Well, UPS delivered my 9300 yesterday at around 8pm. After a day of waiting, I was thinking it wasn't going to show up at all! Unpacked, and first thing I did was install my 1GB of ram from Newegg. Was really easy, but I was confused about the little black plastic strip where I was supposed to put the memory. I just put it on top of that because I saw there was something similar under the other memory Dell had (I'm guessing this is some kind of heat sink/guard? -- If I was supposed to take it off please let me know!).
Turned it on and she's a beauty. The display is simply gorgeous and big. There are no dead pixels on the screen that I can see, but there is a little bit of light leakage. The light leakage was noticable at first, but today, I've noticed that it's gotten much better. Furthermore, the only time that I could really see it was when the screen was black and I was looking at it from a non-direct angle. Other than that, I couldn't really notice it, and again, today it's barely noticable.
One thing that I opted to go for was Windows Media Center, the TV tuner, and remote control. I just tried them out today and it's pretty neat. Media center is not on all the time, but rather you open it through a program or by pushing the start button on the remote control. From here, you can easily navigate through pictures, music files, etc. Media center will even automatically download cover art, band information, track names, etc. from the internet if you set up your computer in such a manner. However, I decided to surpass this because I'm not sure if all my music is legit. There was much talk of obtaining rights and such that I didn't quite understand, but decided I'd rather stay away from (seems there is a possibility of a tied IPS address at some point, but correct me if I'm wrong).
Another goodie I added was the 9cell vs. the 6cell battery. I also think this was a good choice. When my battery bar is full in the bottom right hand corner, is says I should be getting about 4 hours out of my battery life. I've noticed this drops a little faster than this, but after about an hour unplugged, I still found I was at around 70% fooling around in media player and such. Haven't run EQ2 or anything yet as I haven't had time.
I opted against a total reformat of the HD, but I may opt to later on. I did uninstall Earthlink, AOHell, some business program they had and a couple others. Also, I've noticed a lot of the programs when you open them are only 2-3 month trials, so these will possibly have to go after they require registration. Sooo, I may end up clearing the HD later, but I'm not the most tech savy, so I'm guessing I'll probably go with an external HD and let Dell have it's bit of the HD in case anything goes wrong so I can just reboot it as they want me to. I'll need the external in any case for all the TV recordings I will be doing
.
I decided to get the Dell Backpack Carrying case (about $39). The computer fits in it nice, and it is comfortable with good weight distribution. Lots of little odds and end pouches to hold the random things you'll have along with it (like remote/external HD/infrared sensor/mouse/etc.). However, it's kind of thin, so you won't have too much room for books. I wouldn't reccomend it to a student who is going to use this to carry books + computer unless you only plan to carry 1 classes books/notebook at a time.
Finally, there is one thing I am a little disappointed in -- the lack of connection devices. There aren't any video/audio cables or any printer cords. No cords at all really except the bare minimum. So, I'd recommend if you are getting Media Center and want to use your 9300 as a home entertainment system, that you go out and buy an SVideo cable, along with an audio adapter and cords to connect those if you don't have them lying about the house.
All in all, I'm fairly happy so far, though I've only had the comp for about 12 hours -- hah! BTW -- if any of you are traveling/moving outside the country, I'd recommend the 3 year warranty or more. I wasn't going to extend my warranty, but after finding out 3 years would allow me coverage in Japan, I opted for this deal. Below you will find my specs. Thank you all that have contributed to this board. You've been much help in my decision on this beautiful machine!
Pentium M 1.6
17" WUXGA screen
NVidia Go 6800 256mb
1.25 G Ram
60GB 7200 HD
8X DVD-DL RW
Windows Media Center
Dell Angel USB TV Tuner w/ Remote
9 cell battery
Backpack carrying case
(Just above $1600 for system + $110 for memory)
3 year International Warranty
(another $280)
Total $1999
Turned it on and she's a beauty. The display is simply gorgeous and big. There are no dead pixels on the screen that I can see, but there is a little bit of light leakage. The light leakage was noticable at first, but today, I've noticed that it's gotten much better. Furthermore, the only time that I could really see it was when the screen was black and I was looking at it from a non-direct angle. Other than that, I couldn't really notice it, and again, today it's barely noticable.
One thing that I opted to go for was Windows Media Center, the TV tuner, and remote control. I just tried them out today and it's pretty neat. Media center is not on all the time, but rather you open it through a program or by pushing the start button on the remote control. From here, you can easily navigate through pictures, music files, etc. Media center will even automatically download cover art, band information, track names, etc. from the internet if you set up your computer in such a manner. However, I decided to surpass this because I'm not sure if all my music is legit. There was much talk of obtaining rights and such that I didn't quite understand, but decided I'd rather stay away from (seems there is a possibility of a tied IPS address at some point, but correct me if I'm wrong).
Another goodie I added was the 9cell vs. the 6cell battery. I also think this was a good choice. When my battery bar is full in the bottom right hand corner, is says I should be getting about 4 hours out of my battery life. I've noticed this drops a little faster than this, but after about an hour unplugged, I still found I was at around 70% fooling around in media player and such. Haven't run EQ2 or anything yet as I haven't had time.
I opted against a total reformat of the HD, but I may opt to later on. I did uninstall Earthlink, AOHell, some business program they had and a couple others. Also, I've noticed a lot of the programs when you open them are only 2-3 month trials, so these will possibly have to go after they require registration. Sooo, I may end up clearing the HD later, but I'm not the most tech savy, so I'm guessing I'll probably go with an external HD and let Dell have it's bit of the HD in case anything goes wrong so I can just reboot it as they want me to. I'll need the external in any case for all the TV recordings I will be doing
.I decided to get the Dell Backpack Carrying case (about $39). The computer fits in it nice, and it is comfortable with good weight distribution. Lots of little odds and end pouches to hold the random things you'll have along with it (like remote/external HD/infrared sensor/mouse/etc.). However, it's kind of thin, so you won't have too much room for books. I wouldn't reccomend it to a student who is going to use this to carry books + computer unless you only plan to carry 1 classes books/notebook at a time.
Finally, there is one thing I am a little disappointed in -- the lack of connection devices. There aren't any video/audio cables or any printer cords. No cords at all really except the bare minimum. So, I'd recommend if you are getting Media Center and want to use your 9300 as a home entertainment system, that you go out and buy an SVideo cable, along with an audio adapter and cords to connect those if you don't have them lying about the house.
All in all, I'm fairly happy so far, though I've only had the comp for about 12 hours -- hah! BTW -- if any of you are traveling/moving outside the country, I'd recommend the 3 year warranty or more. I wasn't going to extend my warranty, but after finding out 3 years would allow me coverage in Japan, I opted for this deal. Below you will find my specs. Thank you all that have contributed to this board. You've been much help in my decision on this beautiful machine!
Pentium M 1.6
17" WUXGA screen
NVidia Go 6800 256mb
1.25 G Ram
60GB 7200 HD
8X DVD-DL RW
Windows Media Center
Dell Angel USB TV Tuner w/ Remote
9 cell battery
Backpack carrying case
(Just above $1600 for system + $110 for memory)
3 year International Warranty
(another $280)
Total $1999
