Finally chose a Latitude E6400! Thanks everyone!

Especially allfiredup, i couldn't have done it without him, he was insanely helpful.

Its a certified refurb; it has everything i want at a great price:

-- Latitude E6400 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 (2.53GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)

-- 14.1 inch UltraSharp WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display

-- Back-lit Keyboard

-- Genuine Windows Vista Business

-- Brushed Metal Black

-- 24X CD RW/DVD Combo Drive

-- 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (1 DIMMs)

-- 90W AC Adapter

-- 9 Cell Primary Battery

-- 125V Power Cord

-- Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD With Express Card

-- 250 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

-- Dell Wireless 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card

-- Integrated Webcam with digital microphone


Im upgrading the RAM to 4gb, and maybe the hard drive if its too loud. I got the integrated GPU on purpose so it runs cooler and quieter and has better battery life (I don't play games). Ill try for a new version of vista too. Im happy i got the p9500, that was probably the only one left that was a decent price, heh.

How did i do?

 

Well specced laptop, hope you don't have CPU whine issues with this one

 

Thank you sir. I took that third one back btw, they said the noise wasnt normal. It had the same noise on the display unit too! None of the other computers had it. Mustve been a weird design flaw...dont have to worry about it anymore.

 

Very nicely sped'd indeed. Congrats on the P9500 CPU.
How much did it cost ?

 

That's a nice spec. The one drawback I see is the 24X CD RW/DVD Combo Drive, which is not a DVD burner. I'm not sure why they still make those since the manufacturing cost difference between them and a DVD burner is very small.

So you may need to buy your own DVD burner. It is a 9.5mm thick unit with SATA interface. Mine is a PLDS DU-8A2S, but Dell use a couple of other models as well. However, this type of burner isn't easy to find in the retail chain yet.

John

 

Pretty good spec, good luck. Hope everything works out fine in this one.

 

nice! Like mine except for the proc.

If planning on upgrading HDD, wait. Most manufacturer have G3 SSDs inline for mid 2009. Most of them are gonna be as fast as Intel's X-25 at a fraction of the cost. Sandisk and OCZ drives have announced already.

The drive is not that noisy; I just think Dell could have done a better job of isolating it from the chassis... Mine doesn't vibrate or anything, but you hear it spin.

 

Well, personally, I'm fine with the combo drive. The only thing I'd really need a DVD burner for with some systems is to burn a restore disc... but Dell gives you the Windows DVD so I don't need to do that. For backups, the hard drive is fine, and Linux install discs can fit on a CD. Of course if you need to burn DVDs for video, then yeah...

 

omg nooooooooo....it already came! except for its at our house, which is an hour and a half away from my school. which really isnt a big deal but i have classes tonight and tomorrow, and i ordered memory and sent it to our house. im so dumb lol.

i shouldve had it all sent here. so i hope the memory arrives saturday at latest so i can just pick it all up saturday.

 

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I GOT IT!!!

I am completely satisfied except for a couple things:

the touchpad sucks.
the HDD makes some clicking but i read a thread that shows how to get rid of it. it also vibrates a bit but that doesnt seem to bother me...i guess its normal with the crappy seagate drives lol.

THERE ARE SOME SCRATCHES AND SMUDGES ON THE LID!

since its a refurb i dont mind as much, but i thought that this would consider it to be a scratch and dent...should i call them and see what they can do?

It really is pretty quiet so far...and NO WHINING NOISES!!

great keyboard too.

oh yeah, dont see any windows install disc, which i would have liked.

i posted this in the owners thread too because i thought it would be appropriate.