Inspiron 9300 thread

pxc said:
Yeah, I do. The screen screen is now 20" @ 4:3 instead of 17" @ 16:10. :p

I don't understand what you mean, but like usual, DVI output looks perfect on an external LCD.
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Well I have a CRT thats got native VGA only, is there such thing as CRTs with native DVI?

If there is would I see a difference? LCDs aren't good enough quality for me yet. When are they going to have a WUXGA LCD?
 
MaMMa said:
Well I have a CRT thats got native VGA only, is there such thing as CRTs with native DVI?

If there is would I see a difference? LCDs aren't good enough quality for me yet. When are they going to have a WUXGA LCD?
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There are several DVI-A (analog using DVI-I cables) CRTs. I guess it's possible there are DVI-D CRTs, but i've never seen one.

I like LCD quality. Some monitors are pretty sharp, but none are as perfectly sharp and distortion free as a LCD on a DVI-D cable.

The Dell 2405FP is a 24" WUXGA LCD and often costs less than $900. Other manufacturers also make 1920x1200 LCDs, but are several hundred dollars more expensive.
 
pxc said:
There are several DVI-A (analog using DVI-I cables) CRTs. I guess it's possible there are DVI-D CRTs, but i've never seen one.
I like LCD quality. Some monitors are pretty sharp, but none are as perfectly sharp and distortion free as a LCD on a DVI-D cable.
The Dell 2405FP is a 24" WUXGA LCD and often costs less than $900. Other manufacturers also make 1920x1200 LCDs, but are several hundred dollars more expensive.
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I was going to say the exact same things. So I guess just QFT. ;)

Believe me, I had to switch from using DVI to Analaog on my 2000FP (videocard died, went down to a GF2MX with no DVI), and Im dying to get back to the DVI. Major difference.

Also the only thing that CRTs have on modern LCDs is color quality. Everything else I can think of is equal or better.
 
I finally convinced my parents to buy me my own notebook and this seemed like the perfect solution
Specs:
Pentium M 730
6800 Go
1gig DDR2 ram 533mhz
40gig(pick up a 100 later)
sadly i could only get the 6 cell batery and only the WXGA screen, but they'll be fine for now
best thing is the price $1,257 when i used the 750 coupon, i'm really excited and can't wait for it to get in
 
Just ordered mine a few minutes ago:

- M-750 (1.86 GHz)
- XP Home
- UXGA + TrueLife.
- 256 MB, and also ordered 2 GB from Newegg for about $210
- Go 6800
- 60 GB, 7200 RPM
- DVD burner
- 2915 wireless (free upgrade)
- 6-cell battery since I'm just about always plugged in anyway. Upgrading to one or two 9-cells oughta be simple if I need to later on.
- 3 yr wty

With the new 35% off coupon ( B?MMRMGLWPVDFC ), only $1599. :) I'm quite happy with that price especially since, for the same price, a coworker just got a Vaio from Tigerdirect that lags a bit behind the specs of the 9300 - 16" 4:3, Go 5600 64MB, P4 2.8 GHz, but 512 MB RAM instead of my 256 MB (which will be replaced with the 2 GB as soon as it arrives), and a 4200 RPM 60 GB drive. Yeah, I had to spend an extra $210 for memory, but it's 2 freakin' gigs worth. Hell yeah. That's balanced out by the extra $200 he would have to spend for 3 year wty.

BTW, work covered the first $1600 so the RAM comes out of my pocket. Meh - no biggie. Sadly, this will smoke my desktop machine, which goes to my wife once this new one arrives. My trusty old XP 1900+ will be a huge step up from her near-ancient K6-2 300 MHz.
 
Bitchnmoan said:
Just ordered mine a few minutes ago:

With the new 35% off coupon ( B?MMRMGLWPVDFC ), only $1599. :)
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That's an awesome price for that config. Mine was $1155 (with $750 off coupon) with the WXGA+ screen, no DVD burner, 1 year warranty, 2200bg WiFi and only 1.6GHz CPU (which I swapped with a 1.5GHz Dothan for $40 less and o/c'd to 2GHz :D). Only $444 extra for all your upgrades is a good deal.
 
