*UPDATE* Just Ordered a Dell Latitude D600 Centrino Laptop...

[First]

UPDATE: For some reason I ordered this laptop with software I didn't need (I already have MS Office and Acrobat 5.0), and that cost me an extra $150, so I corrected it, which delays my shipment a bit. Though the new total is now just ~ $1617.

Here are the specs:

Pentium M Processor @ 1.30GHz, 14.1in XGA Display
3Yr Warrenty (Mail-In) Service
Windows XP Professional SP1
ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 Video (32MB)
256MB DDR266 (2 X 128MB)
Portable Notebook Surge Protector
64MB USB Memory Key
Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 WLAN (802.11b, 11Mbps) miniPCI Card
6-cell primary battery
40GB Hard Drive, 5400RPM
8-24-10-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Classic Nylon Carrying Case
56K Modem

With a 15% coupon (thanks Epinephrine ) and Dell's $50 Small Business rebate (ending today), I'm spending just $1767.99 including s&h and taxes. Quite the deal. I'll let you guys know how I like it.

 

[Zukatah]

Nice system !

I'd take the same system but with 512 megs of RAM instead of 256 (I know that with 256 I'll regret it down the road).

 

[Derango]

Originally posted by: Zukatah
Nice system !

I'd take the same system but with 512 megs of RAM instead of 256 (I know that with 256 I'll regret it down the road).

Yea, but with dell, you buy as little memory as you can from them and then the rest from crucial. You end up saving a lot of money that way

 

[OldSpooky]

I ordered a D600 as well, but I ordered with minimal memory configuration. Dell was charging an outrageous $50 for a second 128 MB so-DIMM.

What I did do was purchase memory upgrades from Dell seperately. 20% off sale + 5% off coupon + free shipping made it cheaper than Crucial.

What annoys me is that my RAM got here this morning (ordered 2 days later), and my D600 is still stuck in the "Boxing" stage of production (and has been since Saturday). I read boxing takes up to 3 business days since the laptop has to be flown in from Malaysia to the distro center in Tenessee. :|

If it gets out of Boxing tommorow and ships out of TN, UPS says TN to RI takes 3 business days, (thursday, friday, monday), So likely I'll get it the 14th or 15th. I suppose 10-11 days isn't terribly bad, considering that the D800 people won't see shipping products till the end of this month (due to widescreen LCD shortage).

Evan, unless you purchased fast shipping, I don't think Dell will be able to ship your notebook in 3-5 days. I hoped for it to take 1 week, but I think I was overly optimistic.

 

[First]

OldSpooky, I'm not too sure of that. Since you ordered your laptop on a weekend (Saturday), your shipment will automatically take longer than the 3-5 days. I'd say you should have your laptop by this Friday or Monday at the worst. Anything longer than that and you should complain to Dell.

Hopefully my D600 will be here this time next week.

 

[JZilla]

What made you choose the Latitude over the Inspiron 600m ?

 

[First]

Originally posted by: JZilla
What made you choose the Latitude over the Inspiron 600m ?

The D600 has a better (harder) construction and better look (IMO) than the 600M. When configured to my exact specifications, the price difference between the D600 and 600M was under $100 even with all the fancy rebates the 600M has had going on recently. Also, I just now remember that the 600M doesn't give you a choice for a 5400RPM HD, which is certainly a big turnoff for my needs.

 

[JZilla]

I have read other users (Dell Forum, I think) say that the construction is better and the blue color on the Inspiron doesn't exactly help it. But I thought that the price difference would be greater than that, so I wondered if you knew something that I didn't.

Here in Denmark, or Europe for that matter, we are still waiting for the Inspiron 600m. The funny thing is that we got the Inspiron 500m right away, maybe I should mail Dell and ask if we even will get it. Btw your configuration costs $ 3000 roughly here, crazy price imo, so I was hoping that the 600m would be at least a grand cheaper.

Enjoy!


Edit: Just checked dell.com and dell.dk and you can get the 500m with 40gb 5400rpm drive here in Denmark, but I couldn't even find the 500m on dell.com.

 

[OldSpooky]

I'd say you should have your laptop by this Friday or Monday at the worst. Anything longer than that and you should complain to Dell.

Didn't ship till this morning at 10AM. UPS says it will arrive between the 15th and the 17th. This is pretty consistent with what Dell reps on support.dell.com said though.

