D820 - What am I giving up?

Hi,

I was previously looking at Multimedia notebooks but the D820 caught my eye. I was wondering if anyone could outline what you loose in a business vs leisure notebook. Is playing / recording DVDs still possible? Will I see decreased performance with programs such as ITunes?

Also - I was wondering if it was possible to connect this computer to an LCD screen via a tertiary port. I know that it doesn't have the port needed, but I was wondering if I could buy some sort of add on.

Thanks!

 

You can still play and record dvd's as long as you choose the dvd drive option at configuration. Itunes is going to run the same as on the "multimedia" notebook. As far as I know, all of dell's machines use the same sigmatel audio codec so there really isn't going to be a difference as far as sound is concerned.

Dell latitude machines use the D/Dock to provide ports like DVI. The laptop does have VGA onboard, but to get the highest quality video connection to an lcd you will want to use the DVI connection on the D/Dock. The docking stations usually go for $50 on ebay, and around $200 on Dell's site...

 

My wife hooks up to a 19" monitor through the on board VGA . She then uses both the 15.4" laptop LCD and the 19" LCD as she works away.

Recording DVD's/CD's is fine as long as you get the DVD RW burner.

 

No Svideo, no Media card reader...etc

 

The S-video thing I am a tad concerned about. Is there any way to connect this model to a TV with a tertiary device?

Thanks

 

The D820 really is not meant for multimedia or games, as a business class machine it lacks the features mentioned above, such as S-Video/DVI, multi media card reader, etc. In addition, the graphics card is not particularly gamer friendly, the highest option as of now is the equivalent of a GeForce Go 7400, which can hold its own in some respect, but does not approach the abilities of the GeForce 7900GS or GTX available for E1705 and the XPS1710, respectively.

As for your DVD writing/reading and playing movies/hd content, the d820 can handle these tasks briskly. However, in my opinion if you are looking for a multimedia orientated lap top, this is not the one to get. I use it for school, and I have all my music and some video media on it.

The pros of the d820 is that it is far far superior in construct to the inspiron lines. It's not even close. The chasis is a solid rock, the hinge of the screen is so firm (you'll never see the wobbliness that most lap tops suffer), the keyboard is elite (I type a lot and the keys have maintained their tight feedback), the color on the palmrests do not fade, it looks 100x better, on and on. My brother said it best when he compared the inspiron line as a honda, and the latitude as a acura...no matter how much you pimp out the inspiron, it'll never be an acura

I digress, if multimedia is your desire, you can make due with the d820 and a docking station, which can be had for ~50 bucks on ebay. The one aspect you will have to suffer with is the inability to play modern games at high specs. Other than that the d820 can do about everything and anything comparable to other multimedia machines.

 

Thanks for the replies

I don't play games often, if ever, so gaming is not an issue.

I will be purchasing a notebook for university next year so it will be a work notebook more than anything, but I would still like to have the option to play DVDs etc

Cheers

 

A friend of mine has the D620 and is very happy with it. As has been said, some connections are missing, no expresscard (but PCMCIA instead), and the speaker is mono... but the actual components (CPU, RAM, HD, motherboard, sound card) are the same....

 

The D820/620 issue was my condundrom recently, too. Ended up with the Precision M65 which, except for the NVIDIA 350M GPU, is the same machine as the D820. (The 'big' difference is the GPU - though 3Dmark05 specs are only a notch higher than the D820's NVIDIA 120M. The 120M is more for biz gfx applications, the 350M targeted more towards entry-level CAD). My comments below can be applied equally to the 820 and th eM65:

It's married to a D/Port Replicator and monitor stand. I have all the i/o's I need (including your S-video), the replicator has a Kensington lock port that integrates it's lock with the lappy. It also has an additional media bay for another DVD, battery, etc. I keep my CRT to the side, but the monitor stand gives me some elevated desk space. And, yes, eBay was my best best for finding them inexpensively ($60 delivered for the replicator & stand).

Microsoft's VGA handles 4:3 just fine on an external monitor. The LCD screen brightness issue is not an issue - as sometimes posted in these forum - if you get into the battery setup. Can run this thing very brightly by disabling the ambient light sensor. Even lowering the UXGA's LCD resolution is no problem if done correctly (i.e., don't use the 120dpi setting...use 'appearance' tab settings in Display).

Storage? An external WD2500 (250GB @ 7200)...and an entertaining PM-525U2-MCS enclosure w/USB2.

Go with 3-year onsite, Gold tech support, and Complete Care if available in your state.

The clincher - even with this value - was that I found this one refurbished on the Dell Outlet site and saved almost 40% off new.