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8600 owners

post #1 of 11
11/16/03 at 2:00pm
Thread Starter 
would like your opinion of your 8600 , i know that most posts consist of horror stories, but I would like some honest reviews good or bad, this is my first laptop purchase so I"m a little nervous.

SPECS 1.7GHZ I8600
128NVIDIA FX5650 GO
512MB DDR 333MHZ
60GIG HD ULTRA
4x DVD+RW
15.4 IN WSXGA+
XP HOME
3YR LIMITED WARRANTY
72 WATT PRIMARY BATTERY
NO FLOPPY
$150 OFF INSTANT REBATE
FREE 512MB UPGRADE
FREE 4x DVD+RW UPGRADE
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post #2 of 11
11/16/03 at 2:15pm
In a quickly summed up response?

You will be happy.

---

I made the exact same purchase, only with a 1.6 and 1 year warranty. Everything runs smooth, I even did not bother to reformat the machine to rid all the Dell pre-installed items which surprises me. (I did uninstall them however)

Runs like a dream, nice looking, great battery life. Wireless works like a charm, as does bluetooth. Screen is crystal clear, games run nicely at high resolution despite the Nvidia horror stories (ATI cards must be REALLY nice....)

All in all I love the 8600 - if I had to make any complaint, it would be this:

There are 2 sets of mouse buttons (one for trackball, one for touchpad). The left trackball button is quite difficult to use (read: it does not always recognize clicks) -- I don't find myself ever using these buttons because of it.

It's no problem using the touchpad buttons, which are bigger and easier, but that's my only complaint.
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post #3 of 11
11/16/03 at 2:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ITF
In a quickly summed up response?

You will be happy.

---

I made the exact same purchase, only with a 1.6 and 1 year warranty. Everything runs smooth, I even did not bother to reformat the machine to rid all the Dell pre-installed items which surprises me. (I did uninstall them however)

Runs like a dream, nice looking, great battery life. Wireless works like a charm, as does bluetooth. Screen is crystal clear, games run nicely at high resolution despite the Nvidia horror stories (ATI cards must be REALLY nice....)

All in all I love the 8600 - if I had to make any complaint, it would be this:

There are 2 sets of mouse buttons (one for trackball, one for touchpad). The left trackball button is quite difficult to use (read: it does not always recognize clicks) -- I don't find myself ever using these buttons because of it.

It's no problem using the touchpad buttons, which are bigger and easier, but that's my only complaint.
Great thanks for the info, by the way how was your shipping turnaround time? mine was less than a week
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post #4 of 11
11/16/03 at 8:56pm
I ordrered mine with the say same spec.s and ALL I havve to say AwEsOmE. I ordered mine with the WSXGA+ and had the same problems everyone else was having with the WSXGA+ playing DVDs when maximiZed, but i called the return the department and spoke with a very responsive rep. and was able to get a WUXGA sent to me for the ugrade cost and everything is better than before. I LuV my LaPPy!!
I WiLL post a review when i get some time
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post #5 of 11
11/16/03 at 10:49pm
I love mine.


I am not in a line of work where i need a laptop for business. I use mine for gaming/multimedia/internet/etc. Basically all the uses i get out of my desktop, except DVD watching.

To me, it seems like a sturdy and well built machine thus far. I have owned it about 3 months or so and am completely satisfied with one exception.

Dealing with Dell tech support.

Not that anything has gone wrong with the machine, it hasnt. Just had issues trying to get the new Intel PRO wireless card to work with my Netgear wireless router.

Other than that minor issue i couldnt be happier with my 8600. It looks good, it runs good and it performs well when i take it over to a friends house for LAN gaming nights.

The only thing i would change is getting an ATI card over the nVidia. Since that isnt an option as of yet i will jsut wait it out until it is and can upgrade then. I have had zero issue running games, apps, movies, etc. I would just upgrade it to feed my need to have the latest greatest for running HL2 and Doom3.

Hope you enjoy yours.
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post #6 of 11
11/18/03 at 9:32pm
Curious as to the DVD issue you're talking about?
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post #7 of 11
11/19/03 at 3:09am
There was a small line that ran thru the middle of the movie when using the DVD player that came with the system ...

But when I used a different player it went away ... And now that I have the Platinum WinDVD I no longer get that line .. So I think it was just an issue with the player they send you ..
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post #8 of 11
11/19/03 at 4:19pm
you think i should go for one now i have 2500 hundred to spend on a 2 year lease, or wait til after christmas and hold on my to my 8200 for now.
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post #9 of 11
11/19/03 at 4:59pm
Completely up to you.. there might be some good specials around Christmas time, then again there might not.


As to DVD playback, I notice those lines also and found 2 corrections for it. One is disable Color and Hardware acceleration -- I'm not sure the effect on picture quality doing this but I couldn't notice any.

The other was to drop the resolution down and the lines would disappear.. bit of a pain. Anyhow I'm going to look into registering a copy of WinDVD.
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post #10 of 11
11/20/03 at 12:31am
any other opinions from anyone else
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post #11 of 11
11/21/03 at 9:34pm
Thread Starter 
Just go to the Dell website they have a video driver update which fixes the problem,
downloaded the drivers and it fixed mine also improved performance of the nvidia chip,
saw picture quality improvement and benchmarks jumped nearly 4,000 points in Aquamark....the driver is dated 11/18/03
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