This Dell a good machine?

[Burrellimages]

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=iXM140S1&s=dhs

I currently have a Dell Latitude c610 (that was a gift from my dad and was a refurb unit). Ive had it a couple of years now and am starting to have a few problems with it. The mouse pointer randomly jumps accross the screen if the machine is not sitting FLAT on a level surface or when ever it wants to! LOL

Im thinking about this new XPS M140 which is supposed to be replacing the Inspiron 600m. It seems like a good deal (more since they are offering an introductory price starting at $999 with a dvd-r) Anyone have one or could suggest a better machine in that price range?

I mainly mess with large images off of my 20d. Never fool with games so thats not an issue. I want something that will last and will handle what i need.......and FASTER than my current Dell!!

[b16pwrdej1]

I have a Dell 600m as my laptop for school and for photo-processing; it has had a failed hard drive twice in the last two years, but has been promptly replaced by Dell. I can't complain except that I lost a few documents, but all my photos were backed up onto disc and an external HDD.

If you know somebody (or yourself) that knows computers well I would suggest buying the parts and building a system yourself.

I would suggest more memory (1 GB minimum) since Photoshop is a memory hog and definately a larger HDD (possibly 80GB) since photos can take up alot of space.

[Burrellimages]

After i go through my photos and burn them for the magazines or after a full event is over, i copy them on a CD for me (but looking to use the DVD-R in the future to fit more on a disc) then i delete them from my machine, so storage isnt that big of a deal for me.

[jjonsalt]

I just got a new XPS 400 desktop with dual core and 4GB RAM. Talk about fast work in PhotoShop...

[wannasmaxx]

I had an Inspiron 5100 that never co-operated with me.... After a year or so of having it repeatedly fixed, they sent me an Inspiron 6000. Had it for about 3 months and have had no problems so far. I will never personally buy a Dell again, simply because I'm looking at a tablet, but I'd recommend them to others for their service.

[JonathanSQ]

Well I have no experience with Dell's but here is one tip.
Even with a AMD 64-bit CPU, don't underestimate RAM.
I did and now I am looking to upgrade ~ get @least 1GB - more if you can afford it.

[Tsmith]

With my P4 3.0 Ghz setup I built about 18 months back, runs @ 3.51 GHz 24/7 I have Corsair XMS 1024-3200C2PT @ 2.5-3-3-6 ... handles the photo editing stuff pretty darn well.

[kaitanium]

im not too keen on dell laptops since i never ever had a good experience with them. id recommend ibm. but you absolutely cant be the dell in price.

[AustinWolf]

People like to moan about Dell but they use the same components as all other laptop providers. Hard disk from Segate, IBM and Hitachi, etc. No one makes their own parts, except IBM with their hard-drives. Compaq, IBM, Toshiba all use the same parts and suppliers more or less.

The big key is the warranty you buy. Dell does complete care, which will cover accidental damage, etc. Worth it's weight in gold in my mind.

The choice is yours as to make, but they are much of a muchness as far as parts and reliablity go, IMHO.

[Burrellimages]

I was looking into the 3 year warranty with the drop coverage with it. Its like $272, but thats a ton cheaper than a new machine if i drop it. But i do have all my computer and camera gear insured against that so i'll have to check into the difference.

Has anyone used the new OS that it says it comes with? The XP Media Center 2005.

[Ronald S. Jr.]

I'm not too awfully keen on the "cheaper" dells. I tried a 700m...it was crap. I thought it would be a LOT nicer.

I have two XPS's, and they're literally a dream machine. I have the gen 5 desktop and notebook. I also have a 9300, which I'm not keen on, but that's the one my dad uses. Dell suddenly came out with this lineup of XPS, and they unfortunately crapped out on quality in order to offer "an XPS for everyone". I'm just not impressed.

[Burrellimages]

So is this XPS M140 a good one?

[wannasmaxx]

I was looking into the 3 year warranty with the drop coverage with it. Its like $272, but thats a ton cheaper than a new machine if i drop it. But i do have all my computer and camera gear insured against that so i'll have to check into the difference.

Has anyone used the new OS that it says it comes with? The XP Media Center 2005.
My 6000 came some buttons on the front. You mean those... They've proved invalueable for volume adjustment and quickly skipping songs... I just wish I could skip through songs(like a seek feature).

[Burrellimages]

No its a whole new operating system. From what i understand, its an upgrade from the regular XP.

