d400 vs. d600 vs. t42

[Dark54555]

Alright, so I'm trying to make my final decision between 3 pretty good candidates: the IBM T42,the Dell Lattitude D400 and the Lattitude D600. Lots of specs are the same (HD, RAM, cdrw/dvd, 3 years ofwarranty coverage). Here are the differences:
D400
integrated graphics
smaller
NBD On-site Service and CompleteCare (what does that mean? does it mean they come to me to fix stuff?)
Pentium M 1.6 Dothan
12" screen

D600
Radeon 9000
NBD On-site Service and CompleteCare
internal optical drive
Pentium M 1.6 Dothan
14" screen

T42
Radeon 7500
Next Business Day 9/5 on site repair
internal optical drive
Pentium M 1.5 (says 1 mb cache, so i guess not dothan)
14" screen

Basically, I don't care about gaming. I have a desktop for that. I do care about no slowdown with lots of multi-tasking. And before anyone says apple, I'll need to be able to run a fair number of PC only legal programs (like ProDoc), and I think VPC on a laptop would be slow enough to drive me nuts. And before anyone says IBM X series, I need a touchpad. Can't stand trackpoints.

Price is about the same (i.e. within $100) on each of those. It's a big decision and alot of money to spend, so I want to make sure I make the right one.

 

[Justin216]

Build quality is much, much higher on the IBM IMO...I have a T40, and my campus currently has a dell agreement, so most students have the latitude line of machines....They are made of lesser materials than the T-series and IMO are overpriced considering this....Yeah, IBMs are usually more expensive, but you def. get what you pay for from IBM...

 

[Frightcrawler]

Justin216, the build quality is not "much, much higher" than the IBM. It's a Latitude. IBM > Latitude > Inspiron.
A more accurate comparison would be obtained by taking out the "much"s. It's better built than the Latitude, but not extremely better.

Still, I would go for the IBM. The keyboard is better than the Latitude and the customer service is better too. All-around, its the best.

 

[Justin216]

Sorry, but I did put IMO on my post...and IMO, the Dells are junk for the price you pay for them...we have hinge problems, clicky keyboards, bad mobos & drives on nearly 5-6 students a day at our campus help desk....Our campus only has 1700 students, so it doesn't sound very promising to me...as I said, you can take my post as a grain of salt, thats fine, but it is my opinion of a product and you did want advice in the first place....

 

[Yolner]

IBM = kickass
DELL = a$$

 

[DaFinn]

Whats with people comparing Dell vs IBM... Its like saying "Hmm, should I get a Daewoo or a Mercedes... hmm!"

T42, nough said!

 

[Dark54555]

i'm asking not so much for build quality. I know IBM make a better machine. I'm asking if the trade off in processor (Banias vs. Dell's Dothan) and video (in the case of the d600, radeon 9000 vs.7500) are worth it.

 

[fbrdphreak]

If you don't care about build quality, then why are you buying a laptop? Yes, the Dell's will perform somewhat better due to the Dothan processor. However, its not enough to sacrifice by going to Dell.

BTW, it looks like all laptops have on-site service. However, here is the key question: do you speak Indi-gnlish? 'Cuz you'll need to if you call Dell's tech support. However, if you call IBM for support you will be immediately informed that you are talking to a real-live American in Atlanta, GA. If that doesn't solve it for you, then nothing will.