Dell Inspiron 9400 with Core 2 Duo and Nvidia 7900 GS Review

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by Matthew To, Canada

The Dell Inspiron 9400 is the Canadian version of the Dell Inspiron e1705. For American's, this notebook is the business model of the e1705. There is almost no difference between the 9400 and an e1705, the only difference being the model number that is displayed on top of the keyboard. The 9400 is built as a desktop replacement, offering some of the most powerful laptop components on the market, some of which include the new Intel Core 2 Duo processors and the NVIDIA Go 7900 GS GPU.

Specs:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 (2 GHz, 4 MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
• Ram: 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR2 SDRam, 533 MHz
• Screen: 17 Inch Ultrasharp WUXGA with TrueLife, 1920x1200
• Hard Drive: 120GB, 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
• Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS
• Optical drive: 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with Dual Layer Write Capability
• Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
• Battery: 80WHR 9 Cell Battery
• Soundcard: Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition
• OS: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
• Warranty: 3 Year Accidental Coverage
• Price: $1987.50 CDN, which is approximately $1709.25 USD. With taxes and recycling fee: $2,106.75 CDN or $1,811.80 USD. I haggled the price down, originally with a 3 year accidental warranty, it would have cost at least $200 CDN more than the price that I purchased it at.

Dell Inspiron 9400 17&quot; screen notebook (view larger image)

Reasons for Buying:

I bought this notebook because I needed a notebook for university that was also good enough for gaming, as I am an avid gamer. I was looking for the cheapest, most powerful laptop on the market that would be able to play the latest games such as Oblivion and F.E.A.R. and run 3D intensive programs such as SolidWorks. I also needed a notebook that would run Vista with all the bells and whistles and would last me for the next 3-4 years.

Where I Bought the Notebook:

I initially purchased the notebook over the phone with a representative from Dell Canada, but the order was cancelled, more on that later. I then went to the actual Dell Direct Kiosk and ordered it from there.

Build and Design:

The design for the Dell is very nice and very sturdy. I have heard that the chassis of this machine is actually a magnesium alloy one. There is no flex at all on the body, if I push down hard on the lid, no ripples show up on the LCD. There is also no twist in the screen. In terms of looks, the 9400 does look very bland and doesn't stand out very much. But to be honest, I don't mind the looks of the 9400 at all.

Dell e1705 top view (view larger image)

Screen:

There are two options for screens on the 9400. There was the 1440x900 WXGA+ screen that was matte or the 1920x1200 Ultrasharp WUXGA with True Life. The screen that I chose was the latter. The screen is superb; it is bright, clear and gives a crisp image. Movies and games truly stand out with this screen. In terms of light leakage, there was some very slight leakage at the bottom, but that was only visible in a very dark room on a completely black screen, other than that, I couldn't tell it was there. There were no dead pixels whatsoever. The 1920x1200 resolution is very nice in my opinion. The text is small, but not very hard to read.

The Dell Inspiron 9400 17&quot; screen with TrueLife provides a gorgeous picture (view larger image)

Speakers:

The built in speakers are top-notch for a laptop. There was almost no break-up at higher volumes and there was no tinny sound that most laptops have. There was a built in subwoofer at the bottom which gives the bass a nice oomph. The speakers also provide great directional cues, I can tell where gunshots are coming from in games before I can see the shooter. However, the Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition that I also got as an extra doing configuration is pretty much so worthless. It's just a piece of software that is supposed to make everything sound better (which may be the reason why I love the speakers?) but I thought it was going to be an actual soundcard that was capable of using 5.1 speakers. On the upside, at least it was a relatively cheap extra option at $30 CDN. The speakers are truly exceptional, I couldn't be happier with them.

Processor and Performance:

The processor that I got was the new Intel Core 2 Duo T7400. The clock frequency was a blazing fast 2.16GHz. The new Intel Core 2 Duo gives a 15% performance over the Intel Core Duo's. Here are the Super Pi results.

Super Pi results:

The time to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy came to 1 min and 1 second, and the load on the cores was only at 54% throughout the whole test

 

Notebook	Time to calculate Pi to 2m digits in SuperPi
Dell Inspiron 9400 (2.16GHz T7400 Intel Core 2 Duo)	1m 01s
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E)	1m 18s
Rock Pegasus 665-T72 (2.0GHz T7200 Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s
Toshiba Satellite P105-S9722 (2.0GHz T7200 Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s

As you can see, the T7400 is a blazing fast processor.