Ordered it friday night, built saturday, nothing happened sunday. 3 days of boxing (mon, tues, weds), shipping today (thurs). It seems like forever, but from an objective standpoint its not too bad.

 

[crzylgs]

I ordered the Dell D800 these specs:

Dell D800
1.6 Pentium-M
40 gig 5400 RPM
512 DDR
64meg ti 4200 g4
15.4 widescreen WUXGA display
DVD drive
wireless built in

 

[Avatar26]

I just took the plunge as well and ordered the D600:

Pentium M Processor @ 1.40GHz, 14.1in SXGA+ Display
3Yr Warrenty (Mail-In) Service
Windows XP Professional SP1
ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 Video (32MB)
512MB DDR266 (2 X 256MB)
Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 WLAN (802.11b, 11Mbps) miniPCI Card
6-cell primary battery
40GB Hard Drive, 5400RPM
8-24-10-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Modular Floppy Drive (Need it for work)

Ended up right around $2000 shipped. Not quite what I was hoping for, but I'm impatient!

 

[Schnieds]

Hey Evan and Avatar26,

Just wondering why you chose the D600, it seemed to me that it was a bit pricey for what you were getting. I was wondering if you would share your thoughts on getting that model over the D800. I realize the D600 is lighter by a couple of pounds, but other than that the D800 gives you much better components for just a little more cash...

Here is what I got:

Pentium(r) M Processor 1.60GHz 15.4 WUXGA Display Qty: 1 Unit Price: 2,286.00
Hardware Support Services: 3Yr Mail-In Service
Bundle: Dell Latitude Notebook
Operating System: WINDOWS XP HOME SP1
Memory: 128MB,DDR,SDRAM,1 DIMM
Wireless Networking: Dell TrueMobileTM 1300 WLAN (802.11b/g,54Mbps) miniPCI Card
Battery: 9 CELL PRIMARY BATTERY
Hard Drive: 40GHDD,9.5MM,5400RPM
Modular Bay Devices: 8-24-10-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Modem: Internal 56K Modem
Graphics: NVIDIA(r) GeForce4 4200 GoTM 4XAGP graphics w/64MB DDR Video Memory

Total cash: $1800.00

I am not ripping on your decision at all, just curious.

Also, I noticed that you both chose the Intel 802.11b wireless PC card, which will make your system a true blue Centrino. However, you aren't going to be compatible with the faster standards. Did you realize that Dell's faster wireless card was only $20 more?

 

[GizmoFreak]

Originally posted by: Schnieds
Hey Evan and Avatar26,

Just wondering why you chose the D600, it seemed to me that it was a bit pricey for what you were getting. I was wondering if you would share your thoughts on getting that model over the D800. I realize the D600 is lighter by a couple of pounds, but other than that the D800 gives you much better components for just a little more cash...

Here is what I got:

Pentium(r) M Processor 1.60GHz 15.4 WUXGA Display Qty: 1 Unit Price: 2,286.00
Hardware Support Services: 3Yr Mail-In Service
Bundle: Dell Latitude Notebook
Operating System: WINDOWS XP HOME SP1
Memory: 128MB,DDR,SDRAM,1 DIMM
Wireless Networking: Dell TrueMobileTM 1300 WLAN (802.11b/g,54Mbps) miniPCI Card
Battery: 9 CELL PRIMARY BATTERY
Hard Drive: 40GHDD,9.5MM,5400RPM
Modular Bay Devices: 8-24-10-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Modem: Internal 56K Modem
Graphics: NVIDIA(r) GeForce4 4200 GoTM 4XAGP graphics w/64MB DDR Video Memory

Total cash: $1800.00

I am not ripping on your decision at all, just curious.

Also, I noticed that you both chose the Intel 802.11b wireless PC card, which will make your system a true blue Centrino. However, you aren't going to be compatible with the faster standards. Did you realize that Dell's faster wireless card was only $20 more?

"A couple pounds" is a really big deal for a lot of people when it comes to notebooks. The D800 looks great for what it is, but the D600 is a far more portable machine. I would think that portability would tend to be important for those interested in Pentium M/Centrino. I have also heard that the keyboard on the D800 is terrible. Also, I wouldn't say the D800 uses "much better" components. The large screen is nice but it makes the laptop big and heavy. The vid card is better but the 9000 64mb on the D600 ain't shabby.

