Inspiron 8600 advice

I'm planning to buy the Inspiron 8600 soon for school, and I still have a few questions concerning some specifics:

Processor: Intel Pentium M Processor 725 (1.6A GHz),15.4in WXGA (I understand this is the slowest processor that has the new Dothan, so I opted for that)

Memory: I will either get the 256MB DDR SDRAM 1 Dimm or the 512MB DDR SDRAM 1 Dimm. If I get 256MB then I will buy memory online. The only qualms I have about this is that I've heard some cause problems (one such complaint is crashing) . Are there any places from where I can purchase memory that you know are reliable? Do I need to pay attention to anything in particular to make sure it's compatible to my laptop? And also, how difficult is the memory to install? If it requires proficient technical skills (which I lack), I may just pay the extra 122 to have it pre-installed.

Video Card: 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 AGP 4X Graphics

CD/DVD ROM: I am wavering between just a combo drive and a 4x CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R). Are there any benefits of buying an external DVD Burner? Also, I'm assuming Dell doesn't offer DVD-RW/-R capabilities also. What are the benefits of having this? I believe that only one of these is compatible with DVD players. That's an important factor for me. So if I need +/- capabilities to do this, then I may hold off and buy an external one. Any drawbacks with an external DVD Burner?

Hard Drive: 60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive (4200rpm). Again, I don't know if I should invest in a 60GB hardrive with 7200rpm ($122 more). Do I really need it with what I'm planning to do(web browsing, digital pictures and music, a few video games, and watch and burn DVD's)? And if I do eventually need a faster hard drive is it difficult to upgrade? Also, for $122 I could get an 80gb hard drive instead of the 7200rpm on the 60gb. If I was going to dish out the 122 should I invest it in a larger hard drive or a faster hard drive?

Wireless Card: Planning on b/g, but don't know if I should get the a/b/g. Is the a commonly used?

I have heard there are problems with the keyboard, but I will most probably buy a wireless mouse and keyboard so I won't have much of a problem with that.

Also, it's supposedly a bit heavy, but I think I can deal with 6.9 lbs...

So in brief, I want some input in which I should invest an extra 100-200 dollars now instead of buying possible upgrade later: 512 MB of RAM (1 DIMM) pre-installed (instead of cheaper memory on the internet); a DVD-Burner without -RW/-R capabilities (I could wait and purchase an external one with this feature if I truly need it); and/or a 60 GB hard drive with 7200rpm or 80 GB hard drive with 4200 rpm (both costing 122).

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance for the time and advice.

 

Here are my suggestions:

Get 256 MB RAM, and purchase more from Crucial.com They sell good quality memory and have a nice memory selector menu to help you match the right memory. You will be very happy with them and save a lot of money since Dell rips people off with their memory prices. Memory in the 8600 is very easy to replace. Simply unscrew a cover, and the memory snaps into place.

I would suggest getting the combo drive and buy an external one later. As for compatibility, it depends on the type of dvd drive you use. For instance, my sony DVD player has played all DVD formats without any problem. So it is really DVD dependent. That is why I suggest getting an external one that has both +/-

For what you plan on using, I would suggest sticking with the 4200 RPM drive. You can always upgrade the drive later which again is really easy to do in the 8600.

Get the b/g card/ The 'a' standard is rare.

It's not the lightest notebook, but I really do feel the weight is managable.


Good luck and let us know if you have any more questions.

 

OK, I'll try to tell you what I would do. Your right the 1.6 Pentium M is the lowest Dothan avavible and should be good for anything you say you want to do. Make sure its a Dothan though, there is a different version of the PM 1.6 that is older and not Dothan, and easy way to check is if the 1.6 has a 2megabyte L2 cashe, if it dose its a Dothan. For your RAM any ram is easy to install, for the money and performance I strongly recommed you install the one 512MB stick with your order leaving you an open slot for adding a second off an internet site if you wish. You can buy another stick off the web for about 95-110$. I don't remeber what speed the ram is on the Dell its either PC2700, or PC3200 its also a 200PIN stick. get those things right and thats all you need to worry about. As far as installing ram its very very easy! Its usally one screw and it slides in, there are many sites that give detailed instructions for this. This is an important note! If you wish to play any new 3D games you must upgrade the Video card from the 5200 to something else. I would recommend the 128MB Radeon 9600 pro turbo, they offer that last I looked it will give you much more power and will keep you system from being out of date to fast. The hard drive, if you can afford it now get the 7,200RPM drive its will add to the over speed of loading windows, games, large files. This is a good upgrade but Id say its the least important to performance of the main items like CPU, Video Card, RAM, Hard Drive. (I listed those in order of importance too.) The video card might even be more important because all games will function on a 1.6 PM but not the nivida 5200 Video card. If you decide to replace the hard drive later it is also a very easy thing to do, its usally requires taking out one or 2 screws it should take a newbie even less then 10minutes. Both the ram and hard drive is easy to get to under the computer. Your last question is about the wireless internet. I have a b/g card in mine and have never come accross and where I needed A. I believe they are phasing out A which is hardly used anywhere. I think something like 95% or more of the public hot spots run off B and are being converted to G, so long as you have G you should be in good shape. I just remebered your DVD question, if you dont think the Dell installed DVD burner will give you the formats you need then an external burner will be good for you, still costing around 200 I think. It will just plug into the usb and should still run very fast. I have a + only burner and it dose everything I need but that is just me, I can back things up and burn movies so I'm happy with it. If you decide to buy ram later I think a very safe name brand is "Kingston" or "crucial" you can try newegg.com to find them at a good price, or just do a search for their websites. I hope this answers your questions sorry its a little scattered I'm tired and just wrtting as I think of things. good luck.

A note about Dell's 8600 I don't know this my self but I've read that user with this model experence over heating of the video card due to improper cooling. You may want to post some questions on this or do a search for more information, if you not paying demanding games like Doom3 or HL2, Unreal 2004 then you should be safe anyway.


Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
1 X 512MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 5,400 RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

Thank you so much for your detailed advice. I really appreciate it.

I looked around a little more and apparently the 715 at 1.5Ghz is also a Dothan. Here's the link that confirms it: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4128990557.html Is this info accurate. If so, then I would probably just down size to that.

I think I will seriously consider buying memory online. But I heard some cautions about making sure to ground yourself. You are supposed to touch a large metal object while handling memory. I was scared away by that info. Is this information correct? And if so, is it something to worry about for a newbie with little experience?

The video games I play are not intense at all. Mostly they include Civ3, The Sims, and Sim City. I don't think these would need a upgraded video card. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, I probably won't play for an extended time period so I don't think overheating will be a problem for me.

If I do get the memory online, I think I will get the 60 GB at 7200rpm with the money I saved.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll let you know what I decide on getting.

 

Oh.. 6.9 pounds eh? Well just to let you know... with the optical drive inside your system, it's gonna be about 7.2lbs. [8)]

 

Oh.. 6.9 pounds eh? Well just to let you know... with the optical drive inside your system, it's gonna be about 7.2lbs. [8)]