Vostro 3400 - who else?

chris_compson- where can i find a fan that will make it quieter then, this is a much better laptop then the inspiron 1464 and the only thing i would change on this one is the loudness of the fan. thanks!

 

Judging by those pictures, did you attach the antenna near the card and is there an appropriate place to screw it in?
Also, did it boost your signal by alittle or by a larger margin?
Thanks

 

Just some clarifications from my experiences.

The fan: Is not loud at all for me, my wife has a MacBook Pro, and the fan is spinning up and spinning down constantly, when it is on high it is very loud, much louder then I have heard on this laptop. The noise of the fan does not bother me at all, but i also don't work in complete and utter silence, it is always on, but not loud.

Heat: I have experienced no issues with heat, small powerful laptops get hot, this one does not seem to get any hotter then any other 14 inch. In fact I have a friend with a lenovo ideapad y450 and sometimes his can become so unbearably hot that you cant rest your palms on it, this computer gets no where near that hot.

Wifi card: All versions of this computer come with a wireless card. The fact that mine lacks one is purely by mistake. My sales rep is sending me one.

Flex: this is my only complaint (that and the back-lit keyboard not turning on on boot). A little too much flex on the keyboard and top of lid. The lid is aluminum though so even though there is flex, it wont crack like a plastic lid. And the keyboard is spill resistant so that is a nice feature you wont find on many other laptops in this price range.

Ram WEI: I have a higher memory speed as well, I get a 7.1 WEI in memory. Weird.

Overall I can say that I am satisfied. With the over all build, features and performance of this machine, I personally feel it is very good and well worth the cheap price, but then again everyone is looking for something different. You have to keep price in mind when you think of this machine though, its not perfect, but the price is right. There is a reason a thinkpad or latitude is going to cost you $400 more.

 

One last thing on the keyboard flex. The only time it bothers me is if I actually look at my hands while I type...

If I am looking at the screen, or at a piece of paper I do not notice the keyboard flex at all and It doesn't bother me. Its only when I actually look down and see it flexing that I notice it. So if you are worried about "feel" I wouldn't be too concerned with the flex of the keyboard.

 

What is the point of having aluminum casing if the lid flexes that much??!?!!?!?

Dell should say, "with PARTIAL aluminum/plastic casing".

Seriously, you get what you pay for. I'm not getting it now, design looks good but quality looks average at best.

 

I'm starting to look at the HP 8440p. More customizing options and looks to be better quality.

 

A Core i5 lappy for $900. It's definitely worth the money. You won't find another i5 for that same price with backlit keyboard and optical drive.

 

I was looking at this as a replacement for my Latitude E4300, given that it's a decent form factor and includes HDMI and dedicated graphics, but the flex is too much for me.

I guess I'll wait until the E6410 hits the Outlet and go for that.

 

well i have no clue where you would the fan in mine is practly silent if your is constantly loud call dell and have them replace it...as i think its fine on mine and maybee your being too pickey? its a powerful computer i expect some noise.

 

i honestly dont think the flex is that bad. most thin screens are going to flex some. i checked something and it dosnt appear that the flex is enough to touch the lcd pannel or at least to distort the screen as i cant tell that the back is being pressed when looking at the screen.