 

[crzylgs]

yeah i noticed that the centrino wireless is only compatible w/ the 11mbps wireless standard, not the new stuff like Dells True mobile card but i had already spent $2400...im a dumbass

 

[Avatar26]

Gizmo, I am upgrading from a Dell Inspiron 8000 which weighs about 9 pounds and is way too bulky. My interest in upgrading this soon is reducing the weight and size by as much as possible without sacrificing ONBOARD features. I had thought about one of the ultralights, but I don't want to carry extra pieces to attach if I want to load a CD/DVD in the machine while I'm traveling. Also, in regards to the question about the wireless. I invested $350+ on my wireless router about 1.5 or 2 years ago. I will not upgrade that for a long time. By the time I am looking to upgrade, something will have surpassed 802.11a/b/g anyway. No need to go out and buy more equipment right now. Make sense?

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: Avatar26
Gizmo, I am upgrading from a Dell Inspiron 8000 which weighs about 9 pounds and is way too bulky. My interest in upgrading this soon is reducing the weight and size by as much as possible without sacrificing ONBOARD features. I had thought about one of the ultralights, but I don't want to carry extra pieces to attach if I want to load a CD/DVD in the machine while I'm traveling. Also, in regards to the question about the wireless. I invested $350+ on my wireless router about 1.5 or 2 years ago. I will not upgrade that for a long time. By the time I am looking to upgrade, something will have surpassed 802.11a/b/g anyway. No need to go out and buy more equipment right now. Make sense?

Thanks for satisfying my curiousity.

 

[Schnieds]

"A couple pounds" is a really big deal for a lot of people when it comes to notebooks. The D800 looks great for what it is, but the D600 is a far more portable machine. I would think that portability would tend to be important for those interested in Pentium M/Centrino. I have also heard that the keyboard on the D800 is terrible. Also, I wouldn't say the D800 uses "much better" components. The large screen is nice but it makes the laptop big and heavy. The vid card is better but the 9000 64mb on the D600 ain't shabby.

True, a couple of pounds can really wear on your shoulder if you are lugging it around a lot.

By stating much better components, I was referring specifically to:

1.6 P-M instead of a 1.3 or 1.4
The WUXGA Widescreen
NVidia 4200 Go 64 Video

Granted, it also costs a bit more than Even paid, but for $150 bucks more the component upgrade seem worth it IMHO. Again though, it does way more. I am willing to lug around a heavier beast to have that beautiful widescreen, faster proc, and better video...

 

[OldSpooky]

I am willing to lug around a heavier beast to have that beautiful widescreen, faster proc, and better video...

A lot of people aren't willing to lug around a heavier laptop. There are even people who think the D600 is much too big :Q

The D600 was for me the best compromise between size and features. GeForce 4200 and widescreen were not features that I was going to use, though I can see how they would be very useful to someone who wants to play the latest games on a laptop.

 

[crzylgs]

i gaming benchmarks on these things are amazing...i wonder how the fx GO and 9600 mobile will do

 

[Resh]

GizmoFreak,

Where did you see the 64MB on the D600's video? Everything I've seen points to 32MB of vid mem. I'd love to have it with 64MB!

Also, I wouldn't say the D800 uses "much better" components. The large screen is nice but it makes the laptop big and heavy. The vid card is better but the 9000 64mb on the D600 ain't shabby.

I've been looking at all the offerings and everything seems to fall short in way or another.

T40: Perfect except for wimpy video for gaming and too many mandatory extras that drive cost up.
600M: Not enough vid memory -- only 32 & thicker than T40
Gateway, Toshi: Weak vid
Acer TravelMate: Not sure about, but seems a little too big.

My ideal spec would be:

1.6 Pentium M
64MB Mobility 9000/9600
1" thick
5 hour battery for desktop and DVD-type use (2-3 hour for UT2003)
14-15" high res (wide-screen would be nice)
< 5.5lbs (not including an extra battery)
CD-RW/DVD combo drive
room for an extra battery

Form-factor wise, I guess I want a G4 Titanium Powerbook clone.

Anyone know of something that comes close? Shipping or upcoming product?

N

 

[GizmoFreak]

Originally posted by: Resh
GizmoFreak,

Where did you see the 64MB on the D600's video? Everything I've seen points to 32MB of vid mem. I'd love to have it with 64MB!

Actually you're right. The 64MB option appears to be only available on the 600m.