[1goodshot]

I would add the true life lcd panel

[Burrellimages]

I planned on that, it looked like the picture viewing would be better on that screen.

[BottomBracket]

I have a 700m and contrary to an earlier post, it works quite well. It is my notebook of choice when I travel as it is quite light. For $750 it is a great deal (I availed of the $750 off last summer), the only thing you have to do is b ump up the memory to 1 GB and get the extra larger battery.

[kaitanium]

People like to moan about Dell but they use the same components as all other laptop providers. Hard disk from Segate, IBM and Hitachi, etc. No one makes their own parts, except IBM with their hard-drives. Compaq, IBM, Toshiba all use the same parts and suppliers more or less.

The big key is the warranty you buy. Dell does complete care, which will cover accidental damage, etc. Worth it's weight in gold in my mind.

The choice is yours as to make, but they are much of a muchness as far as parts and reliablity go, IMHO.

nope, ibms use hitachi hard drives. ibms are built rock solid. keyboards are to die for. but i suppose Burrellimages is going for features/price versus the other tid bits here
and id love to argue the reliability point but hey, that would turn into another apple vs pc or political/religious thread. everyone has their opionions and bottom line is, none of the dell laptops ive come into contact with survived, and no im dont beat my electronics either.

the 700m is small for its price/features. some may aruge about that sony-esque reflective treatment of the lcd and the non full size keyboard but bottom line, for the price its crazy. still nothing compared to my 3lb x40 minus the optical drive.

does dells XPS line carry extra warranty or something since its their "luxury" brand? or did i read that wrong somewhere. if thats the case, hey man, its a good deal.

[20Der]

I've been buying DELL for the past 5 years. Two laptops and five desktops. Mostly higher end stuff. XPS etc.

I have never needed tech support or service on any of them. I am still using all of them! Extended warrantees are a waste of money...:)

[Tdragone]

There are always 2 sides to every mfr.

I LOVE my dell Inspiron 9100;

3.2 gig hyper threading cpu; 1 gig of ram, 100 gog hdd and a 15.5" screen on a laptop and I haven't found anything yet that it can't handle.

Doom 3 runs great on it in the most intensive graphic modes without blinking.

[rklepper]

So is this XPS M140 a good one?

Obviously noone knows.

[Barb42]

I just ordered a XPS M140 with a 100G hard drive and 2G memory. They are suppose to ship it to me in the next day or so. I never doubt Dell, their products have been quite good and consistant.

[chucksmanc]

You ever played around with a mac? I was a pc user, but switched to a mac a long time ago. It's a much more intuitive and stable operating system (IMO) and if your working with graphics it really cooks.

[Burrellimages]

BARB.......please keep me posted on the outcome. What was your total price with that much of an upgrade if you dont mind me asking?

[Jon]

im not too keen on dell laptops since i never ever had a good experience with them. id recommend ibm. but you absolutely cant be the dell in price.
But IBM just sold their laptop lilne to the Chinese state-run company Lenovo. The jury's still out (at best) on what that means for reliability and after-market support.
People like to moan about Dell but they use the same components as all other laptop providers. Hard disk from Segate, IBM and Hitachi, etc. No one makes their own parts, except IBM with their hard-drives. Compaq, IBM, Toshiba all use the same parts and suppliers more or less.

The big key is the warranty you buy. Dell does complete care, which will cover accidental damage, etc. Worth it's weight in gold in my mind.

The choice is yours as to make, but they are much of a muchness as far as parts and reliablity go, IMHO.
Toshiba uses Toshiba-brand HDDs. IBM has/had a co-manufacturing agreement with Hitachi, and their drives bear the Hitachi name. Even in desktops, the video controllers and system chips/controllers are sourced from a few makers.

[kaitanium]

lenovo has always made their laptops, lenovo was ibms supplier before the handover from what i understand. my x40 is made in china

[Jon]

lenovo has always made their laptops, lenovo was ibms supplier before the handover from what i understand. my x40 is made in china
Yeah, but now there's no IBM to rely on for support - you have to hope Lenovo has the same commitment to product support that IBM did.