Bitchnmoan said:
...
With the new 35% off coupon ( B?MMRMGLWPVDFC ), only $1599....
Click to expand...
I just cancelled My previous order which was (wow glad I did):

"Specs:

2Ghz Pentium M
512MB of RAM
100GB HD
Geforce go 6800
Windows XP Home
17" WUXGA+ with True life (did alot of researching and decided to go with the true life, I hope it doesn't let me down, as I don't plan on using it outside)
8x DVD Burner

Along with a :
Nylon Case
Blue cover snap-in (just wanted to add some color to it, make it look sorta cool)
4 Year premium warranty service (gotta protect the investment)"
9 cell lithium with free 64MB USB flash

= $2580.05 with tax, freeshipping, $750 off coupon code

Compared to the new Order:

2Ghz Pentium M
1024MB of RAM
80GB 7200rpm HD
Geforce go 6800
Windows XP Pro
17" WUXGA+ w/ True Life
8x DVD Burner
Carbon Fiber snap-in
Nylon Case
4 year premium Warranty
Free Printer
9-cell with free 64MB USB flash
"FREE UPGD!Intel®PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless802.11 a/b/g,54Mbps"

for: $2,467.02 (with tax, free shipping, and 35% off coupon)


Saved $113.03 and got the major upgrades. :cool:
 
I think this thread has gone on long enough to get a sticky and perhaps a new thread where people can post their benchmarks for interested parties and obligatory e-penis measurements.
 
My i9300 :

Pentium M 1.6 gHz
512 mB of RAM (Now upgraded to 1.25 gigs)
WXGA Screen
Geforce 6800
80 gig 4200 RPM Hard Drive (Soon to be 5400).

Personally I don't see the point of paying more for a screen that lacks an anti-glare coating. I work in computer support and we use Dells exclusively pretty much so I've seen all the different configurations and the shiny screens give me headaches (especially with overhead flourescent lighting). That and I'll probably be using my laptop outside.

Ordered a new 5400 RPM hard drive with an 8 megabyte cache to replace the 4200; couldn't find a 7200 RPM one that was not by Hitachi and I prefer hard drives that don't crash after a year or two.
 
damicatz said:
Ordered a new 5400 RPM hard drive with an 8 megabyte cache to replace the 4200; couldn't find a 7200 RPM one that was not by Hitachi and I prefer hard drives that don't crash after a year or two.
Click to expand...
IBM and Hitachi never had problems with the Travelstar drives. :rolleyes:
 
damicatz said:
Personally I don't see the point of paying more for a screen that lacks an anti-glare coating. I work in computer support and we use Dells exclusively pretty much so I've seen all the different configurations and the shiny screens give me headaches (especially with overhead flourescent lighting). That and I'll probably be using my laptop outside.

Ordered a new 5400 RPM hard drive with an 8 megabyte cache to replace the 4200; couldn't find a 7200 RPM one that was not by Hitachi and I prefer hard drives that don't crash after a year or two.
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for a person in the computer indudstry, you definitely don't know anything. the WUXGA 17" TrueLife does come with anti-glare coating, and the hitachi model 2.5" hdd's are hella reliable.
 
whoami said:
for a person in the computer indudstry, you definitely don't know anything. the WUXGA 17" TrueLife does come with anti-glare coating, and the hitachi model 2.5" hdd's are hella reliable.
Click to expand...

A.TrueLife has no anti-glare coating. http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=66272
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/4073.jpg

B.Nothing in the last 5 years that has come out of IBM/Hitachis harddrive design labs has been reliable. When you work with a number of those harddrives you will see how often they fail. We've already had 3 new notebooks with Travelstar harddrives go bad and they aren't even a year old. On the desktop side, a few years ago we had ordered 30 new IBM computers with Deskstar harddrives (before we switched to Dell) and 13 of them went bad within a year.

Further more, just by reading this thread I can see people having noise problems with said Hitachi harddrives.
 
Just got my 9300. Finaly decided this was the best i could do for my money,
this Thing is huge! but it has everything I need.
I do have a few questions though.
1. with the bluetooth , what phones / carries work best for mobile internet conectivity? Price / speed?

2. for those who upgraded to the wuxga screen after the fact how much did that cost?

Mcavity

9300
1.6
512 meg memory
wxga
40 gig [I will probably upgrade this later]
nvidea 6800
The bigger battery. [I get 3 hours]
 
Pentium M 760 (2ghz/533MHz FSB)
17 inch USW XGA+
2GB OCZ SoDIMM RAM
256mb 6800 GO
60GB 7200 RPM HDD
6-cell primary battery
9-cell spare batterySpare AC adapter

Don't order RAM/HDD upgrades from Dell. You can get them elsewhere for half the price. It would have cost me $250 to get the upgrade to 1GB of RAM...instead, I opted for the default 256mb, went to Newegg, and bought 2GB of OCZ with the $250 instead.
 
Mcavity said:
Just got my 9300. Finaly decided this was the best i could do for my money,
this Thing is huge! but it has everything I need.
I do have a few questions though.
1. with the bluetooth , what phones / carries work best for mobile internet conectivity? Price / speed?

2. for those who upgraded to the wuxga screen after the fact how much did that cost?

Mcavity

9300
1.6
512 meg memory
wxga
40 gig [I will probably upgrade this later]
nvidea 6800
The bigger battery. [I get 3 hours]
Click to expand...

