I just ordered an 8600. Buyers remorse setting in

So I just spent $2k on an 8600 but it won't ship until June 29! What should I do in the meantime to keep from going insane?

Here's the stats, and if I ordered something really bad, somebody please let me know ASAP so I can change the order:

-1.8Ghz Pentium-M 745 2 MB L2 cache
-15.4in WSXGA+ Monitor
-Windows XP Home
-256 MB DDR SDRAM 1DIMM (333mhz) (will buy 512MB more @ newegg.com)
-128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY® RADEON™ 9600 PROTURBO video card
-24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
-60GB hard drive, 4100 RPM. I just don't trust the 7200 ones yet and they really eat batteries.
-No secondary battery. I'll get another from Ebay later if I really want one.
-3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year Mail-In Service
-Add CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service to 3Yr Lim Warranty
-Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
-Weight Saver D-Module (AC/DC wall/car adapter thingy)

 

US $$ my friend.

I'm going to do some gaming, but what I looked at mainly when I got it was "What is permanent?" You can never upgrade the processor or screen, so I didn't cheap out there. As for the vid card, I've never had a computer that could actually play current games. My desktop is impossible to upgrade enough (1.8ghz P4) because of sh*tty IBM stuff. There's an AGP port, but it's vestigial. They didn't hook it up to the rest of the motherboard! [ !] I have a 64mb Geforce 4 PCI card in it, but the PCI bus on the mobo is so bad that it can't even use that to its already limited potential. Also, I don't consider the vid card upgradeable since it voids the warranty.

I want to play some of the newer games on it, and all the bad reviews I ever saw mentioned the poor quality of the Nvidia card.

I saw the advice about small items insurance thru State Farm, but I'm most worried about stuff failing-not being stolen. And I sure as hell won't lose it! My anti theft device when traveling will be vigilance and a really, really ugly backpack that nobody would want to steal. So the Dell warranty, expensive as it is, suits me pretty well. The only thing I need to worry about with it is theft, but I don't do a lot of traveling and stuff. Just moving around from home to college to class to 9 hr drives on ski trips.

Also, I don't have anything better to do w/ the money so this laptop should be good for many years.

As for the hard drive, I went w/ 4100 because I know a lot of people w/ laptops, and a significant percentage have them frag on them. I imagine with a 7200 rpm it just has to be more frequent.

Thanks for the advice nonetheless.

 

I about fell over, then realized you were talking Canadian dollars. I think the accidental coverage is a waste, but that's more about your lifestyle than anything else. Unless you're doing hard core gaming, the video card is serious overkill. I would in fact go with teh 7200 RPM drive, it does not have serious battery implications, in fact many would argue that it's more efficient.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Really? It seems like games shouldn't need the hard drive much aside from loading stuff into RAM, and I guess I could wait for longer loading times.

I'd really like it, but I've spent so much already that another $100 for a faster hard drive is just too much. It would be great, but you can't have everything I guess.

Brian--why did you about fall over? Is there some place signigicantly cheaper than Dell.com? I know the processor and vid card are excessive now, but in the future they'll be pretty nice. Other stuff can be upgraded later, but I'm stuck with those as long as the laptop lasts.

 

For gaming, I really would highly recommend the 7200 RPM drive. It was night and day difference when I put in a 7200 RPM drive in my 8600 versus the 4200 RPM that came with it.

Minimal battery loss between the 7200 RPM drive and 4200 RPM drive.

You will love the ATI 9600 card.

 

My 8600 came today, about 13 days early. It doesn't take as long as it says. I hope you used a coupon code. As for the RAM, by getting two different sizes, you are sacrificing the dual-channel ability. Get another 256 for 512 or 2 more 512's for 1 GB, dont get 768. I know that Dell rips you off with RAM, but it is more efficient to do it this way.

Dell 8600
1.8 dothan SXGA+
128mb radeon 9600PRO TURBO
512mb RAM

 

Hey Ape,

You can always upgrade the hard drive later. So don't worry about it.

I know of some games (I can't remember off hand) that listed a 7200 RPM drive as a requirement. But, you'll be okay for now.

Enjoy your notebook (when you get it!!)

 

the Pentium M's do not support Dual Channel Ram like the P4 HT's do. So it doesnt really matter what size or how many chips you run.

if you notice on the i9100's the ram choices, besides the base model, are always paired with the same chip. on the i8600's there is no regard as to sizing or pairing.

get as much ram as you can afford. most of the time ram is more powerful than the speed of your chip.

______________________________________________________________
the more you discover, the more you find out how little you actually know

 

Thanks for all the help guys! I just called and upgraded to the 7200 rpm drive based on your advice. I'm still worried it's more likely than the slower drive to fail, but that's what the warranty is for I guess. I've got a 200 gig drive in my Xbox and 120 gigs in my crappy desktop so I can afford to back stuff up.

As for the RAM, I was kind of wondering if it had to match up but am glad to find it doesn't. I'll get a 512 stick of Corsair from Newegg.com for $120 or so (kickass site btw) and stick it in there. I was considering getting a full gig but I don't think that will be necessary for awhile. Besides, the longer I wait the cheaper RAM gets and I'll just be able to buy a 1GB stick cheaper when I really need more.

 

Woohoo! They shipped it already!

 

You will love the 9600 pro. It is about 3 times as fast as the fx 5200 (in comparison, the 5200 honestly is crap. It plays current games decently but forget about those a year from now.) I am basing this on aquamark scores (7500 vs 21500.) and UT 2004 (stable framerate at 1024x768 all max vs 1680x1050 all max). If you are thinking about gaming at all, definitely do one of the following:
Wait for pci express interface
spring for the 9600 pro

~good luck

 

Mmmm for the same price u should check out Acer 2020 laptop.






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