Dell Inspiron B130 now on Dell.com (U.S.)

Dell doesnt exactly work that way, for example if you have a 512mb ram chances are since its Dell, both slots are being used by 2 256ram, unless you paid extra for it to be ONE 512mb.

I just ordered this tonight for 708 and change and it has Pentium 1.73 Ghz/2mb L2 and 533Mhz front bus with the 512MB ram (2x256) I left it that way on purpose though because the ram will be running in Dual Channel. I'll probably just get 2 512 sticks soon though.

I MADE SURE that i had 512 MB with this mobo, 256 is just HORRIBLE for anything these days. You have to have AT least 512 preferably 1 gb.

 

Ahhh, I just noticed that on their website. I made sure not to pay for extra ram and just upgrade it myself. They charge $50 to upgrade from 256MB to 512MB. Compare this to buying an additional 512MB stick for $45-$50.

 

The best thing to do is to order it with 256. Then once you get it either throw in a 512MB or if your craving 1-2GB's of ram... Throw the 256 on ebay and get a few bucks for it then do the upgrades yourself. After selling the 256 you could upgrade to 1GB (512x2) for under $90.... but make sure the ram is DDRII and not the older DDR 400 or 333 ex... Congrats on all of your great dell purcahses.... And don't forget to play the Dell Holiday game to save even more.

 

Cool, I've been thinking about sticking another 512MB and keeping the 256MB in there. I can upgrade the 256MB to a 512MB or 1GB at a later time. 768MB should be enough for anything I'll be doing on the laptop.

As far as finding modules, I'm a big pricewatch fan. Just goto www.pricewatch.com and search for: notebook 512MB PC4200. The prices are rather appealing, but I recommend looking below the cheapest 5 or so since the cheapest stores usually have poor service and shotty products.

 

Angryllama,

I believe in order to get the full potential of DDRII you need to pair the sticks...anyone correct me if I am wrong...but I believe you will want to pair your sticks.

 

Yeah, I ordered my B130 from under Dell Small Biz, because the deal I was getting was much better than from Home, I basically saved a bit over a 100 dollars from going thru small biz, I was a bit worried at first because im not really a small biz, but I have seen other people post on forums before and say they done what I have did and had no problems.

I did however just get a E-mail from dell today asking for more information on my "company" such as how many laptops/desktops we currently had, and our "install base" on that issue and what is my IT budget for the next 12 months. the e-mail is intended to see if I qualify for a certain type of services support. However I'm not sure if I'm going to reply to that or not, because if I qualify they are gonna be "contacting me".


what would you guys do?

Yes, you are correct you need to pair sticks of the same brand and model to get the dual channel benefit. (it's said its all theorical but from my testing its proven) Just make sure its 2x 512 sticks and your not just selling 2x256 for 1x512. I have 2x256 right now and will when I have cash get 2x512.

 

If they call you asking for more information, just say that you are starting a sales or service bussiness out of your house, or say you are starting an Ebay business...both of those qualify as small businesses.

 

I dont think they'll even call at all.

I've read other people who ordered from Dell Small Biz and weren't a business and they said they had no problems, and actually had BETTER customer service.

I think I'll just ignore the e-mail. Now I just have to wait for the laptop to enter production, my shipdate is the 19th of Dec. Out of all the notebooks I seen on Dell apparently this one is the most backed up one because it has a later shipdate.

 

Their dates are typically 11 days from the day you order...I order on the 2nd and my estimated ship date was the 13th. My order is now on its way to the local carrier so I should get it tomorrow or Monday...they give you that date and then for the most part deliver earlier.

 

What did you order from Dell?

 

I ordered the Inspiron 9300. Depending on back order parts etc the ship is usually 11 days out...unless you order on Sunday I believe then it is 12 days (I think).

 

I agree that having two modules is a performance bonus because DDR2 is dual channel (ie, the two chips can be accessed in parallel). However, I don't believe they need to be paired exactly. It's true, they won't perform *as* well because the storage can only be balanced upto 256MB per module. But that is why I'm suggesting doing it as a transition.

Planning on waiting until January to upgrade the memory to 1GB, it will be even cheaper then.

 

Good thinking...if you check newegg.com just after Christmas there should be some good sales...so you might want to check on there...Compusa usually has some good sales right after also.

 

Does anyone know what the Max limit is set on for HDD space for the Dell B1300?

