Absolutely fantastic laptop--Don't leave home without it!
Jun 21 '00 (Updated Jul 13 '00)
The University of Oklahoma has a policy requiring engineering students to have laptop computers; when it came time for me to choose one for myself, I chose Dell's Inspiron 7000.
I looked at hundreds of ads for several major manufacturers and a number of smaller ones. I read customer reviews, magazine reviews, everything I could get my hands on. One name kept popping up as a leader in laptops: Dell.
I needed a system that would serve as a primary computer, as I wouldn't have a super-powerful desktop to do my work on. I had to be able to write programs, do word-processing, handle good-sized spreadsheets and number-crunching operations, and soon will be doing electrical CAD on my laptop. I read the performance reviews, and consistently saw Dell being used as a benchmark for performance.
But more importantly, I knew the environment in which I would be using it: carried to class daily, travelling to and from home several times each year (home is in Dayton, Ohio), abused, tossed around, generally beaten up. PC/Computing has an annual review called "Notebook Hell," a physical durability test for laptops that included freezing, baking, dropping, and pouring liquids into laptops. So far, mine has seen three of the tests, and I have a friend down the hall who pulled off number four when he had the flu. Mine has survived with flying colors the abuse to which I've subjected it, with only a broken clip on the lid (which seems to be a common problem) and a problem with the sound card, a poor wave-soldering job which affected a large batch of Inspiron laptops. When the clip war repaired, the laptop was picked up, postage-prepaid, with a properly-sized box included at no cost, overnighted to the repair depot, fixed in one day, and overnighted back to me, all at no charge. When the sound card was fixed, I did have one problem: they misplaced my laptop. When I called them about it (after about 5 days), they said they couldn't find my machine at the moment, but if it was lost, it would be replaced at no charge. It was found (unfortunately for me--mine was discontinued, and they probably would have given me a newer model!), and returned, fixed perfectly--they even changed the bottom panel for me, which was scratched (unfortunately, that means that I have to scratch it again--the scratches were my name, engraved in it...but no matter.).
I am very happy with my purchase of a Dell laptop. I have seen several other laptops fail to withstand the abuse of a college environment; my roommate bought a Gateway, and experienced a catastrophic hardware failure before the year was over. I've seen a Fujitsu die, Compaqs crash by the dozen, but the Dells keep on going with only minor problems, and an outstanding service program to take care of the problems. I will probably never buy a Dell desktop as I always build my own desktops; but when it comes to laptops, I will never buy anything *but* a Dell.
ADDED: 28-Jun-00
I was asked by a reader to add more performance reviews to my laptop rating. So here you are:
This laptop performs very well. I ordered it with 64 megs of RAM, and performance was great. In my highly-unscientific test of using SETI@home to measure performance, I could complete one data block in approximately 18 hours, if I left the system alone to process that job with no interruptions. By comparison, my K6-2 266 MHz desktop with 64 megs of RAM took on the order of 24-26 hours to process when left alone, and a P-III 667 box with 128 megs of PC-133 DRAM takes approximately 9 hours.. Both systems were running Win98SE. I've done some large crunching jobs in Excel (large-set data analysis and graphing) and was pleased with the performance. My system usually outperformed just about everybody else's, most of which were bought about the same time (and therefore, from the same level of technology) as mine. When I upgraded my OS to Windows 2000, I discovered that 64 megs was not even close to sufficient (a standard install resulted in the system using 68 megs with no programs running...); I upgraded to 192 with a 128-meg DIMM from Crucial shortly thereafter, and am highly pleased with it. Since the switch to 2K, I have been unable to play DVD's smoothly, but that is primarily a function of the operating system; under 98SE, software-rendered DVD playback was flawless. The bottom panel does tend to get warm during times of prolonged heavy processor usage, but that is not terribly surprising. Bottom line about performance: if you have enough RAM, you won't be disappointed--but you have to have enough RAM. And for heaven's sake, don't order your RAM from Dell--get it from Crucial (www.crucial.com, I think...). It's half the price, and it's the same memory--I talked to a Dell tech support rep, who told me that they use Micron memory for OEM purposes, the same Micron who owns the Crucial brand.
As for included accessories, well, Dell includes everything you need, but not much more. It came with a power brick, and the modem was standard on my system (was supposed to be an integrated modem, but I instead received a Megahertz X-JACK 56K modem...fine by me, really--I can take it out when I don't need it. Other people I know did get the internal.). I bought the carrying case Dell sells; I think it was $39, and it seems to be a good, rugged case. I've certainly abused it enough to know. Additional memory/PC cards/accessories are available, but not generally included. Usually, you're better off looking for them aftermarket. One thing I am giving thought to buying is a MPEG decoder card (hardware decoder for DVD); DVD performance is fine under 98, which is what most people will use, but as I mentioned, I use 2K, which is a resource hog and is de-optimized for DVD functions.
On the minus side, there is one little annoyance: this thing is *heavy*. I mean, on the order of 12 pounds, including power brick, case, and my little accessories. I don't mind the weight, considering the level of performance I get for it, but make no mistake about it: this is not one of the little Sony VAIO things that weighs three ounces and could fit in a hollowed-out notebook. But then, I've also used the keyboards on those things...once. And never again! The keyboard on this thing is alone worth the weight penalty, and the touchpad is great. Dell seems to have made the touchpad perfect on this machine--the location is such that I can control it with my right thumb without my fingers ever leaving the keyboard. All of my left-clicking is done via taps on the pad, and the right button, so necessary in Windows, is right under the fleshy base of my right thumb, easy to access without changing my hand position. Many of the older Inspiron systems do not have such nice arrangements of the touchpad--I've used the 3200, 3500, and a number of Latitudes, and don't find them nearly as convenient. But I digress. Heavy, yes, but well worth it for the performance and usability.
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Epinions.com ID:
Dave70968
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Member: Dave Buckles
Location: Norman, OK
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 6 members
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