Thanks for the info Ethan. btw, did you know that Dell & IBM are very much in bed together? I?m a consultant to IBM and all my hardware is from Big Blue. They share tech support, repair depot (Memphis), and hardware. Since ThinkPad?s aren?t cutting edge anymore, I looked to Dell. I just ordered a 9300 to check it out. Never used a touchpad, always loved the TrackPoint, but I?ll give it a try.
Dell Inspiron 9300
Intel Pentium M 760 (2GHz/533 MHz FSB)
Win XP Pro
17" UltraSharp Wide Screen UXGA
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 533MHz
256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 6800
60GB 7200rpm HDD
Intel PRO/wireless 2915
Wireless 350 Bluetooth internal
8x CD/DVD Burner
9 cell Lithium
4 yr Prem Service pkg
Price: $3,425
35% coupon: - $1,198.75
Free 2nd day shipping
Total $2,226,25
Good price for a lotta notebook I think.
I?m not a gamer but a pgmr/analyst, graphic artist & web designer. Hoping Photoshop & ImageReady will be fast w/ several really HUGE images open and being able to run Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, MS Office, etc. w/ several instances of IE running CONCURENTLY too.
my concerns:
- readability of fonts (on a 15" w/ 1200 x 1600 too small & of course changing it from native resolution was an education about LCD's :-()
- no TrackPoint (OMG just the thought! )
- only Firewire 400 not 800 (I have several Lacie 500GB external HDD?s)
- only 10/100 Ethernet built-in (not 1000)
- SD Memory Reader ???
- DVI interface ???
I have an IEEE 1394b (Firewire 800) PC Card but since it only has 1 PC Card slot no place for 10/100/1000 Ethernet card.
I'll prolly send it back unless I'm REALLY overwhelmed (price is sooo good)
Any comments or questions would be greatly appreciated. My thanks in advance.
oh btw, this is my first post here & only Quick Reply seems to work???