While i'm not 100% sure of bluetooth's bandwidth, Verizon and Sprint are bringing out EV-DO networks in many major cities across the US. EV-DO is about 3MBit/sec. Comparable to cable internet speeds, only wireless. Soon enough there will be a bluetooth capable phone that supports EV-DO on one of these. This is definatley the fastest and best (future proof) option. Not to mention the most expensive (90/mo or so methinks)

Other than EV-DO, ,pretty much any of the main 3, sprint, verizon, and cingular/att all have bluetooth capable phones. The trade offs I see are that I think you can get bluetooth cheaper with cingular but they have the slowest data network of the three. Verizon and sprint are essentially the same in terms of data speeds, so if its between the two, thats up to you.

Hope those answers aren't too vague, I'll try and look up some of the phones on each. I know sprint currently only has one or maybe two phones that supports bluetooth at all, and they are $400+ Let me know if you have any other questions.

Do you have a current cellphone provider?
 
Sorry for DBP


I want to order this config tomorrow. Can you guys please look over it?
The coupons dont work here in germany unfortunalty, i am planing to use it for Diablo2, CS etc.. Also it will be used to watch endless hours of Family Guy, Simpsons and Futurama ....yes i am 22....but i just cant help myself :D Also we dont have newegg here in germany so my best bet is to buy from Dell.

I9300
1.86Ghz Centrino (533)
1GB DDR2
60 GIG 7200rpm
256MB GeForce 6800Go
9 Cell Bat
WUXGA + True Life

-T

PS: Can this thing be overclocked, the CPU? GPU? etc..?
 
Have you checked ebay for memory? (not sure if there's a newegg like online store or not)

I'd also recommend that you save your cash and get the 1.6ghz

Overclocking the CPU, sorta, but not really.. there's a pin mod you can do (search on notebookforums.com under the dell 9300/xps2 section for pin mod)

Overclocking the GPU, yes, many options here. One is to use coolbits registry mod to enable the overclocking tab. (google search for coolbits)
 
I did check ebay for memory but after i buy it from ebay, plus shipping i only save like 20 bucks. Id rather spend the 20 bucks and have the warranty from Dell just in case. What desktop CPU does the 1.86GHz Centrino compare too? The benchmarks i have seen so far are amazing when it comes to games :eek:
 
I'm not sure what the Centrino is comparable to, but I know that my i9300 runs Battlefield 2 damned well (I turned off the Dynamic Shadows/Lighting though...that bogs down the game even on my desktop). It's silky smooth.
 
Newegg.com

Here is a link to newegg.com and what they have for sale in the 1gb memory for the i9300. The Kingston is what i bought and it has a lifetime warranty from Kingston. I have been using Kingston and Corsair in all of my system builds for years. i only had one problem and Kingston took care of it with no questions asked. It is under $110 for 1GB compared to a few hundred from Dell. just my 2¢.
 
Has anyone had an issue with their 9300 locking up like 5-10 minutes into playing a game? Im thinking maybe the 77.24 drivers are borked, or one of my GB transend sticks is bad(which would be lame because theyre not much more than a week old).
 
yeah, i just played my first few games on mine and am getting BSOD. I am playing Need For Speed Underground 2. I just haven't had time to do any research or testing. I'll try to figure it out this weekend and post back.

i am also getting weird jumping in email or Word. I'll be typing and suddenly the cursor has jumped to a different part of the screen. it does it quite often. i am very careful not to touch the touchpad or the Windows key. i'm very afraid its a keyboard problem. anyone else with similar problems?
 
I'll be recieving mine on monday, it's specs are:

1.6 ghz P-M
256 megs of ram (I've got a 2nd 256 chip ready to add until I can afford a couple of gigs)
6800go 256
the 40 gig harddrive (what rotational speed is this thing? I'm really hoping not 4200)
The base lower res screen
 
if you didn't pay for faster, then yes it is 4,200rpm. i bought a 5,400rpm 80gig for $102 from the egg and 1GB RAM from zipzoomfly.com for $125 (i think the numbers are right, they might be reversed). the RAM made the most difference in speed though. I got Dell to send me the Windows XP CD's and i did a fresh install of Windows which also made a big difference...I highly suggest it.

which screen did you get...wxga or wuxga?? I got the wuxga and i love it. i was afraid it would be too shiny and reflect the light in the room, but it really doesn't. it has a little light leakage, but there are zero dead or messed up pixels. the leakage only shows on black really. I'm sure you'll love the new system. Congrats and enjoy!
 
Reformatting is a must if you want any kind of performance.

That is one thing I hate about Dell (And all other computer manufacturers, for that matter). They cram your computer full of shit that is nigh on impossible to find and remove.

