My Inspiron 6000D Review

I received my new i6000D tonight at around 5:30 PM. I had almost given up on UPS showing up at my door when there he has, the man in brown with my nice new notebook.

The 1st thing I did, was give this thing a fresh re-install of Windowx XP. I did the same with my old 5150. It's a shame that your computer runs slow straight out of the box. And I don't need any of the programs Dell pre-installs. I am still in the process of loading on just what I want on here.. Nothing more.

You can find my complete set of pictures in this thread --> http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=105343

SCREEN
The screen is beautiful, zero dead pixels and I am actually very pleased with the resolution of WSXGA. I had been using a Dell 5150 with a UXGA so I was a tad concerned about going back one step. But I after checking out this screen, I am super happy with it. It is small yet still readable. My only issue right now is some sparkle on the right hand side of the screen. Especially on an all black background. It is kinda noticeable. Not sure what I will do about this... when the screen is not black you can't notice a thing. Has anyone else had this problem on their 6000? If so, did you do anything about it, or no?

HARD DRIVE
I ended up getting an 80GB hard drive, 5400rpm. On my 5150 I had a 60GB, 7200rpm. So again, I was a little concerned about the speed drop off. So far, I have not noticed much of a difference at all. It is still early in the game obviously, so I may notice some slower start up times.. but I am sure its probably just a second longer or something thats really no big deal.

WIRELESS
I am going from a Dell 1300 wireless, in my 5150, to a Intel 2200 in this thing. So far so good. It picked up my network right away and I have a few dead spots in my house on my 5150, but maybe this Intel card is better because it got me a signal in those spots and I was able to surf at great speeds with zero drop offs.

VIDEO CARD
I am not much of a gamer so the 64 meg card is perfect for me. I did not want to go with the integrated graphics and the 128 meg card was overkill. The most I will do on here is play Counter-Strike every now and then, and I know it will handle that with no problems

BUILD
This thing is built great! And of course I am comparing it to my 5150. It feels so much more solid and I am very pleased with the look of this machine, especially after I had to look at that ugly 5150 for the last two years. The weight is light compared to my 5150. I can pick it up one handed with no problem. Very happy that I got a widescreen notebook that weighs less than my beast, the 5150.

Overall, so far, I am extremely happy with this machine! It looks great and it performing great so far. I will update this thread in the coming weeks with my thoughts at that time. Again, my only complaint at this time is the sparkles on the screen. It almost looks like very light white stuck pixels, only on black backgrounds though. It's not bad by any means, but it is noticeable. Again, anyone else have this issue on their 6000 and if so, did you do anything about it?

Because I want a clean install of XP. That's not clean.. there are still registry entries and such left over when you just delete the programs. A clean install is the best and only option in my book

The 128 card was just overkill for me.. I dont game really. And the only real intense program I use is Photoshop.

Well, after 2 solid days of using this machine.. the sparkles are gone. Maybe it is a problem right out of the box.. but in any case, they are all gone.