New Dell - Advice?

waynehartwig

www.jeeperman.com
Location
Mead, WA
My D820 quit working on a docking station today, so I'm thinking rather than replacing the MB, I'm going to replace the system. Question is, with which one? I know there are some here that deal with Dell daily..So what are the good ones?

I don't care about speed.... 2.0-2.5 ghz?
Seems like they all come with 3 or 4 gig of ram and 300-500 gig of hdd (I really only need 100 gig or so, since it's a work computer)
15" screen is good... Love the WUXGA that I have now.
256 or 512 of video mem...NVIDIA preffered...
DVD RW

It must have wireless and mobile broadband! ...Not sure what I would do without either.... House is wireless. Shop and on the road is mobile broadband only. I do have an iphone that I could tether, but I really don't want to. Right now my plan is unlimited. If I switched, I'd be stuck at 2gig per month, or face overages. I do have a PCMCIA mobile card, but I really hate using it, as it sticks out the side of the laptop and needs to be pulled/put in all the time. Same with any USB device...

I think thats about it.... I was looking at the Inspiron 1545, but I don't think it will do mobile broadband..... I know the 1720 does, but they don't have any in the Dell Outlet right now...And I'm not sure I need a 17" screen, or the weight/size, since it is a portable that get's ported several times a day. ...I also use it to tune rigs on the road.

What about the old school D Port replicators? Do they work with the newer Dell's?? Or is there something else? All I can find is a 'tower' looking thing that plugs into the USB port for hot docking and etc....


Anyway, let me know what ya'll think!
 

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
We've moved to to the E43xx series. They've been pretty decent. I've lost two hard disks out of about 25 systems in the year we've been running them. Not exactly stellar, but a welcome reprieve from the D430 machines we had before. They were total piles of steaming crap.

Personally, I'm running an E6400 and like that quite a bit. I like the bigger screen, but 17" is getting pretty big for portability. You'll have to decide there?

I'm not sure if I'd move from the "work" platform computers (IE, the Inspiron). You'd know better than I, but from what was explained to me (likely propoganda) from Dell, is the Latitude line has the same components as the Inspiron, but because it's marketed to business that buys in large quantities, various components are more cushioned/isolated/protected in the Latitude vs. the Inspiron. I haven't checked into the "Vostro" line at all.

I'm on my third Latitude in a row. Pretty happy with them. This latest one is a refurb, and it's been totally fine as well. Needed one as close to overnight as I could get and found a "scratch and dent" that could be sent PDQ.
 
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waynehartwig

www.jeeperman.com
Location
Mead, WA
I looked around and it seems like Vostro is their high end now? They will support 8gig of ram, where the others are 4gig?

So I bought a Vostro 3500
WIN 7 pro, 64bit
15.6" LED LCD
Intel I5-460M, 2.53ghz
Dvd+/-Rw,8X
4GB,1333MHZ,DDR3,2X2G
Hard Drive,320,7.2
Nvidia, 310m, 512mb (discrete)
bluetooth
wireless
3 yr onsite support/repair/accidental

Tax and shipping $1116... IMO not bad at all for a lot of laptop.... I should have it Monday.


Looks like it will accept the WWAN Verizon card, lilke what I have now in my D820. But one thing I can't figure out, is if these new computers (this one) will take the old school D-Dock....?
 

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
I looked around and it seems like Vostro is their high end now? They will support 8gig of ram, where the others are 4gig?

So I bought a Vostro 3500
WIN 7 pro, 64bit
15.6" LED LCD
Intel I5-460M, 2.53ghz
Dvd+/-Rw,8X
4GB,1333MHZ,DDR3,2X2G
Hard Drive,320,7.2
Nvidia, 310m, 512mb (discrete)
bluetooth
wireless
3 yr onsite support/repair/accidental

Tax and shipping $1116... IMO not bad at all for a lot of laptop.... I should have it Monday.


Looks like it will accept the WWAN Verizon card, lilke what I have now in my D820. But one thing I can't figure out, is if these new computers (this one) will take the old school D-Dock....?

Curious to see how it works out for you. I thought the Vostro was the small business line?
 

plaidfro

Active Member
Location
Provo, UT
If all you will be using it for is "email, web, Quickbooks, Excel, PDF's, and some other basic programs" then that system should be quite sufficient.
 
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