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9100 isn't as great as I thought

post #1 of 54
11/10/04 at 4:41am
Thread Starter 
This laptop, although extremely powerful in speed, has a lot of drawbacks that make this laptop shitty. For one, the mere size of it is inconvienent, and when coupled with it's whimpy battery life, it's almost a joke to say this is portable. Also, as a home desktop 'replacement', it lacks serial ports and comports, which are neccessary for certain devices, which Dell fails to consider in creating this. Also, the lack of a scroll bar on the touch pad is also extremely inconvienent, and makes using this thing without a mouse a pain in the ass.
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post #2 of 54
11/10/04 at 4:55am
umm, geez. that kind of comments gets on me sometimes, but not to be rude but man you should have gone with i8600 or 600m or 700m. well just sent it back in as long as you are under 21 days policy. then re order it.
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post #3 of 54
11/10/04 at 5:00am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I'm sorry for my criticism of this laptop, because it is a popular choice. But what I'm saying is true, and I'm sure you all feel the same way too. Like a lot of other people here, I chose this laptop for the true speed, and the ability to actually play games on my laptop.
What I actually started this thread for, is not to cause a flame thread, but actually to think of ways to work around the drawbacks of this otherwise perfect laptop.
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post #4 of 54
11/10/04 at 5:06am
three words... USB port replicator

the size is relevant to the power it has and when buying a machine of this caliber, you would expect minimal battery times. There are plenty of laptops that offer ports and better battery life, but you will suffer a bit in performance and gaming. It really depends on your taste i guess. I take it to college 3 days a week and it is a wonderful companion to have in my field where power and precision are key.
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post #5 of 54
11/10/04 at 8:02am
Gaming machine and Portability Size don't really go together....... YET
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post #6 of 54
11/10/04 at 9:07am
my touchpad does have the scroll function. i just enable it in the software.
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post #7 of 54
11/10/04 at 9:13am
DTR

This would fit better of the i9100 and the iXPS. I would never call it a laptop. My XPS has never been on my lap since I received it. If you are truly unhappy with your i9100, I would certainly return it and reorder a 9200 or 8600. Either if those models my be what you are looking for. Moderate for gaming and might just fit on your lap with more comfort.
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post #8 of 54
11/10/04 at 10:03am
There IS a scroll bar on the touchpad. I'm not sure how long it will take people to play around with the computer before they naturally assume the worst, but it's starting to get to me.

If you didn't research the computer thoroughly, it's not Dell's fault. If you wanted a 9100, you should have known you were getting a heavy, hot brick that is capable of doing just about anything a desktop can.
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post #9 of 54
11/10/04 at 10:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmnstrunr37
If you didn't research the computer thoroughly, it's not Dell's fault. If you wanted a 9100, you should have known you were getting a heavy, hot brick that is capable of doing just about anything a desktop can.
I just sent my 9100 back. Yes it was a great computer and fast when it worked. I bought it as a desktop replacment. However the DVD burner never worked, even after replacement. It was very slow out of standby until reboot. Spent hours with Tech support, who made it worse. I guess I could have spent more time replacing drives and trying another one, but for $2K I don't have the time and I expect it to be faster than a 386 machine without rebooting every time I take it out of standby.

I'm thinking now that I'll just buy a more basic 8600 or 9200 and run it on a LAN with a new desktop. However the 9100 is probably one of the more powerful laptops out there
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post #10 of 54
11/10/04 at 10:32am
That's what I was going to say... there is a scroll bar on the touchpad. I really like it, as a matter of fact.

And I would also have to say that if you didn't want a desktop replacement and wanted a truly portable machine that you *can* put on your lap without blocking the fans for cooling... then the i9100 is not for you.

I spent a couple weeks on these forums reading up on everything before I decided... so... I knew what I was getting into. When I looked at the i8600 and compared the price for what you get with the i9100 for the same price, I went with the i9100... no question... hands-down.