[kaitanium]

i havent contacted ibm support once, but ive heard they arent the best of people (well nothing compared to dell). maybe i wont ever need it, since ibms are solid =P

next week is photon's 1yr old birthday! (photon is my laptop). k, that was pretty geeky

[Barb42]

Brandon, I do get a discount because my company buys from Dell. I ordered the upgraded True to Life screen, DVD burner, docking station...cost around $2400+ with shipping. Memory is expensive on laptops but with Photoshop, 2G is important. I have found that underbuying is the worse choice of all. I blew up my old Dell that I bought maybe 5-6 years ago (don't ask - I tend to jump right in and an upgrade to Win2000 went very, very wrong ~L). I under-bought a desktop. Only 1G ram max - for about $700 and no new monitor. A year later, i am buying a much bigger laptop and a 19" flat screen for at home use. The $700 Dell is still perfect and I will put it aside - maybe network it. My mode of operation right now is buying as much memory and storage plus communication options on the main beast - with USB add-ons (external storage, faster burners, etc.) on the side. I always go for the professional operating systems, like XP Professional. Since I work with Windows at work, I don't want something different at home. Tried that once, bad idea for me. Delivery of my laptop should be during Thanksgiving week. I took some vacation time so I could load it up. Happy to answer any questions you have. I have used Dell for years - my Ex uses whatever is on-sale, with me fixing his problems as they come up. No games go on my computer - that would need a totally different environment and games should be installed on a separate device, in my opinion.

[Burrellimages]

Thanks barb. Im actually looking at the 1g with a 60g. I normally delete a picture folder as soon as i burn it on disc so i dont really require a ton of room. I noticed it comes with a 5-1 card reader, but it dont mention that it reads CF cards. Can i get that option?

[Burrellimages]

Well i just orderd the XPS m140 last night. I went with the 1gig and a 60gig hard drive. I also upgraded to the True Life screen and the DVD burner. Hope it works out like i hoped!!

[HJMinard]

I have had fantastic experiences with Dell computers, both at home (desktop) and at work (servers, CAD workstations, and laptops). I don't recall anything going wrong on any of them - hardware wise - with the exception of one bad firmware update on a CD-RW drive (home desktop), which was quickly and easily corrected.

[Burrellimages]

Im just hoping wiht the 740 processor and the 1 gig will be fast enough and strong enough

[KennyG]

lenovo has always made their laptops, lenovo was ibms supplier before the handover from what i understand. my x40 is made in china

Not true. Acer manufactured them as well as a number of the Dell models. In the terms of reliability I have found recent Dell machines to be well down the scale and Acer at the top.

A friend's company has 600 Dell desktops and 90 laptops. The failure rates are horrendous, with the main faults being electrolitics on the desktop motherboards popping. Laptop hard disk failures are so regular they keep their own spares and force a backup policy on the staff. Anyone that tries to claim Dell is more reliable than other brands needs to talk to corporate users.

[Citizensmith]

The XPS M140 is OK for the money, just OK though. There are a fair few things on there that I'd really want to upgrade.

RAM - Only 512Mb and 2 DIMMs making it harder to upgrade later. - You caught that
Combo Drive - I'd never settle for anything less than a DVD burner nowadays. - You caught that
Crappy intergated graphics you can't upgrade - Looking for a different model could have been a way round that.
HDD - bigger and faster maybe nice, but not as critical as the other 3. - Did you get the 5400 or 7200rpm version?

Basically the M140 is a bit too weak to qualify as anything better then an entry level laptop without some good upgrades.

[rklepper]

The industry where I used to work uses all Dell computers. They sell them once the warranty is out. They are also a certified dell service center (they only work on their own computers). That way if one breaks down they do not have to wait for Dell to send someone out to fix it and they also get paid for fixing it.

[Cadwell]

Not true. Acer manufactured them as well as a number of the Dell models. In the terms of reliability I have found recent Dell machines to be well down the scale and Acer at the top.

A friend's company has 600 Dell desktops and 90 laptops. The failure rates are horrendous, with the main faults being electrolitics on the desktop motherboards popping. Laptop hard disk failures are so regular they keep their own spares and force a backup policy on the staff. Anyone that tries to claim Dell is more reliable than other brands needs to talk to corporate users.

Dell had a large batch of motherboards with faulty capacitors in the CPU voltage regulator circuitry. You can easily tell if they're the cause of the failure by looking at the motherboard for gunk blown out of the top of the capacitors.

They've also had a recall on faulty laptop power supplies recently as they discovered a potentialy dangerous fault which could lead to fires.

Super high reliability? Nope - and to be honest their customer service and support isn't great even if you're a "gold support" customer.