Magnesium-Alloy?

Anyone know how much of the laptop is actually metal? I know the Latitude series is metal, will it be like them on the new Inspiron series? Will this one have metal surrounding the keyboard?

 

hmm.... guess no one knows

 

Not very many of us have seen one in person yet.

 

Burning magnesium gives off a very bright light. Care to try?

 

Well it has to be rather limited to its exposure to Oxygen in order to ignite, hence small strips of pure Magnesium will go flashbang.

It says "magnesium alloy" so I guess Dell mixed the Mg with some other metal, probably aluminum, steel, or god forbid, iron.

 

lol thx for the info. haha

 

All very true. I think this warrants a scientific experiment... your notebook, my lighter.

 

Maybe they mixed it with lead. Nothing is as tasty as some good ol' lead.

 

idk if that would be the best with magnesium, you do want a LIGHT laptop, although the paint sure was tasty.

 

or as full of carcinogens (no idea how to spell that)

 

Lead doesn't cause cancer. It just flat out poisons you.

 

Ahh my bad. I should get my death causing agents in line.

 

You guys are silly. It's obviously a Mg-Au alloy. Better conductivity = higher speeds!

 

well apparently dell support reassured me that the entire casing is magnesium alloy. and i was like even the bottom? and they were like yes. You know I have a feeling this magnesium alloy is going to feel an awful lot like plastic.

 

Not sure on how laptops work exactly, but i don't think you really want a highly conductive chassis.

 

Spelled correctly.

Would be funny if they mixed it with Hg to get some 'liquid' cooling

 

In all seriousness, from what i understand it is actually a common practice to cover the magnesium casing in plastic. I read this on another thread somewhere, i wouldn't be surprised.

 

Stainless steel sounds like a pretty good option to me.

 

They need to make an entirely liquid metal(i believe that is what they call it) casing. Liquid metal is a plastic(i believe) that is very elastic. I haven't handled it but it appears very hard but when a ball is dropped on it(in the demonstration it was metal ) the ball bounces higher than a bouncy ball would on concrete. However when dropped on a normal surface the ball doesn't bounce at all. It has been banned by the PGA due to this property.
Just imagine that, dropping your laptop and having it bounce back to you, that would be better than anything stainless steel can do.

 

heck ya that rocks.. but also I read something about the alloy being covered in plastic as well.... that blows. Seems like that would be more expensive than just leaving the metal though... Doesnt make any sense.

 

I don't know the properties of the Mg alloy, but if it were covered in plastic it seems that it would be far more protected from any possible lose in strength.

 

Ya thats true

 

I'm sure it's not a Mg-Au alloy. Au stands for Aurum, the Latin word for gold. If you're getting a laptop made with even one pound of gold for the prices Dell is selling them at, I'd buy dozens!

 

It was obviously sarcastic

EDIT: then again, maybe dell mixed the Mg into an Mg-Pt formulation for extra shininess

 

Aluminum.

 

Apparently you are right- the frame of the 520 at least has a magnesium "frame" and plastic "case". Thought they were all magnesium exterior. Just 430/630/830's then?

 

You know, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a notebook that's actually plated by metals on the exterior.

 

Since the 1420 is mag alloy...the 1520 and 1720 are as well?

 

I had a Sony S series that was metal on the outside.