One of those laptop threads

[stevo1210]

I need a laptop for uni again. I currently use a Dell Latitude XT tablet/laptop but the battery isn't so good, even with the 6 cell pack. Not only that, but I'm getting tired of the 12.1" screen, I need something bigger because I can't see enough... I hope I'm not getting too old. Another thing (battery related) is that sometimes I get home and forget to charge my laptop and then look like a fool when I'm trying to find a power socket in the lecture hall or the library. I used to be able to have one laptop fully charged at home and swap them if the battery were low on one, but my brother's taken my Lenovo T61 for uni himself... leaves me with just a Latitude XT now.

So I decided to go back into the Dell camp once again as I won't need to carry two chargers in my bag... plus I have a lot of those Dell PA-12 adaptors.

So basically I need something 14.1" and above... preferably a 15.4" if possible. I'm being a cheapskate so under $100 on eBay would be great. Money isn't an issue, but I like a little challenge, y'know?
C2D and above obviously... don't care about RAM or HD sizes... or even optical drive, as long as Windows 7 works then I am happy.

Two Dell's that come to mind are the D620 and D630. I used to have a 630 tucked away somewhere but I think I threw that broken one out when I moved houses. I do however have the 9-cell battery pack for it lol. Dunno how well it holds after 18 months dormant...

D620 or D630 okay choices? Not sure if an Inspiron will be able to cope on the open road, hence the D-series latitudes.

[lti]

Re: One of those laptop threads

Those are probably good. The high school I went to had a bunch of D620s, but a lot of them had chunks broken out of the case parts (they're supposed to be made of magnesium, but they looked like gray plastic to me) and even new batteries only lasted 45 minutes. The battery issue could be caused by the fact that they never installed drivers for anything besides the wireless adapter.

I don't think any new laptops are durable or reliable, but the batteries last a long time.

[ratdude747]

Re: One of those laptop threads

D630, if you can find one with intel graphics (or Nvidia with a 2010 or later GPU manu date). Or since you're AU, the D631 (AMD based with ATI graphics). Or heck, even a D531 if you don't need a lot of GPU.

You could also jump to the E series and get an E6xxx.

They're all good.


Iti:

They are made of magnesium... when it oxidizes, it looks like gray plastic. Or you were looking at the LCD bezel, the palm rest, or Antenna cover (in lid), all of which are plastic.

[mockingbird]

Re: One of those laptop threads

My vote goes to the HP 6710b... It's also dockable.

D63x is stuck with 4:3 screen... You can get 6710b with a 1680x1050 LCD.

[ratdude747]

Re: One of those laptop threads

D63x is stuck with 4:3 screen...

Bullshit. My D630 has a 1440x900 panel, 16:10. 14.1" Matte. Plenty of real estate w/o it being too bulky.

Yeah, not 16:9, but for most things it makes little difference (if any at all).

[mockingbird]

Re: One of those laptop threads

I stand corrected.

[c_hegge]

Re: One of those laptop threads

...even a D531 if you don't need a lot of GPU...

I was kinda under the impression he wanted a <13". The D531 is a 15"

[ratdude747]

Re: One of those laptop threads

I was kinda under the impression he wanted a <13". The D531 is a 15"

No, IIRC it's a 14.1". Same form factor as the D530/D630.

Plus he wants at least 14"... re-read his first post.

[lti]

Re: One of those laptop threads

An old Toshiba Tecra might be a good choice if you can find one. The Tecra M9 is similar to the Dell D630. Unfortunately, it has an Nvidia GPU.

I think the D620 or D630 without Nvidia graphics would be a nice laptop for school. If you can find something else that is large enough to have a built-in number pad, it is nice to have for entering numbers. The only reason for getting anything newer is if you need a faster processor or GPU and don't care about anything else (including reliability).

They are made of magnesium... when it oxidizes, it looks like gray plastic. Or you were looking at the LCD bezel, the palm rest, or Antenna cover (in lid), all of which are plastic.

If those are the only plastic parts, then it really was the magnesium bottom cover that was broken. There were chunks broken out around the ports and the fan exhaust.

My D630 has a 1440x900 panel, 16:10. 14.1" Matte. Plenty of real estate w/o it being too bulky.

I think the D620 has the same screen resolution... although most of the ones at the high school were running at what appeared to be 800x600 with the ability to change screen resolution disabled.

[ratdude747]

Re: One of those laptop threads

I think the D620 has the same screen resolution... although most of the ones at the high school were running at what appeared to be 800x600 with the ability to change screen resolution disabled.

