Latitude D630 -- final thoughts?

Hi, I'm about to order a D630 tomorrow and think I have come to a decent configuration. Do any owners have any advice? Maybe the 65W adapter instead of the 90W one? Or anything I should change while I still can? Thanks!

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7100 (1.83GHz, 2M L2 Cache, 800Mhz Dual Core), English
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media,English
LCD DISPLAY 14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Panel
MEMORY 1.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 1 DIMM
HARD DRIVE Free Upgrade to 120GB 7200RPM Hard Drive - $130 Value
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™
BATTERY OPTIONS 9 Cell Primary Battery
INTERNAL KEYBOARD Internal English Keyboard, English
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless™ 1390 802.11g Mini Card
TOUCHPAD OPTIONS Standard Touchpad
RESOUCE CD Resource CD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers, English
GRAPHICS CARD Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
AC ADAPTER 90W A/C Adapter
WARRANTY 3 years limited warranty, 3yrs Next Business Day Onsite Service

Total $1379 (canadian)
Unfortunately we don't get the deals that you US buyers do!

 

Everythings fine, though for an integrated card, you dont need 90 watts. you may want more memory and possibly a better wireless card if you have an N router

 

I have a D630 coming in a day or 2! I wish I had only gotten the 65W adaptor. I like to save $$$. Also, nice upgrade on the drive! WOW.

 

The 90W adapter will charge your battery somewhat faster, but it's probably not going to be as useful with that configuration. I'd probably save the money and the bulk (the 90W is a bit larger than the 65W charger). I'd probably upgrade the RAM, although seeing that you've gotten 1 DIMM, I get the feeling that you'll be upgrading after market and not paying the $150 or whatever Dell Canada charges.

 

Running XP, 1.0GB will be fine, but upgrades are so cheap now it wouldn't hurt putting another 1GB in there.

The 90W adapter isn't necessary unless you're gonna be using a dock. The 65W will do fine if plugged directly to your computer.

If you're not gaming, i've heard good things about the x3100. Heck, even the 950 does good at work running a 1280 x 1024 panel plus it's own 1400 x 1050 screen. If you'll be running more than the standard Office apps and various browsers, another opportunity for a little more future-proffing here.

Hard drive, Optical drive look ok, and you probably already know that the 9-cell battery sticks out. I have the same wireless card, and does fine in the throughput and reliability arena. I don't have the Bluetooth option myself, so I cannot give you feedback on the card's performance in the presence of a Bluetooth radio. My wife's Mac had problems when we first started using Bluetooth & Wifi together, and based on experience is why OS X has the "Intereference Robustness" feature.

I went for the WXGA+ myself, and I think is just perfect for this screen with the DPI turned up (120). Gives you more real estate, while keeping the text very readable.

That's what I can spot from that configuration. Banging away on a D630 right now, which is pure joy in case you wondered about the keyboard.

Good Luck.

P

 

Great! Thanks so much guys. I want to make sure my purchase is perfect.

Oh okay I wasn't sure about the power adapter. By my calculations it should charge about 38% faster... that sounds pretty good right? Worth $20?

Edit: oh yeah, I am planning on adding my own RAM! Does anyone know what brand Dell uses? I was going to put in a 1GB Corsair SODIMM.

 

I seem to remember on the Dell site (under the "Help me choose" link for the AC adapters on the config page maybe?) it implies that the 90 Watt adapter only charges faster than the 60W if you're using the computer while it's charging.

As for RAM, Dell will use RAM from whoever has a good price on it at the moment. Anyway, any reputable brand should be fine.

 

Really makes you think.

 

The 512 sticks I pulled from mine were made by hynix.

 

Oh you're right swarmer. Thanks, you saved me $20!

 

I just sprang for one of these... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220229

Nothing is too good for my new D630

Dave

 

It does. But are you sure he wrote it?

 

Yeah, pretty sure Jerry wrote all his own final thoughts. Runaway Teens part 6, 1993. That's classic Jerry.

 

What kind of tasks do you plan to do with the D630?

 

It's a school laptop, so mainly Maple and browsing the internet. Also listening to music and watching videos.

I might try a bit of gaming but it's definitely not important to me. If UT2k4 can run, great, if not, that's fine.