bushman
07-20-2007, 04:13 AM
Hi people its been awhile since ive posted here but i thought id give u guy a small review on my new laptop.
Ok so for those of you who know me you mite call me man things when it comes to computers, a few names that comes to mind might be Fan boy, amdite ATI freak and some more that would proberly get u knocked out, [ j/k peps just a joke =) ] But todays review will show u how having a great product can change even the most ironfast people out their and the companies who make up my new laptop did just that.
So now id like to introduce to you my new laptop The Dell Inspiron 9400
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6986/13703373qz9.jpg
The 3 main companies who contributed to this laptop are.. can i say it.......
DELL, INTEL, AND NVIDIA gasp =)
The specs are as follows
Processor
Model : Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz
Speed : 1.83GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Mobile, Dual-Core
Mainboard
Mainboard : Dell Inc. 0YD479
Total Memory : 1023MB DDR2-SDRAM
Chipset 1
Model : Dell Computer Corp 955XM/945GM/PM/GMS/940GML Express
Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX
Physical Storage Devices
Hard Disk : TOSHIBA MK1032GSX (92GB)
CD-ROM/DVD : TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L532B (CD 24X Rd, 24X Wr) (DVD 3X Rd, 3X Wr)
Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C:) : 89GB (9GB, 10% Free Space) (NTFS)
New Volume (E:) : 3.1GB (3.1GB, 99% Free Space) (NTFS)
Communication Device(s)
Device : Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem
Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)
Platform Compliance : Win32 x86
As u can see this laptop is a pretty good gaming rig, it has a 17" Ultra wide 1920 x 1200 built in card reader and bluetooth to boot. It can play oblivion and rainbox 6 vegas at MAX ULTRA SETTINGS and burn a dvd too =) which i was very joyous about since this is my first dual core setup. I orginally paid 5k for this laptop ( dont ask i cant get u 1 ) without the 7900gtx and the XPS 130W AC Adaptor
So now here is where the trick comes in. This laptop orginally came with a ATI x1400 256 and a 90w Ac Adator, which by all menas seem to be able the same speed as a x700 or a OC x600, which in a sence was going backwards to my previous rig with a x800 Pro highly oc system.
Now of course before i bought this laptop i did research and i came upon the fact this laptop is 100 % Upgradeable which is great cause all these years ive never bought a laptop just cause of the fact that most of them u cannot upgrade like u can a desktop.
After about 2 weeks of research i finally took the plung and bought it for the 5k with the x1400, the first tihng i did was get ontop ebay and purchase the 7900GTX 512 which ram me about 200 usd + shipping, it took about 4 days to arrive and the installation was on. Due to the fact that Dell ( i love you now ) uses the exact same casing mother board for their XPS series is where the loophole lies.
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/6328/21775381du8.jpg
so to open this bad boy its actually pretty easy, if u are very skilled at computer repairs and with tools it shouldn't be a problem, the only thing u have to do is a small mod to allow the new dual heat pipe video card to fit.
Below u can see where i grinded down the both saide of where the heat syn goes
http://www.syshost.co.uk/mbosys/pichost/STEP3.jpg
and here are a few otehr picture of open laptop with and without the new video card
http://www.syshost.co.uk/mbosys/pichost/7900gtx1.jpg
http://www.syshost.co.uk/mbosys/pichost/7900gtx2.jpg
So after all of this comes the 2nd Buy from eBay a 130w XPS Ac Adapter
You have to have this adapter as the 90w that comes with the 9400 isn't sufficient to power this laptop at FULL load
Now u might say but urrr wat about heat, well ill have u know this thing isnt ,ment to sit on your lap and game, the bottom of the case gets HOTT :mad: and i mean hot, now this isn't necessarily a bad thing since i figure alot of the heat dissipates onto the case cause the cpu after a coltage mod currently idles at 30 degress and gpu at 70 degrees now this might sound hott but during game play it goes to about 78 so i guess to me that isnt too bad when i get some artic silver 5 i will apply it to the gpu and proberly get it down a further 10 degrees or so.
Now onto benchmarks
I would love to OC my cpu a few hundred mhz but alas this is not possible unless i buy a newer core 2 duo processor.