Most laptops out there have a max HDD restriction set in bios for how much HDD space will be seen by the computer. I'm planning on upgrading my harddrive soon. I do know however for sure that at least 80GB can be done because they have that as a option during configuration.

I probably will just get 80GB anyways, but I'd like to know beyond that.

Also anyone know about Ram and how much its expandable too? I'm assuming it's the more standard of 2GB.

 

Max ram should be 2GB. I've never heard of the BIOS restricting Harddrive space in this day-and-age, but Dell does some pretty sly stuff. I'm sure you could install LinuxBIOS on the system to avoid that problem.

 

If you need extra HD space just get a cheap Laptop external USB 2 HD. You can get a 60 GB for about $80. And most HD's over 80GB's are 4200 RPMS, so it will slow down you system. But if you use a slower HD as an external HD for Media ex... then that would be much better and faster...

 

It's worth nothing that 4200RPM drives, although slower, typically consume less power. So it's a payoff sort of thing.

 

I had a Sony Vaio laptop I bought back in Nov of 2001, and BIOS restricted how much GB's could be viewed by the system. I was assuming that it was a practice done by all manufacturers of notebooks.

Good to know that they dont do that, Ill have to test it out.

 

I have no clue if you still read this forum, but there is a company out there where you can send your laptop in and they will do the High Gloss, Anti-Reflective Screen application to it. I think it was called PixelBrite?

 

I'm still not 100% sure. I know that around that time harddrives were switching form CHS to LBA. Any BIOS not supporting LBA was limited to ~8GB. Since all mainstream bioses now support LBA I don't think this is an issue. I'm sure one of the gurus could clarify this.

 

The HDD I had the time was 20GB on it, so it did support LBA. I remember emailing Sony once and they said I couldnt go higher than what the BIOS allowed.

Kinda crappy considering I paid 2 grand for it.

 

Just a small question...I have a B120 with a Celeron M 360 processor. Would it be safe to upgrade from that Celeron to an Intel Pentium M 735 Dothan?

 

I had called Dell on possibly ordering these. They looked quite satisfactory and you could load some options and find discounts and keep it around the B130 high end basic of about $900.

However, the salesperson had absolutely no clue as to what "Express Cards" were. I looked these up and thought that 54 mm Express Cards might be support for PCMCIA cards, which I believe are 54 mm also. It's not an issue here but do "Express Cards" NOT support older PCMCIA cards?

 

They do not support PCMCIA. ExpressCards are just the laptop formfactor of PCI-E. (The same way PCMCIA was the notebook formfactor of PCI). Unless you have a ton of PCMCIA cards you wish to use, you should be happy to have an ExpressCard slot. They will take over in a matter of months.

 

Exactly, that is one of the things that appealed to me about this laptop, was that it had Express Card on it, I wasn't expecting it on the budget laptop, but lo and behold they put it on there.

 

You should have them do the upgrade though, if you do it yourself, you will void the warranty.

 

Hey guys i got my laptop b130 with 1.73 processor and all that. I just installed addition 1 gig ram with fresh format. And i will tell u what for 500 i paid for it, it is the best money i spent in a budget computer. I am really happy with it. :dell:

 

Thats great.

Tell us a bit about it, hows the build quality feel? Is it nice and quick? Have you tried watching anything on it like a HD clip?

Mine is in the Build stage today.

 

Pics! Pics! Pics!

 

i found some picks off a website. These arent mine. It would be cool if you could show some pics dullah17 tho.







i think it looks really nice. Only thing that im mad about is the screen, i wish it could have been the true bright or w/e. Anyways im happy with what i ordered and i cant wait for christmas

 

I really with the rest of the Inspirons looked like that. I hate this silver/white trim stuff.

Nice pics

[edit] guess it helps that I read the WHOLE post. Its nice to actually real pictures now, even if you didn't take them

SG

 

Nice pics. Sweet looking unit.

 

If you want the Trulife feature done on it, there is a company search for it on google type in "pixelbrite" and it should be the first link.

The deal is, you will send in your laptop with 100.00 and I think you have to pay return shipping? (not sure) However, they will give you that High Gloss screen than. It works for any laptop out there not just Dell. If you just want to learn more about the high gloss, its also a great reference site.

Just seeing those pictures make me want mine even more! My B1300 is in testing right now. According to my E-mail shipdate is the 19th, but the order status is saying 22-26 :/ I really hope it gets here before xmas.