But... that's a very personal choice you have to make. Just do it in the first 21 days... that's my advice.

Good luck!
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post #11 of 54
11/10/04 at 11:24am
I love my 9100.. Wont have no one talkin trash about my baby.
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post #12 of 54
11/10/04 at 12:11pm
i9100 is good at what is was made for. great performance in as small a size they can fit all the desktop quality parts without them having heating problems. as for the battery life, what do you expect with all the power. now that the next gen gaming machines are out the i9100/XPS are like the 4th fastest, but for those of us that got them with some monster discounts it doesn't mean much since the new systems cost and arm and a leg. as for the ports that don't come on the lappy, it's called progression and dell taking out the ports that are legacy when almost everyone uses usb now or as someone pointed out you can buy a port replicator.

note: you can scroll using your touchpad or you can make the nub on the keyboard to just be a scroller instead of a second pointer.
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post #13 of 54
11/10/04 at 12:31pm
i think of the 9100 as a tank, while my 8600 is just a plain ol' SUV.

and i'd rather drive an SUV thank a tank (unless im in iraq)
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post #14 of 54
11/10/04 at 12:38pm
I just wanted to chime in about serial ports. A lot of notebook coming out are not including this. My T40 came without serial ports. Im not sure about my 8600 yet ( Its to be shipped later today ) but it probably will not have serial ports either. The Latitude line Im not too sure about. But you can get USB to Serial Adapters, Its a pain, but I have worked with Cisco employee's who have been able to get them to work for a console port off their IBM T41's, so at least its possible to work around that.
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post #15 of 54
11/10/04 at 12:52pm
The 9100 is definitly a beast of a notebook both size-wize and performance-wize! I gotta tell you though, I think the P-M processors are faster than you think. They keep up rather well with it's bigger brother desktop chips.

In my opinion they need to stop calling these desktop replacements laptops or notebooks completely. I think it gives one a false sense of portability. I love my 8600 with a P M 1.7, it plays any game I throw at it fine. RAM, hard drive speed, and video card are the important things, not so much the processor these days.
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post #16 of 54
11/10/04 at 12:56pm
i've seen pics of the 9100..... it looks even uglier than the other dell line of notebooks. just personal opinon tho.
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post #17 of 54
11/10/04 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xarthan
Gaming machine and Portability Size don't really go together....... YET
So true, and high-end gaming laptop will have crappy battery life. Can't really have both at this point. If you want both, you gotta go somewhere in between, and that's why I got the 8600. The 8600 is fast enough to handle most of the games, unless we're talking about Doom 3 or HL. It is also not too big like the 9100 that is almost impossible of carrying around. Also, the 8600 got pretty decent battery life, around 3-4 hrs.
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post #18 of 54
11/10/04 at 1:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bleego
I just wanted to chime in about serial ports. A lot of notebook coming out are not including this. My T40 came without serial ports. Im not sure about my 8600 yet ( Its to be shipped later today ) but it probably will not have serial ports either. The Latitude line Im not too sure about. But you can get USB to Serial Adapters, Its a pain, but I have worked with Cisco employee's who have been able to get them to work for a console port off their IBM T41's, so at least its possible to work around that.
I've also noticed most of the latest laptops are coming out w/o the serial and/or parallel ports. I guess since everything is going USB now, the manufacturer just decided to drop the ports to cut cost.
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post #19 of 54
11/10/04 at 1:56pm
i love my 9100 too. But then again, i made an educated purchase by researching which laptop would best suit my needs.
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post #20 of 54
11/10/04 at 2:05pm
No the XPS, esp the one with the skullz, is by far the worst looking laptop Dell has ever made. The 9100 is bad looking but the XPS is atrocious. Hopefully the XPS2 looks like the 9200

Quote:
Originally Posted by afobisme
i've seen pics of the 9100..... it looks even uglier than the other dell line of notebooks. just personal opinon tho.
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