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8906/untitled1ru8.gif
This is with very minimal OC
http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/3528/3dmark05we5.gif
So what else can i say about this laptop, that i cna sum up in a Pros and con table
Pro's of Dell 9400
Upgrades: This laptop could potentially last me maby 3 years
It is rumored it mite be able to take the 8800M GTS ( which is the laptop equilivent to the 8800gtx ) not sure yet
and it currently has about 6 much faster Core 2 duo processors available including the totally UNLOCKED 7600G which can be OC very cool up to 3.4 GHZ. even the lowest end processor i can put in will be a 15% increase in power and also i can repair this bad boy my self.
Extreme Bang for Buck which is wat im all about
at 8k in total ( 5k including graphic card power supply and 2 gb kit which i have not recieved yet damn ebay ) i think this was a steal of a deal for wat is basically Dells Highest end XPS machine.
Appearance and visuals: I luv the style and look to it feels extremly solid.
Monitor: The colouring of this monitor is perfect, i do graphic design for a living and the colours are bay far one of the bets ive seen, onyl beaten out by a 15k monitor at the office which was colour calibrated with even more expensive hardware and software. the 1920 x 1200 display the just heaven worth the 180 USD Upgrade.
Battery life: with all my voltages set down screen brightness all the way down i cna get 5 hours outta this bad boy, but dont expect to game like this. Full settings i get 2 hours to 2 hours 30 minutes
Built in Speakers:
These speaker for gaming are amazing they are crisp and clear foll bodied sounds coming from this thing AND IT EVEN HAS A SMALL SUB WOOFER BUILT IN =)
CONS:
Weight:
This thing is heavy, dont expect to be running down maxi with this without a bit of a fight, i mena i travel to work from town to UWI with it daily but it does after awhile of wlaking begin to apply pressure to your shoulder.
PRELOADED SOFTWARE:
This was a pain in the ass to get rid off, to imagine dell had so much crap on this the system actually lagged, throw in veyr unstable drivers and bios and i had one slow machine when it first booted, so for people who dont know about pcs this would be a problem.
HEAT and Noise:
Even with 2 fans this thing is Hot but i think tis due to the fan only really spin at a decent speed when your really stressing it to conserver power i guess, so this could be solved with a fan program and set it to run faster or just run constantly, but this will effect your battery life and the fans are a bit noisy
So all in all im extremely Please with my purchase, and i am considering buying another 1 like it. so id Give this laptop a 9 / 10.
Ok so for those of you who know me you mite call me man things when it comes to computers, a few names that comes to mind might be Fan boy, amdite ATI freak and some more that would proberly get u knocked out, [ j/k peps just a joke =) ] But todays review will show u how having a great product can change even the most ironfast people out their and the companies who make up my new laptop did just that.
So now id like to introduce to you my new laptop The Dell Inspiron 9400
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6986/13703373qz9.jpg
The 3 main companies who contributed to this laptop are.. can i say it.......
DELL, INTEL, AND NVIDIA gasp =)
The specs are as follows
Processor
Model : Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz
Speed : 1.83GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Mobile, Dual-Core
Mainboard
Mainboard : Dell Inc. 0YD479
Total Memory : 1023MB DDR2-SDRAM
Chipset 1
Model : Dell Computer Corp 955XM/945GM/PM/GMS/940GML Express
Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX
Physical Storage Devices
Hard Disk : TOSHIBA MK1032GSX (92GB)
CD-ROM/DVD : TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L532B (CD 24X Rd, 24X Wr) (DVD 3X Rd, 3X Wr)
Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C:) : 89GB (9GB, 10% Free Space) (NTFS)
New Volume (E:) : 3.1GB (3.1GB, 99% Free Space) (NTFS)
Communication Device(s)
Device : Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem
Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)
Platform Compliance : Win32 x86
As u can see this laptop is a pretty good gaming rig, it has a 17" Ultra wide 1920 x 1200 built in card reader and bluetooth to boot. It can play oblivion and rainbox 6 vegas at MAX ULTRA SETTINGS and burn a dvd too =) which i was very joyous about since this is my first dual core setup. I orginally paid 5k for this laptop ( dont ask i cant get u 1 ) without the 7900gtx and the XPS 130W AC Adaptor
So now here is where the trick comes in. This laptop orginally came with a ATI x1400 256 and a 90w Ac Adator, which by all menas seem to be able the same speed as a x700 or a OC x600, which in a sence was going backwards to my previous rig with a x800 Pro highly oc system.
