Ultraportables (Latitude D400 / D410 / D420 etc)

I'm looking for a cheap-ish "ultraportable" (OK they're not as ultraportable as some but they're a LOT smaller than my Inspiron 1300) so figured I'd better check out the used market.

On ebay, I've found the following (for all of you in the US, £1 = $2):

Latitude D400 - £160 and with a new battery (£40ish) it'll run for a good 3.5 to 4 hours Is the hardware getting on a bit too much to be reliable though? I'm planning on travelling around with it a lot for five years.

Latitude D410 - £250+ and again it'll probably need a new battery. I don't see much difference apart from the fact I think they use the Dothan Pentium M as opposed to the older Banias. If someone can point any big differences out, that'd be good

Latitude D420 - £400+ and it might not need a battery but it would do quickly enough. I can see it's using a ULV processor so I can expect the battery life to increase a bit and I'm sure they've shaved a bit of weight off somewhere. Lot more money though

There's also the Latitude X1 which seem to be pretty hard to find and fetch £250 to £400 easily. Real ultraportable that though

In the brand new market I can see the Latitude D430 and the XPS M1330, both at around the £800 mark but I'd probably go with a Samsung Q45 at £800 if I was buying brand new (which I cant really afford )

No matter what I buy, it's going to be used at University for a five year course as a machine to use on the go. I can use my Inspiron 1300 as a desktop equivalent so it's not needing to shatter the earth in terms of performance. Reliability is key and durability would help

Anyones views are much appreciated.

 

I just got my D430 since last week and I got a refurbished one for US939 shipped. It has a 100 gb HD and only spin at 4200 rpm.

It is small, thin and lightweight. I really like it.

Make sure you defrag often.

 

$939?! That's a great price!

The US outlet always has much better prices than the UK one - most of the systems on the UK outlet come out very close to the brand new price

 

D400 vs D410:

D400(855 chipset):
-Firewire
-DDR memory(can cost more)
-Banias

D410(915 chipset):
-no firewire
-DDR2 memory
-Dothan processor(Sonoma chipsets-increased FSB)

Also IMO the D410 looks better(dark charcoal grey and silver finish) then the D400(Silver finish) Look at the NBR D410 review for. The D410 is smaller (width/Depth) wise but is slightly heavier and taller(height).

The D400 is slightly lighter but its bezel around the LCD is "fat" and ugly.


(D410 on top)


(D410 on the right)

Look at the Dell Latitude D410 Review for better pictures of the D410.

They are both built well but they are already 2/3 years old so I would spend extra if you can for something a little newer...

 

Ahhh the D410 will be running at 533FSB and have DDR2-533 then

Similar hardware to my Inspiron 1300 except this has a Celeron-M in it.

Thanks.

 

The D410 can also use DDR2-667(PC2-5300/5400) ram(I have a stick 1GB of 667 in mine) but it will down clock it but more memory is generally better then the speed of it.

So if you decide to upgrade the ram in the D410 or any newer laptop, just go for the cheapest DDR2 memory.

 

I've decided to buy a D420 from ebay - £407 shipped and with 2 years Dell warranty remaining.

Pretty good IMO

 

607 British pounds = 1 277.735 U.S. dollars

You can get one of this new here for that price.

I guess computers are expensive overseas?

 

£407, not £607

=> $814.

The D430 starts at £850 inc VAT and delivery here - $1700

Some computers are expensive here in the UK yeah, especially the business lines. I think Dell knock their prices way down for businesses buying more than one

Though yes, I can almost fly to the US, buy a laptop and fly home and still save money! (obviously only applies to the likes of HP, Sony, etc which can be found in retail stores)