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    Dell Latitude questions..

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by greg1, Aug 25, 2006.

  1. greg1

    greg1 Notebook Guru

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    Hi, I'm interested in possibly buying a Dell notebook. Interested in the
    Dell Latitude C640, 1.8 Ghz, Pentium 4, 256 MB, 20 GB CD-RW-DVD. Does anyone here own one of these or a similar Dell model. I'm thinking about buying one from Overstock.com for about $500.

    Do you think this would be a good deal? Will Dell be a good name brand for a first-time notebook purchase? Thanks, Greg
     
    greg1, Aug 25, 2006
    #1
  2. xAMDvsIntelx

    xAMDvsIntelx Notebook Deity

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    I would look at Dell's B120/130 line before that notebook and I'd also take a look at HP/Compaq's V2000Z, which starts at $400 and has newer, better hardware than the C640 does.
     
    xAMDvsIntelx, Aug 25, 2006
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  3. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    I own the Latitude C640. Mine has a 2GHz P4-m, 512MB RAM, 30GB hard drive, and CD-ROM. Believe me, while the computer was top of the line for its time, it is severely outdated now. For $500, I would look elsewhere. The wireless card (if yours even has one) is 802.11b, and it is quite slow. The P-4m is decent, but is still slower than the last gen Pentium M and maybe comperable or even slower than current Celerons. While the computer is still going strong and is serving well as a secondary Linux laptop, 30GB is not much hard drive space (and you're looking at a 20GB), 256MB of RAM is too little for these days, and the nickel cadmium battery combined with bad power consumption of the Pentium adds up to about an hour of battery life, 2 at most. And the entire chassis is plastic, which while common for the time, is far inferior to the laptops of today, which even the plastic ones are more durable plastic than the C640.

    Don't get me wrong, the C640 was my first good laptop, and was considered one of the best thin and light business notebooks of the time, it is just very outdated now. For $500 or a little more, you can get a better laptop. Use coupons and configure an E1405 or E1505 for around $800-$900 and get a MUCH better deal.
     
    Paul, Aug 25, 2006
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  4. greg1

    greg1 Notebook Guru

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    Ok, but where are these $400.00/$500.00 notebooks at? I can never find any that cheap. Where are you getting these figures from, a shopping website, a store or what? Thanks, Greg
     
    greg1, Aug 28, 2006
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  5. NetBrakr

    NetBrakr Notebook Deity

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    NetBrakr, Aug 28, 2006
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