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Dell 8600 - Buy now or wait???

post #1 of 9
12/27/03 at 6:55pm
Thread Starter 
I'm considering buying a Dell 8600 however I've been reading about the Hitachi WSXGA LCD that Dell is using instead of the Samsung model. Apparently, the Hitachi is not as good as the Samsung. Some are saying on the Dell forum that Dell is currently out of the Samsung and will eventually get it back in stock - presumably after the Christmas rush.

Is this hype or is the Hitachi just the way it's going to be from now on? Do I buy it with the Hitachi or wait and see if the Samsung gets in stock. I'm also hearing that even though Dell will tell you your going to get the Samsung, you end up with the Hitachi.

I'm looking for a game machine and the 8600 looks like the ticket with the 7200 rpm hard drive and ATI 128 9600. Thoughts appreciated.
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post #2 of 9
12/27/03 at 8:08pm
i thought you bought an nc8000??
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post #3 of 9
12/27/03 at 8:31pm
I would wait untill at least the end of January Before you order, I ordered mine in November and was one of the lucky few who actually got a Samsung.
I have heard that they will be receiving a shipment on the first of the year.
Best place to check and see is the Dell forum, you should see when people receive their order what kind of Display they are receiving. Of course if you are ordering a WUXGA+ you are fine since Samsung is he only Brand that makes them for Dell, ....Mine was the WSXGA+ and it looks beautiful, but like I said I was one of the lucky few who got a Samsung, as far as the 8600 being a gaming Laptop you will find none better. mine plays all my games at max settings with no problem at all,of course I have the NVIDIA 128 5650FX
but the specs I have seen is that you will see about a 10 to 20% increase in performance over my system with the 9600 in games.....I have not seen a system that has a HITACHI screen so I could not compare them for you but like you have read and I have read on the forum pages people are really complaining about the quality between the two......
SPECS 8600 1.7
768 333HZ DDR RAM
NVIDIA 128 5650FX GO
60GIG HD 4200
15.4 WSXGA+ SAMSUNG
4X DVD+RW WRITER
3D MARK 2001 9,850
3D MARK 2003 2,750
AQUAMARK 3 17,895
GAMES PLAYED ON THE 8600
MAX PAYNE 2
HALO
CALL OF DUTY
BLACKHAWK DOWN
RETURN OF THE KING {LOTR}
ALL GAMES PLAYED AT MAX SETTING NO SLOWDOWNS AT ALL
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post #4 of 9
12/28/03 at 12:18am
Thread Starter 
Clint:
Actually, I did buy an nc8000... BUT... here's the thing. I bought the nc8000 because it would support 1600 X 1200 DVI pass through. Guess what, it kind of does, but it doesn't fit on the screen. I'm going to be calling them on Monday and if they can't fix it, it's going back.

Don't get me wrong. It's a good laptop. I'm very impressed with the screen. It's very bright. I think it has a better LCD than any IBM I've ever had and I've had a lot of them, but the pass through with the port replicator is not very elegant.

Somebody in our office actually has a Dell D800 with the advanced port replicator and it works as advertised. So I'm leaning towards the Inspiron 8600.
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post #5 of 9
12/28/03 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
Warlord,
I've actually found one guy that likes the Hitachi. He said that he tweak the display settings and it looks very very good. He claims the colors are truer with the Hitachi than the Samsung. He said the white with the Samsung is kind of gray instead of white. Heard any of this?
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post #6 of 9
12/28/03 at 4:07am
First I've heard about that, I have had no problems with the any of the colors on my LCD but I have never seen a Hitachi screen for comparison....
I think in the end it will boil down to personal taste , but as far as I have seen there is no better Laptop screen that I have seen in any stores that comes close to my 8600........
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post #7 of 9
12/29/03 at 8:33pm
I have to say the samsung screens are much better than the hitachi screens. I have a Samsung WUXGA screen on my Dell M60. Trust me when I say it is the best LCD I have seen thus far. I for one am not a fan of the 17" screens right now that are out on some machines due to washed out colors and rather crappy resolution. As for lower res 15.4" screens, I am a bit hesitant since I done see the same sharpness as the WUXGA model I have. One important thing to remember is that I have seen maybe a dozen or so Samsungs of various resolutions and they are all better than the hitachi equivalents.
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post #8 of 9
12/29/03 at 8:52pm
Thread Starter 
If you have the WUXGA screen, what resolution do you actually run it at??? I messed around with a guys in the office today and I find the 1900 X 1200 resolution absolutely too small to work with business apps; however, I switched it to 120 dpi fonts and found that it was very comfortable and very sharp!
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post #9 of 9
12/30/03 at 10:10am
There is a good time to buy anything.

As soon as you buy something, it will either drop in price or a newer model replaces it. So if you really want it just bite the bullet and get it.
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