Anybody have one of these notebooks? I am thinking very seriously of ordering one for school. I get a discount from my school for Dell computers so the price is good. So what are your experiences with this notebook?
The specs I am looking at are (these were provided by the school):
Intel® Pentium® M Processor1.4GHz,14.1 inch XGA ATI 32MB Video
512MB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms (school suggested 256)
40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Internal 56K Modem and Integrated Network Card
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 Internal Wireless (802.11b, 11Mbps)
Microsoft Worksuite® including Money®
53Whr Primary Battery
4 Yr Ltd Warr plus 4 Yr At-Home Service
CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service to 4Yr Lim Warranty
RecordNow!Deluxe:Burn,Copy CD Music/Data,Backup,Labeling(CD-RW/DVD+RW only)
48WHr Additional Modular Battery for Dual Battery Support
So would this be a good notebook in your opinion for law student?
I think that laptop sounds great. The specs are pretty much identical to mine (I have an hp compaq nx7000). The Intel M processesors are definately the way to go with a laptop. It gives you good battery life (around twice as long compared to having a Pentium 4 processor I think). 512MB RAM is a smart choice as well. I personally love having built in wireless and a long battery life. It means I can easily bring my laptop to do some work or at a café, and if it has wireless access just as easily get online. The 600m only weighs about 5lbs which is always nice. The only weak spot I think is the 40gb HD. Thats what I have as well, and would prefer to have at least 60 or 80, but I guess its not that big of a deal.
I would probably suggest getting MS Office as well instead of Worksuite. (If you don’t get it as an option I can maybe guide you in the direction of an ftp where you could download it…).
Anyway, I definately think its a good laptop for students (I’m one myself) and if you’re getting a good deal on it should go for it.
I’d strongly suggest you spring for a DVD-writer. Does it come with XP Home or XP Pro?
You’ve said that you want it for law school, so presumably word processing is a significant task; but what else do you want to do with it? Why do you specifically want a laptop? For basic WP, a desktop would be substantially cheaper. If you need to take notes on the fly, might not a desktop+PDA be a better option?
WRT a PDA, are you going to be comfortable toting a laptop around? They are highly stealable, you know.
My only concern would be that it’s a Dell, and their quality has been sinking like the Titanic for years now. I’d recommend finding an equivalent machine from Hewlett Packard, IBM or Toshiba.
THough I’m a pretty die-hard Mac person, I like my HP zt3101. It’s got a bigger screen (and thus more weight) than the Dell 600M, but basically the same specs otherwise. It’s nifty fast and very usable. You know, for Windows.
I would agree with the school and bump down the RAM. There really is no need for 512MB unless you plan to do some gaming with the laptop. Most typing and web surfing will cruise on a ‘mere’ 256 MB. More hardisk space is always good.
The key thing I’ve learned when buying a laptop is to figure out what weight youre willing to carry on an every day basis. You might not think it much, but carrying 5lbs of laptop, along with any books you need to take, will end up as a significant weight. If you are planning to use it to take notes in classes then you might want to cut a little on the specs to get something along the lines of an ultralight. Its my biggest problem with the notebook I bought, it becomes a serious decision to take it in or not even though it only weighs in at 5.5 lbs.
The other thing I would reccomend is that you should look into laptop backpacks. Generally nowadays they are indistiguishable from the everday variety of backpack, and so it becomes quite hard for potential thieves to know that you are carrying a laptop. Theyre available from most of the top manafacturers of bags, and usually any company in the laptop bag market will have a backpack model available.
Sorry, but I gotta chime in on the other side with this. Windows XP is pretty memory intensive, and RAM is pretty cheap these days. It can make a big difference to overall performance, so I’d go with the 512 MB for a new computer. I think the school was just providing a minimum recommended level.
At my workplace, we recently purchased several laptops with Windows XP and 256 MB RAM. These computers were a different brand, but with almost identical specs as that Dell in the OP. The users for these particular laptops really only use them for general office stuff and web. After a number of complaints about their sluggishness, I got them upgraded with 512 MB and it made a very noticeable difference. The Office software started in much less time and the computers were more responsive when switching tasks as well. If I hadn’t seen the dramatic difference myself, I would have been skeptical. . .
At the full prices, it looks like the RAM upgrade is about $125 from 256 to 512 on the Dell website. You could upgrade it a little cheaper, here’s a price of about $60 for the right memory from Crucial ( http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpoid=4ECBD2E1A5CA7304&WSMD=Inspiron+600m&WSPN=CT294047 ) RAM is a pretty easy upgrade, provided that it doesn’t cause any warranty problems with DELL. But even if you have to pay the full $125, I think I’d go for the 512 MB myself.
Thats me jealous right there. My university just won’t install wireless anywhere and the places that do have it charge me an arm and a leg to use it.
I’ll agree with Enigma42 on the RAM, like I said in my first post. 512MB is easily worth it, and I don’t do any gaming at all.
About the carrying the laptop with you - I don’t find it a problem at all and my laptop weighs a bit more than the 600m (because it has a widescreen, making it slightly larger). I’m used to carrying heavy books, as you surely also are, so its no different than that (assuming you carry your laptop in a backpack that is).