My latest toy

[Fushigi]

My role at work is changing and I now report to a different manager. He offered to buy me a new laptop (his 1st mistake). I asked if I could configure it and he said 'sure' (his 2nd). We only buy Dell Latitudes so I configured one and sent it over. He approved it and ordered it (his 3rd mistake). Here are the specs:

Dell Latitude C840
Mobile P4 1.6GHz
1GB DDR RAM
40GB Hitachi hard drive
DVD/CD-RW combo
32MB DDR Geforce4 440
15" 1600x1200 LCD
Windows XP Pro
2 USB, Firewire, serial, parallel, infrared, video & digital audio out
integrated 10/100 nic & 56k modem
port replicator for when I dock at the office
floppy (can be swapped for a 2nd battery)
heck, it even has decent speakers for a laptop

What I didn't spec, to show a little consideration (laugh) for his budget, was the 60GB HD & the 64MB version of the Geforce. All in all it came to about US$4200 before discount. That's about US$2000 more than our standard model.

The RAM & CPU may be overkill but I will be running some interesting security & networking apps in the near future and the extra juice will be good as compared to the old laptop (a PIII 500 w/ 256MB RAM).

It is on the heavy side, coming in around 8 pounds. But there's nothing extra to lug around and it's got everything I need & most things I would possibly want.

- Fushigi

 

[Buck]

Wow! Great system Fushigi, it's nice spending other peoples money!

 

[CougTek]

I hope my next boss will be like yours.

 

[timwhit]

You suck Fushigi. $4200 for a laptop!?! That's nuts.

 

[Fushigi]

Just the comments I was expecting! :lol:

But I earn my toys. Right now (11PM on a Friday), I'm upgrading the OS on an AS/400. Including going home for a little sleep, that'll take until sometime Saturday afternoon. I've worked 5 of the last 6 Saturdays. There's been a huge amount of job stress lately with the number & types of problems I've run in to over the past few months. Everything from vendor relations to buggy software to failing hardware to people who don't reply to emails, etc. Couple all of that with 2 classes and a conference in the past 4 weeks. I've been busy; my cat barely recognizes me.

Oh, on the price: A decent chunk of that is for the 1GB RAM. That added like $700 or so alone.

- Fushigi

 

[timwhit]

You should have ordered it from Crucial, it would have been about half that price...Dell has outrageous memory prices.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

I've been busy; my cat barely recognizes me.

:lol:

 

[Mercutio]

Beware the wrath of IBM if you're installing anything in an AS/400 they don't approve of. Service contract? What service contract? $700 for 1GB of RAM in any kind of "big" machine doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

Anyway, that machine is undoubtedly a sweetie. How much does it weigh?
And is you manager looking to hire anyone else, 'cause I could use a laptop like that, too.

 

[Cliptin]

Beware the wrath of IBM if you're installing anything in an AS/400 they don't approve of. Service contract? What service contract? $700 for 1GB of RAM in any kind of "big" machine doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

Anyway, that machine is undoubtedly a sweetie. How much does it weigh?
And is you manager looking to hire anyone else, 'cause I could use a laptop like that, too.

I think the $700 was for the RAM in the laptop.

 

[Mercutio]

Eh. Either way. It isn't his money.

I would've held out for something really expensive, though. A fully-loaded, top of the line X-series from IBM, probably. Dell doesn't do lightweight notebooks very well. And yeah, that 60GB drive, too. Why settle for anything less.

 

[NRG = mc²]

Yep, 8 pounds isnt lightweight :-?

 

[Adcadet]

so how's the LCD quality on the Dell? Can you compare it to older Dell models or non-Dells?

 

[Fushigi]

You should have ordered it from Crucial, it would have been about half that price...Dell has outrageous memory prices.

True, but all of our PC-level stuff comes from Dell. Besides, it's relatively easy to pass it all off in a single quote vs. 2 quotes. If I bought with minimal RAM & then added from Crucial, the extra would be questioned.

- Fushigi

 

[Fushigi]

so how's the LCD quality on the Dell? Can you compare it to older Dell models or non-Dells?

It's not everything I'd like it to be. It could be a little brighter, especially if slightly off-angle vertically. Viewing from above or below dead-on can cause the display to get somewhat washed out.

Text @ 1600x1200 on a 15" display is very small but usually crisp enough to read. Sometimes it's too small though, and I start to consider 12x10 instead of 16x12.

Comparing it to the Latitude CSx500 it replaced .. the res is much higher but the screen isn't as bright and the viewing angle isn't as wide.

Still, for the money & portability, and considering I mostly view it dead-on anyway, the display issues aren't major for me. It would be a problem if I were to try & use it for presentations, though (but then that's what the vid outs are for...).

- Fushigi

 

[Fushigi]

Beware the wrath of IBM if you're installing anything in an AS/400 they don't approve of. Service contract? What service contract? $700 for 1GB of RAM in any kind of "big" machine doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

Anyway, that machine is undoubtedly a sweetie. How much does it weigh?
And is you manager looking to hire anyone else, 'cause I could use a laptop like that, too.

1GB AS/400 RAM varies depending on which model it's for. Last I looked the prices ran from $5120 to $10240 per GB. And currently IBM is the only memory supplier; your only options are new vs. used.

No openings that I'm aware of, but I'll keep you posted since you could take the South Shore directly to our building (the Aon Building; formerly Amoco Bldg).

Weight is around 8# but that includes everything but the port replicator. And since I don't go walking for miles on end while carrying it, the weight is acceptable for me. I'm always using CD drives so having it built in probably saves weight compared to carrying the external unit that was with the old laptop.

- Fushigi

 

[Tannin]

I'm surprised that they don't use a top-line screen on a top of the line notebook. Or is off-axis performance not possible yet in a 1600 res screen?

 

[CougTek]

Dell offers two UXGA 15" screens on their high-end laptops. Their older model is refered to as the regular and they call the new one the "enhanced" UXGA display. I never saw them next to each other so I cannot comment if it worths it or not to spent the few addtional hundred $$ for the "enhanced" UXGA.

Fushigi, do you have the old or the enhanced UXGA 15" display on your C840?

 

[Fushigi]

Dell offers two UXGA 15" screens on their high-end laptops. Their older model is refered to as the regular and they call the new one the "enhanced" UXGA display. I never saw them next to each other so I cannot comment if it worths it or not to spent the few addtional hundred $$ for the "enhanced" UXGA.

Fushigi, do you have the old or the enhanced UXGA 15" display on your C840?

Hmm. Dunno for sure as there's no mention of it in what passes for system documentation these days. The Dell site ( http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/products/model_latit_2_latit_c840.htm ) mentions it as UXGA, not enhanced, so it may be the older design. Which would be strange on a laptop that just started shipping March 28th. Maybe the 'enhanced' version is for Inspirons vs. Latitudes.

- Fushigi

 

[Pradeep]

The Latitudes don't tend to get the latest and greatest as soon as it is released, unlike the Inspiron. The Latitude series is claimed to be their "business" model with interchangeability of parts etc, lower TCO etc.

 

[Fushigi]

The Latitudes don't tend to get the latest and greatest as soon as it is released, unlike the Inspiron. The Latitude series is claimed to be their "business" model with interchangeability of parts etc, lower TCO etc.

I had originally inquired about an Inspiron over the Latitude as a 1.7GHz was available in the Inspiron line & not in the Latitude. The reply from our procurement guy was that while they've bought Inspirons in the past, they tend to not have the same engineering in them. More problems with (PC Card) device compatability, less stable, etc. So they strongly prefer Latitudes.

- Fushigi