Hey guys,
I got my I8600 today:
Pentium M 1.6
40 GB haddrive (seagate @ 5400)
128 mb ATI
SXGA+ Hitachi
4x DVD burner/cdrw
256 mb of ram
The screen is awesome. Perfect brightness and resolution. I am reminded once again why my last 3 comps. were Dells. The screen is a Hitachi and i did notice a slight leakage at the bottom---maybe less then a quarter of an inch up. However, it's annoying if you are looking for it but it doesn't appear to affect Windows ( the GUI). I will have to spend some more time with it before I can give a final verdict: I can live with it or I can't.
Bought some Centon ram from Circuit City (512 mb). Put it in and booted up to XP home. A bit sluggish to boot but i looked down and saw 35 diff. icons loading into the taskbar. No worries, i'm going to install a clean copy of XP pro.
Got half way into the XP pro install and the DVD/CD drive dies---makes a loud clicking and buzzing noise and the setup freezes.
I turned the machine off, let it cool down a bit so i can give it that one last College try. No success, so I concluded the DVD/CD was DOA.
Took the XP cd out and rebooted to see how far the install went: machine wouldn't boot and i got memory errors. Funny, it was working fine for a while? It got to a point where the machine wouldn't even get to a post screen. Okay, I take out the Centon chip and it gets to a post screen now.
So far I got a bad DVD/CD and a bad stick of Centon. Centon goes back to Circuit City and I just ordered a stick from Crucial.
Spent 30 minutes on the phone with India at one point and Puerto Rico at another. What a f'ing nightmare! I feel sorry for anyone that has to deal with their support who doesn't have a working knowledge of computers: i can see them spending hours on the phone with these Tech. Reps. At one point, the guy from India asked me if I had a screwdriver handy? WTF? It's a bad DVD---why the hell do I need a screwdriver?? I put the headset up to the DVD module so he could listen to it grind.
"Okay, we'll overnight you a replacement ASAP," he said.
So far I'm pleased with the machine; although, i haven't really taken her out for a spin yet. And I'm a bit worried about the bad start and the exp. with support. I don't know if offshoring work is going to save money in the long run, Mr. Dell. You may want to rethink that.
The casing is a lot better than what i was expecting: I have an Inspiron 4100 and the casing is creaking and cracking everywhere. It's going on 2 years old, so I'm sure the 8600 will be at that point as well. Nevertheless, i plan on doing the chasis mod in the future, if i decide to keep the machine, so no worries there.
The HDD is a seagate 40 gb at 5400 rpms. I am a bit happy 'bout that: was expecting a cheapo 4200 rpm one. I ordered it from the Biz section so maybe they outfit the machines from that area with *better* drives, because I hear a lot of people saying they're getting the Hitachi 4200s. Oh well, I'm happy 'bout the 5400 drive: i won't have to swap out my Tosh. 5400 now from my I4100.
Stay tuned for more.
I got my I8600 today:
Pentium M 1.6
40 GB haddrive (seagate @ 5400)
128 mb ATI
SXGA+ Hitachi
4x DVD burner/cdrw
256 mb of ram
The screen is awesome. Perfect brightness and resolution. I am reminded once again why my last 3 comps. were Dells. The screen is a Hitachi and i did notice a slight leakage at the bottom---maybe less then a quarter of an inch up. However, it's annoying if you are looking for it but it doesn't appear to affect Windows ( the GUI). I will have to spend some more time with it before I can give a final verdict: I can live with it or I can't.
Bought some Centon ram from Circuit City (512 mb). Put it in and booted up to XP home. A bit sluggish to boot but i looked down and saw 35 diff. icons loading into the taskbar. No worries, i'm going to install a clean copy of XP pro.
Got half way into the XP pro install and the DVD/CD drive dies---makes a loud clicking and buzzing noise and the setup freezes.
I turned the machine off, let it cool down a bit so i can give it that one last College try. No success, so I concluded the DVD/CD was DOA.
Took the XP cd out and rebooted to see how far the install went: machine wouldn't boot and i got memory errors. Funny, it was working fine for a while? It got to a point where the machine wouldn't even get to a post screen. Okay, I take out the Centon chip and it gets to a post screen now.
So far I got a bad DVD/CD and a bad stick of Centon. Centon goes back to Circuit City and I just ordered a stick from Crucial.
Spent 30 minutes on the phone with India at one point and Puerto Rico at another. What a f'ing nightmare! I feel sorry for anyone that has to deal with their support who doesn't have a working knowledge of computers: i can see them spending hours on the phone with these Tech. Reps. At one point, the guy from India asked me if I had a screwdriver handy? WTF? It's a bad DVD---why the hell do I need a screwdriver?? I put the headset up to the DVD module so he could listen to it grind.
"Okay, we'll overnight you a replacement ASAP," he said.
So far I'm pleased with the machine; although, i haven't really taken her out for a spin yet. And I'm a bit worried about the bad start and the exp. with support. I don't know if offshoring work is going to save money in the long run, Mr. Dell. You may want to rethink that.
The casing is a lot better than what i was expecting: I have an Inspiron 4100 and the casing is creaking and cracking everywhere. It's going on 2 years old, so I'm sure the 8600 will be at that point as well. Nevertheless, i plan on doing the chasis mod in the future, if i decide to keep the machine, so no worries there.
The HDD is a seagate 40 gb at 5400 rpms. I am a bit happy 'bout that: was expecting a cheapo 4200 rpm one. I ordered it from the Biz section so maybe they outfit the machines from that area with *better* drives, because I hear a lot of people saying they're getting the Hitachi 4200s. Oh well, I'm happy 'bout the 5400 drive: i won't have to swap out my Tosh. 5400 now from my I4100.
Stay tuned for more.
