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Dell 9300: 6 Cell Battery or 9 Cell?

post #1 of 17
12/31/05 at 2:30pm
Thread Starter 
Ok so now I'm thinking I'll get a Dell 9300, but I'm figuring out what I really need and what would be a waste of money. One of the things I don't really know anything about is the battery. I can get a 6 Cell Litium Ion battery, or I can upgrade to a 9 Cell for and extra $99. Is it worth the money?

Here's the setup I have so far:
Pentium M 2 GHz
Windows XP Media Center
17" XGA+ Display
1 GB RAM
60 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
8x CD/DVD burner
Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 network card
256 MB GeForce Go 6800 video card
6 Cell battery
3 Year 'Plus Solution Plan' Warranty
Large Backpack Carrying Case

Total Price:
$2104
-$500 instant savings
---------------------
$1604
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post #2 of 17
12/31/05 at 2:35pm
Hey Spaceman!
well depends what your using it for and how long

If yor going to have wireless on and the brightness high up for 4 hours straight - 9 cell

If your in your home and near a outlet, - 6 cell would be fine.
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post #3 of 17
12/31/05 at 2:38pm
Well you can save money buy not getting 1GB of RAM from dell. Get the smallest amount possible and then upgrade elsewhere. If I remember right the 2Ghz is $140 more, I'd downgrade that to the 1.86Ghz, it's more than you need.

And to answer your question, yes the 9cell is worth the money.
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post #4 of 17
12/31/05 at 2:49pm
Thread Starter 
That's a pretty good idea, upgrading the RAM yourself.... Is it very hard to do?

This computer will probably be plugged in in my room most of the time, so I doubt I'd need the battery very often. Do you guys know how much battery life this computer gets with either battery?
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post #5 of 17
12/31/05 at 2:50pm
its about around 2.5 hours with the 6 cell and about 4.5 hours with 9 cell i believe. RAM is a great idea and its not hard to do at all.
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post #6 of 17
12/31/05 at 3:00pm
This all depends on what you want to do with your laptop. I'd get the 9-Cell anyway because it's always good to have the extra power if you need it. I dont know what you do, but I'm a student and the 4 hours of battery life really come in hand while in the library writing labs . Definitely get some RAM from newegg, it's about $60-65 for a 1GB stick. Also, if you're thinking about getting a Go 7800GTX for that laptop, not only will you need the 9-Cell, but the 2.0GHz will definitely allow that card to shine. Personally though, depending on how computer adept you are, you could buy the 1.73GHz and grab an older CPU and pin-mod it. Here's the thread on all that: http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=80879
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post #7 of 17
1/3/06 at 1:17pm
Playing games, the 6 cell lasts about 1.5 hours while the 9 cell lasts about 2.5 hours because of the juice needed for the 6800.

I got the 9 cell for the extra flexibility (plus, when playing Civ IV, if I run it on battery it acts as a more reliable way to stop me playing one more turn so I get some sleep before work the next day !)
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post #8 of 17
1/3/06 at 2:00pm
I got a six cell and a nine cell, it was only like $30 more on top of the price of the nine cell upgrade.

So while I wouldn't say the nine cell upgrade is worth the money, its certainly worth it to have both.
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post #9 of 17
1/3/06 at 5:07pm
I am thinking of getting a 9300 too.

Is the 9 cell battery phisicaly bigger than the 6cell?

I saw the 9 cell for the HP dv4000 and it is huge, and made the computer look ugly.
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post #10 of 17
1/3/06 at 9:57pm
I don't think the 9 cell is any different in size from the 6 cell... I only have the 9 cell, but it fits IN a hole in the bottom of the laptop rather than being attached to it, so there is no way that the appearance would be affected.
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post #11 of 17
1/4/06 at 2:12am
It would be cheaper and better to just buy an extra 9 cell from ebay instead of upgrading the 6 cell to a 9 cell that way you have two batteries. I believe it costs 99 extra for the 9 cell and on ebay would cost around 80.
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post #12 of 17
1/4/06 at 3:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by roybot
It would be cheaper and better to just buy an extra 9 cell from ebay instead of upgrading the 6 cell to a 9 cell that way you have two batteries. I believe it costs 99 extra for the 9 cell and on ebay would cost around 80.
Thats true if your not using any percent off coupons. If your using like a 30% off coupon then its cheaper to get it from Dell even though if you do order one from eBay then you'll have the extra 6 cell battery.
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post #13 of 17
1/4/06 at 3:30pm
Get them both, that's what I did. If you don't want to get it through dell, buy a n extra or two on ebay. I think I'll probably buy another 9 cell for $50.
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post #14 of 17
1/4/06 at 3:48pm
Nother thing you could do, is get three 6 cells, rip them apart, and take the 6 cells from the one battery into the two 6 cell batterys.

That's what I'd do
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post #15 of 17
1/4/06 at 6:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. K6
This all depends on what you want to do with your laptop. I'd get the 9-Cell anyway because it's always good to have the extra power if you need it. I dont know what you do, but I'm a student and the 4 hours of battery life really come in hand while in the library writing labs . Definitely get some RAM from newegg, it's about $60-65 for a 1GB stick. Also, if you're thinking about getting a Go 7800GTX for that laptop, not only will you need the 9-Cell, but the 2.0GHz will definitely allow that card to shine. Personally though, depending on how computer adept you are, you could buy the 1.73GHz and grab an older CPU and pin-mod it. Here's the thread on all that: http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=80879

Wait a sec... you're still getting 4hours of life with 1/2 brightness on battery after all the mods? Hmmm... I need to test this on mine then, we're almost identical except for the 1.7/1.8 difference in pinmod. (Still haven't ordered a 1.8 yet... I'll get around to it I promise haha)

And as for which battery. I got the 9cell with mine because I knew I'd be upgrading to the 7800gtx and it doesn't hurt to have the best battery and have replacements covered under your warranty instead of just the standard battery warranty. (You can argue to have your battery replaced if it fails)
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post #16 of 17
1/4/06 at 6:51pm
Spend the extra $29 (less with %off) and get both. Don't upgrade, get the 9 cell as a spare.
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post #17 of 17
1/4/06 at 7:07pm
Not sure what coupons you are using, but if you are using % off coupons, I would instead, get the 6 cell, and order a 9 cell as a secondary. (The % off will take off the price of the battery, and depending on which coupons you use, can be as much as 47%, bringing it from 129 to 70-80)

If you are already over the threshold for a dollar off coupon (such as 500 off XXX), then just get the 6 cell, and buy a 9 cell off of ebay.

There is no noticeable weight difference between the two.

It is a COMPLETE waste of money to order the 9 cell up front. Might as well have two batteries.

HEH, just noticed spectrumbx's post.
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