Can someone tell me what the F2 button is on the keyboard? It looks like the Wireless on/off button. you know the FN + F2 = WIRELESS?

Oh man, I would love to have a three monitor display setup like in them pictures, either that is some Dell executive (lots of dell products) or its some rich guy.

 

Im really going to have to agree with you on that one. Its the one thing thats almost keeping me from pulling the trigger on this 6000 on eBay...the color scheme is just so...eh. I might end up just ordering a B130 from Dell direct.

 

Didn't find anything. Looks like a bunch of junk websites.

 

The picture posted for B130 is great, I personally think it looks way better in person. Build quality is good for budget laptop. My wife has the 8600 and she wants to swap with mine. The screen is actually nice. I expected it to be blurry. For normal use i think its great. I ordered another gig so i can have 2 gigs and i going to sale the 256 which came with the laptop. Overall I happy with my purchase specially costing me $500 for the laptop. I just wished they had a option of s-video on the laptop. Also guys if u decide to do a clean install which i did with XP pro, it is a breeze.. and also gets rid of all the junk which came with dell. Just remember to download the drivers from the support section.

 

I gave out the wrong name.

http://www.screentekinc.com/pixelbright-lcds.shtml

If you want more info give them a call at 1 (800) 834-4172

 

thanks for the link!...

now for the people that have the b130, who wanta to review it? im dieing to see more pics and a full review. Only 12 more days left until i get to open it!!! im so excited lol

 

Yeah, I get to try mine out once I finish finals and get to my parents' house.. oh joy!

 

I'm just as excited for my B130 too. Right now its in Testing, next is boxing. I just hope it ships out in time before Xmas!

I actually have two different shipdates. One says the 19th while the other is more vague and says 22-26 <-- . I've read on here some people said testing is one day and boxing is usually three days. my notebook right now has been in testing since late yesterday, so it should be entering boxing today... hopefully it ships out on thursday or friday.

 

XbandaidX,

You should get it by Christmas, depending on what shipping choice you got. If you got overnight you should. If not then I would call Dell and say you need it before Christmas, I got mine upgraded for free

 

well I got the 3-5 day shipping on it, I had a strict budget.

I'm starting college soon and I just needed something simple for school, nothing fancy, I got my custom built desktop for any heavy work.

How did you get yours upgraded for free? I recall you saying something about they didnt even have it on the shipping option you choosed or something?

 

Hi. New on this forum, but I know a thing or two about PC's.

I ordered a B130 in November, and am waiting patiently for it to arrive. It's in boxing now. I upgraded to the 80GB HD, the 15.4" screen, 512 of RAM, and the 6 cell battery. I think I got a good deal on it.

I also paid for the extended warranty. I have a slight advantage there, however. I am a DCSE, so I can have parts shipped to me and I can replace them without voiding my warranty. And I don't have to wait for a tech to schedule an appointment and come out to replace it. The extended warranty is worth every penny. You only have to replace one motherboard to pay for it, and motherboards are a little more breakable than people think. With motherboards, you have to replace them if a USB port stops working, your network connector bites the dust, the power connection goes bad (happens more often than you think - quit wiggling the connection, people ), or if your sound goes kaput.

I'll put it this way. The only Dell laptops I haven't done warranty work on is the B series. I know they haven't been out long, but reviews seem to be good from the techs I know.

 

I went on Dell sales chat and asked a couple of questions about the PC and then I asked if there was anyway to get it sooner. The sales person said that I could change my shipping option.

Which then I replied..."for how much?" She said she will upgrade me for free.

 

Where did you find the sales chat? I found the Tech Support one, but not sales...

 

xj14y,

This is the link, it is the one titled Chat with Order support. It is on the right hand side.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/en/chat?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs]

Good luck!

 

I found it right as you must have posted this. Thanks for the help.

 

Same thing happened here, they upgraded one of my notebooks and one of my printers to FedEx next-day. Even though I live 3 hours away from Nashville.

 

Angryllama,

I would have said forget shipping, I will pick it up myself. HAHA
At least Dell gives you free stuff like that. They are sending me a free second printer due to the issue that I had with them and Fedex and I had to be on the phone for like 3 hours to sort out the situation because Dell wouldn't call Fedex.

Good luck xj14y.

 

Worked like a charm. I didn't even have to pitch a fit. I simply asked for the exact status on the machine. They offered with no prodding. Nice.