 series with a Celeron anymore, they only have P4s now, nor do I see a 15" LCD, only 14.1"... I guess it'll be a P4 instead of the Celeron (unless they are calling the Celeron a P4)
 
Oh yeah, there is one other thing to add. This will not be toted around a lot, it is just ideal for my friend's pad as she has a small one bedroom apartment, and with a notebook there is less clutter than with a tower, monitor and peripherals and all of the cables 🙂

So this will mainly be sitting on her desk, as the College has a lot of computer terminals to use; thus, no need to carry it to the College 🙂
 
Originally posted by: ArchStudent


Just curious to know if there are any pros or cons about the Intel Extreme Graphics that is built in? This will not be used for gaming at all, but perhaps the occasional DVD movie.
Click to expand...

Apparently if you try to run something at non-native resolution, it will not 'fill screen' or scale at all, it will just leave black bars around the edges. I am not sure if this is unique to the dell 1100 or if all laptops with the Extreen graphics have this issue. There is a dell knowledge base article about it somewhere but as I'm lazy today you'll just have to take my word for it.

 
It happens to desktops too. Someone I know has an emachines desktop and when he plays starcraft, there are two black bars on each side of the screen.
 
Quote from Dell's site: "Inspiron 1100
Intel®Celeron®Processor 2.4GHz, 14.1 XGA"

There IS no P4 version, and in fact, you can't even change the processor speed; it's locked in at a 2.4ghz Celeron.
 
They usually have an option for a P4 1100. Anyway, it isn't very hard to upgrade it yourself. Just buy a P4 2.6 at Newegg, and put it in. The bios automatically recognizes it and you are set. Just make sure it is a 400FSB chip and you should have no problems....
 
1. The 1100 CAN be ordered WITH the P4 chip.

2. ArchStudent, I'm not sure where you're looking, but the 1100 is indeed available with the Celeron OR P4, with the 14.1" OR 15" screens.

?????
 
arsbanned I was looking at the configurations, and doing some configurations on the Dell.ca website, but it now seems as though they fixed the missing info. The other day I saw the Celeron option added to the customization url, but still only see the 14.1" screen. I'm guessing someone forgot to add the options or they got lost during website maintainance 🙂

 
Everytime I see all the negative comments re the 1100 I wonder where all the disinformation comes from. The fact is, nobody beats the Dell 1100 deal, especially when they add the incentives. HP and Compaq are usually the brands others seem to be referring to most often when they dog the 1100, but try going to HP/Compaq and configuring one for 699 or sometimes less shipped. And the Dell is sturdy, contrary to the disinformation specialists. I have an 1100 with Celeron and use it exactly like you say the one to be purchased is to be used. It is perfect for those tasks, and I do watch DVD's with absolutely no problems. All things considered, it is the best value on the market since no one else meets that pricepoint.

Bekker
 
Yeah, that's pretty much my opinion too. I think people dis the 1100 because they spent 3 times as much and got very little-if anything- for the additional expense. That annoys people. 😀




PS I KNOW YOU CAN'T PLAY GAMES ON THE 1100!!!
 
Originally posted by: Guspaz
Quote from Dell's site: "Inspiron 1100
Intel®Celeron®Processor 2.4GHz, 14.1 XGA"

There IS no P4 version, and in fact, you can't even change the processor speed; it's locked in at a 2.4ghz Celeron.
Click to expand...

What are you smoking?

Read under Processor.... Link

Processor: Intel® Celeron® processor at 2.3GHZ and 2.4GHZ and Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 2.4GHz provides affordable power
 
Originally posted by: arsbanned
1. The 1100 CAN be ordered WITH the P4 chip.

2. ArchStudent, I'm not sure where you're looking, but the 1100 is indeed available with the Celeron OR P4, with the 14.1" OR 15" screens.

?????
Click to expand...

Uh... only 14.1 screens available on the dell site... as of now....
 
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