They used the same lid... I have a dead D620 I keep for parts (got it cheap, included a DVD burner and a 9 Cell batt (OEM upgrade). Both could either have a WXGA 1280x800 or a WXGA+ 1440x900, both 14.1" 16:10.

The broken parts were probably from abuse... those are the weak points; if they were plastic the damage would have been far, far worse.

The only Dxxx laptops to have a plastic bottom shell was the D500, D600, and D800 (and the precison M60 clone); they had a magnesium internal frame though.

The D400 (released later like all D4xx's) was the first to have a cast magnsium bottom shell/frame (integrated) and has a visual resemblance to the D510/D610/D810/M70. Likewise, the D410 looks more like the Dx20 and Dx3x series than the other Dx10's... However, The D420 and D430 look like the other laptops in the respective series.

[c_hegge]

Re: One of those laptop threads

No, IIRC it's a 14.1". Same form factor as the D530/D630.

Plus he wants at least 14"... re-read his first post.

Oh, OK. Remember, I have a D531 (which I am trying to sell, if stevo is interested). It's definitely a 15". Trouble is, IDK whether it would have the grunt for Windows 7, as it's only a Turion64 X2.

[stevo1210]

Re: One of those laptop threads

Strangely I need to ask this. I know it isnt a Dell but for $50 I thought I'd ask here before continuing...

Basically my friend wants to sell me his Toshiba L500 Celeron to me for $50. He said it cant install Windows but POSTs no problem. From what Ive been told it crashes when installing windows. Laptop is near new but he has sold the keyboard. Complete otherwise.

It has 1GB DDR3 in it. Do you guys think it might be faulty RAM since it posts okay? I've had similar symptoms in my desktops where installing windows crashed due to bad ram... Does the L500 have onboard ram?

[c_hegge]

Re: One of those laptop threads

^
Could well be. For $50, I'd go for it and see. If it turns out to be the motherboard, you could probably still get $50 on ebay for it. The L500 has no onboard RAM either btw.

[stevo1210]

Re: One of those laptop threads

Damn. He sold it to someone else before I managed to get back to him.

[stevo1210]

Re: One of those laptop threads

Okay... Someone else had an L500 they were willing to give up for $80 or so. I took it right away. The hard drive failed and they bought a new laptop I would assume. I need a damn hard drive, should I get a second hand drive or a new drive? I use cloud computing so all my HDD does is store the OS and basic things to get around.

Oh... I forgot to check the battery. It doesn't work at all. I assume a dead battery?

[ratdude747]

Re: One of those laptop threads

New drive. I'd find a 7200RPM one (like a caviar black). You could also go with an SSD, which actually might work for you since you're using the cloud and thus not needing a lot of space.

[stevo1210]

Re: One of those laptop threads

New drive. I'd find a 7200RPM one (like a caviar black). You could also go with an SSD, which actually might work for you since you're using the cloud and thus not needing a lot of space.

I'm not really familiar with SSD. What brand or specs should I look at? But as you suggested, I dont need much room. Maybe 32GB is even sufficient. I just need Windows 7, Office and an AV software. That is it.

[ratdude747]

Re: One of those laptop threads

I'm not really familiar with SSD. What brand or specs should I look at? But as you suggested, I dont need much room. Maybe 32GB is even sufficient. I just need Windows 7, Office and an AV software. That is it.

Buy a quality one, that's for sure.

Otherwise, I'm not the guy to ask... I'm the anti-SSD HDD fanboy if anything.

[gg1978]

Re: One of those laptop threads

For SSD's i usually use Samsung, Crucial or Intel.. I wouldn't go for less than 64 or 80 GB for Win7, as a 32G might work but will really have no spare space for anything else. Can't beat the speed that's for sure, i won't go back to spinner hard drives, for the OS and programs at least.. But for bulk storage SSD's are too expensive.

We have at least 20 SSD's in operation at work now, quite a few are over three years old, and have had two failures. One was failing to write data, so windows would freeze, but it was clonable to a replacement with no issue.. And the other just failed outright, it was identifiying as an 8Megabyte drive.. That one was an 80 GB Intel 320 series, which otherwise we've had good luck with.

[lti]

Re: One of those laptop threads

And the other just failed outright, it was identifiying as an 8Megabyte drive.. That one was an 80 GB Intel 320 series, which otherwise we've had good luck with.

I think that was a firmware bug.

I would go with the 7200RPM hard drive as well. I will get one of those when the hard drive in my laptop (a Toshiba Satellite L750, the model that replaced the L500) fails. The drive has already been replaced once under warranty.