Now a good time to buy an inspiron 8600?

[barton boi]

I can get one for $1700 plus 9.25% sales tax making it $1857.

The config would be:

Pentium M 1.5 GHZ
15.4" WSXGA+
512MB DDR
40GB
9600 pro
DVDRW

Seems pretty nice to me. Only thing that would make a big difference is a 60GB HDD, but that's $100 more and I don't think it's worth that for 20GB extra. Is there a way I can add a 2nd HDD later?

[ATilaptops]

If you get the 7,200 RPM then it's worth it, I believe it can be added later though, but a 7,200 RPM drive will be much faster than the 4,200RPM 40GB one.

[Terry]

You can't add in a second drive.
You would have to remove the current one.

I think.
I am not too familiar with the new casing. But since there isn't too much room, I doubt they'll leave a spot open for an expandable HD.

[bud212002]

Get on Ebay . I bought a $100 off coupon for $3.00, and they are guaranteed to work.

[melee]

Originally posted by Terry
You can't add in a second drive.
You would have to remove the current one.

I think.
I am not too familiar with the new casing. But since there isn't too much room, I doubt they'll leave a spot open for an expandable HD.

Yeah you have to replace it. Its easy stuff though.

Oh and BTW, I am goign to get a 8600 (unlike ATiLaptops ;)) , so yeah its a good time

[barton boi]

Originally posted by ATilaptops
If you get the 7,200 RPM then it's worth it, I believe it can be added later though, but a 7,200 RPM drive will be much faster than the 4,200RPM 40GB one.

But that would be $160 more, and IMO not worth it, unless you had the extra cash which I don't :(.

[melee]

Originally posted by barton boi
But that would be $160 more, and IMO not worth it, unless you had the extra cash which I don't :(.

No its worth it. I mean downgrading your processor and dvd drive worth it.

[barton boi]

I gotta keep the DVDRW, parents are paying for that. Maybe I should downgrade to 1.4GHZ and get a 7200 RPM 60GB?

Edit: Is the 4200RPM 2MB cache and the 7200RPM 8MB?

[ATilaptops]

Your right melee, I am thiking about the voodoo more than the crummy dell more and more;) I am not really sure, I mean a 7,200 RPM will deffinetly make the system more enjoyable, but it won't boost 3d perfomance, like say 3dmark scores as a faster cpu would;) Everyone who doens't have a 7,200 RPM drive never really complains so go ahead get get it. You cna switch it for the 60GB 7,200 RPM one later:)

[barton boi]

If it boosted something like 3DMark I'd go for it. It'll probly speed up DVD-burning, right?

[ATilaptops]

What it will speed up is transfer times, and yeah it probably wwill boost DVD burning because it can load the data form the HDD to the DVD faster, I may be worng on that point though. You will also see a veyr increased HDD score in PCmark2002 and 2004:)

[barton boi]

I think I'm just gonna go for a 60GB 4200RPM, I think I'd rather have the extra 100MHZ than a 7200RPM HD.

[ATilaptops]

Good choice:) Look at it this way, you can always swap the HDD for the better one but you cna't replace the cpu, well unless...never mind.

[barton boi]

I calculated that if I booted 3 times a day, and it takes 20 secs to boot from the 7200RPM, and 30 secs from the 4200RPM, over 2 years I'd save myself around 6 hours of time. When you look at it like that, $10/hour doesn't seem a bad invesment, not to mention the time saved on other tasks. I may consider downgrading my processor, or shelling out the extra $$$.

[ATilaptops]

Do not downgrade the cpu. If you must shell out the extra cash. Also, I'll tell you right now that it doens't take only 20 seconds to boot into windows. mor elike 40sec on a 7,200 RPM and a minute or more on a 4,200 RPM. It may boot to GUI but it'll be unuseable at 20sec. Just so you know. Maybe more like 30sec for the 7,200 RPM and a minute for the 4,200 RPm though. Believe me 7,200 RPM is so much faster it's not even funny, or so i've heard;)

[LaValva]

I think it's definitely worht getting. It's not only boot time you're going to save, your seek times all around are going to be much faster. You definitely won't regret going 7200 rpm.

[ATilaptops]

Have I not outlined that? ANyway, I'll post mroe in 30. Gona watch a show on the telly:)