Now of course before i bought this laptop i did research and i came upon the fact this laptop is 100 % Upgradeable which is great cause all these years ive never bought a laptop just cause of the fact that most of them u cannot upgrade like u can a desktop.
After about 2 weeks of research i finally took the plung and bought it for the 5k with the x1400, the first tihng i did was get ontop ebay and purchase the 7900GTX 512 which ram me about 200 usd + shipping, it took about 4 days to arrive and the installation was on. Due to the fact that Dell ( i love you now ) uses the exact same casing mother board for their XPS series is where the loophole lies.
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/6328/21775381du8.jpg
so to open this bad boy its actually pretty easy, if u are very skilled at computer repairs and with tools it shouldn't be a problem, the only thing u have to do is a small mod to allow the new dual heat pipe video card to fit.
Below u can see where i grinded down the both saide of where the heat syn goes
http://www.syshost.co.uk/mbosys/pichost/STEP3.jpg
and here are a few otehr picture of open laptop with and without the new video card
http://www.syshost.co.uk/mbosys/pichost/7900gtx1.jpg
http://www.syshost.co.uk/mbosys/pichost/7900gtx2.jpg
So after all of this comes the 2nd Buy from eBay a 130w XPS Ac Adapter
You have to have this adapter as the 90w that comes with the 9400 isn't sufficient to power this laptop at FULL load
Now u might say but urrr wat about heat, well ill have u know this thing isnt ,ment to sit on your lap and game, the bottom of the case gets HOTT :mad: and i mean hot, now this isn't necessarily a bad thing since i figure alot of the heat dissipates onto the case cause the cpu after a coltage mod currently idles at 30 degress and gpu at 70 degrees now this might sound hott but during game play it goes to about 78 so i guess to me that isnt too bad when i get some artic silver 5 i will apply it to the gpu and proberly get it down a further 10 degrees or so.
Now onto benchmarks
I would love to OC my cpu a few hundred mhz but alas this is not possible unless i buy a newer core 2 duo processor.
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8906/untitled1ru8.gif
This is with very minimal OC
http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/3528/3dmark05we5.gif
So what else can i say about this laptop, that i cna sum up in a Pros and con table
Pro's of Dell 9400
Upgrades: This laptop could potentially last me maby 3 years
It is rumored it mite be able to take the 8800M GTS ( which is the laptop equilivent to the 8800gtx ) not sure yet
and it currently has about 6 much faster Core 2 duo processors available including the totally UNLOCKED 7600G which can be OC very cool up to 3.4 GHZ. even the lowest end processor i can put in will be a 15% increase in power and also i can repair this bad boy my self.
Extreme Bang for Buck which is wat im all about
at 8k in total ( 5k including graphic card power supply and 2 gb kit which i have not recieved yet damn ebay ) i think this was a steal of a deal for wat is basically Dells Highest end XPS machine.
Appearance and visuals: I luv the style and look to it feels extremly solid.
Monitor: The colouring of this monitor is perfect, i do graphic design for a living and the colours are bay far one of the bets ive seen, onyl beaten out by a 15k monitor at the office which was colour calibrated with even more expensive hardware and software. the 1920 x 1200 display the just heaven worth the 180 USD Upgrade.
Battery life: with all my voltages set down screen brightness all the way down i cna get 5 hours outta this bad boy, but dont expect to game like this. Full settings i get 2 hours to 2 hours 30 minutes
Built in Speakers:
These speaker for gaming are amazing they are crisp and clear foll bodied sounds coming from this thing AND IT EVEN HAS A SMALL SUB WOOFER BUILT IN =)
CONS:
Weight:
This thing is heavy, dont expect to be running down maxi with this without a bit of a fight, i mena i travel to work from town to UWI with it daily but it does after awhile of wlaking begin to apply pressure to your shoulder.
PRELOADED SOFTWARE:
This was a pain in the ass to get rid off, to imagine dell had so much crap on this the system actually lagged, throw in veyr unstable drivers and bios and i had one slow machine when it first booted, so for people who dont know about pcs this would be a problem.
HEAT and Noise:
Even with 2 fans this thing is Hot but i think tis due to the fan only really spin at a decent speed when your really stressing it to conserver power i guess, so this could be solved with a fan program and set it to run faster or just run constantly, but this will effect your battery life and the fans are a bit noisy
So all in all im extremely Please with my purchase, and i am considering buying another 1 like it. so id Give this laptop a 9 / 10.