When I got my i9300, the default setup had 45 processes running in the background. I reformatted, reloaded my programs, and brought it down to 25 processes.
 
WickedAngel said:
That is one thing I hate about Dell (And all other computer manufacturers, for that matter). They cram your computer full of shit that is nigh on impossible to find and remove.
Click to expand...
It takes me about 15 minutes to clean up a Dell, far less time that it takes to reformat, reinstall windows and reload the drivers.

The only thing "tricky" to uninstall is the Dell Support app, since you have to kill it from task manager before uninstalling it. The rest takes a few minutes from add/remove programs.

If you want to see pain, buy a Compaq desktop. Without exaggeration, those come with 3x as much junk preinstalled.
 
You must have more experience with pre-builts than I do. Even after removing the software there was still a ridiculous amount of background activity. I like to start with a clean slate anyways...it makes the computer feel more like it is mine, as weird as that sounds.

Regardless, the hardware is sound. This 9300 is pretty much everything I wanted in a laptop.
 
I got mine today, I'm quite impressed. It plays guildwars flawlessly on the highest settings. I didn't do a clean install of windows yet but I still may, it does seem that there are a lot of extraneous processes running.
 
Just ordered one *for the wife* a few minutes ago:

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 730 (1.60 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
40GB Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (80 WHr)
$1,199.00 w/
Dell Home Customers:Save $600 on select Inspiron™ notebook purchases $1499 or more (before tax and shipping)! (affiliate only online offer)
Expires on 2005-07-29 10:59:59
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Here's the $600 off code since the $750 code expired.....BJQFT7PZW8WS94


She gets the lappy since I get the 2405FPW, which was only $803 w/ coupon code ?TN8?M3G6JB5FK.
Dell Home Customers: Save 33% on select Dell Flat Panels (1905FP sku 320-4113, 2001FP sku 320-1578, 1704FPT sku 320-3952, 2405FPW sku 320-4221) (before tax and shipping) purchased from the Electronics and Accessories site!
Expires on 2005-07-26 10:59:59
Click to expand...

Additionally, you can get the 2005FPW for $389 with coupon codes W34XRDP2KW2K90 and C07TR1WFGJ18SF.
 
Just ordered my new i9300 to grandparents hosue in Ohio for when I head back to the U.S. for college in a month!!( I live in Sweden). I just saw in my order status that my hard-drive is a 5400rpm one! I was under the impression that they were all 4200rpm.

Here's the specs:

CPU: Pentium M 730: 1.6Ghz
Screen: 17 INCH TRUE-LIFE WUXGA
Ram: 256MB DDR2 533MHZ (will add a 1gb stick soon)
GPU: 256MB NVIDIA Geforce Go 6800
Hard Drive: 80GB 5400 rpm
OS: WINDOWS XP HOME ( I will format and upgrade to Professional edition SP2)
DVD/CD: 8X DVD+/-RW DRIVE

$1,901.00 - $760.40(40% off coupon code)

Sub-Total $1,140.60
Shipping Discount -$24.00

Shipping and Handling $25.00

Estimated Tax $75.77
Total $1,241.37

Sweden (and the rest of Europe to most extent) are extremely expensive compared to the U.S. in just about everything. This same config would cost me $2000 here in Sweden.
 
Austin86 said:
sweden money? ALl those prices are in USD..
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oh shit thats what i get for studying and posting at the same time. Wow thats cheap, how'd u get the 40% off. I got 43% and almost the same config but the 60gig 7200 rpm drive
 
MaMMa said:
oh shit thats what i get for studying and posting at the same time. Wow thats cheap, how'd u get the 40% off. I got 43% and almost the same config but the 60gig 7200 rpm drive
Click to expand...

I used the 40% off code. Also Dell dropped prices on a lot of the upgrades recently.
 
Has anyone who did a fresh install of Windows XP had problems installing the "Dell Notebook System Software" driver? All the other drivers worked fine but this one keeps saying it "doesn't support this operating system" when I try to install. I asked Dell tech support and they gave me the usual nonsense about how users shouldn't change the software that comes with the computer. Is there an alternate driver? I really do want my USB ports. =/
 
Can someone give me a list on what to delete? I checked on the task manager, and it says it has 57 running processes. I'm just wondering what to delete and what to save.

actually, nvm i decided to just reformat it, theres too much shit to delete.
 
OhSoCheesy: Turns out I got a bad memory module from Transcend, that was causing my games to lock up. Now i gotta deal with an RMA :mad:

Frustration: What version of Windows did you install? USB2.0 worked on the first boot after formatting with my slipstreamed XP pro SP2 disc.Also, I never installed that Dell Notebook Software, I just installed device drivers and everything worked fine.

MoronSupreme: Good choice, I formatted too and went from 47 processes after cleaning up the dell install to around 33 with the fresh format.
 
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