Benchmarks:

3DMark 05:

3DMark05 is a program that benchmarks the 3D capabilities of the system.

Notebook	3DMark05 Result
Dell Inspiron 9400 (2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 256 MB Nvidia Go 7900 GS)	6,572 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron 9400 (2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 256 MB Nvidia Go 7900 GS) With Slight Overclocking	7,639 3D Marks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia GeForce Go7800 GTX)	7,078 3D Marks
HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2,536 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,157 3D Marks
WidowPC Sting D517D (Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz, Nvidia 7900GTX 512MB)	8,715 3D Marks

 

As you can see, the 9400 has one of the most powerful cards on the market for a laptop. The 7900 GS is one of the best value cards, it is capable of running most new games on high settings without a hitch. I have overclocked my card and flashed the 7900 GTX bios onto the card, boosting the performance of my card substantially. After the overclock, my card gets 7,639 3D Marks. This is only a minor overclock, however, my system does not run much hotter, and I plan on overclocking more once I have acquired a notebook cooler. There have been people that have achieved over 10,000 3DMarks with an overclocked 7900 GS! That is much faster than the 7900 GTX, but the 7900 GTX costs at least $200 more than a 7900 GS. Be warned though, overclocking your system does void your warranty.

Gaming Screenshots:

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Above you see screenshots from Oblivion, the game looks gorgeous when running on this Inspiron 9400!

Heat and Noise:

The 9400 has two fans, one for the video card and the other for the CPU. The fans are programmed to come on at certain temperatures, so during light usage (word processing, email, etc.), the fans rarely come on, and if they do it's only at low speeds, so the noise is barely noticeable. However, during gaming, the laptop does get very hot and when the fans come on, they are very noisy, so headphones are a must.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Dell Inspiron 9400 keyboard and touchpad (view larger image)

The keyboard on the 9400 is a full size keyboard, however, Dell didn't include a number pad on the system, and there is more than sufficient room for a number pad on the side. Other than that, I love the keyboard, it has a great feel and the keys have a nice clicky response to them. I wouldn't trade this keyboard away for anything.

The touchpad on the 9400 is a wide touchpad, because of the widescreen display. The touchpad feels nice, tracks fine and since I use a mouse most of the time, I really haven't encountered any problems with it.

Input and Output Ports:

The 9400 comes with the following ports:

• 6 USB 2.0 ports
• DVI out
• IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
• S-Video Out
• Audio out for headphone/speakers
• Microphone
• VGA out
• RJ-45 (Ethernet)
• RJ-11 (Modem)
• 5-in-1 MultiCard Reader
• ExpressCard slot

Front side: Just media buttons on the front (view large image)

 

Left side: 2 USB ports, DVD drive (view large image)

 

Right side: MultiCard Reader, Expresscard slot, Audio out, Microphone and Firewire (view large image)

Back: S-video, Ethernet, Modem, 4 USB 2.0 ports, DVI, VGA, and AC adapter (view large image)

The 9400 does come with a whopping 6 USB ports, so, rest assured, you'll probably never run out of USB ports to plug your gadgets into. The one thing I don't like is the lack of a PCMCIA slot. Since there are almost no Expresscard products from most companies, the lack of the PCMCIA slot is troublesome. However, Expresscard is supposed to be the future accessory expansion slot for notebooks.

Wireless

The 9400 comes with an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps), which works fine, I can get a strong, consistent signal throughout my entire house, including the basement. However, the configuration I got did not have Bluetooth.

Battery

I got a 9 cell battery for the 9400 and surprisingly, the battery does last quite long for a 17-inch screen laptop. On maximum brightness, and word-processing/email/etc, the battery lasts about 2:15, however, on the lowest brightness and Wi-Fi off, the battery does last for around 3 hours.

Operating System and Software

The OS on this 9400 is Windows XP Media Center Edition, and Dell shipped a reinstall CD also. There have been a lot of complaints about the bloatware that comes with Dell computers, however, I didn't have a lot of bloatware when I received my system. There was only one program that I got rid of, a music playing program, but other than that, the system only came with MCE, Dell support and Nero burning software.

Customer Support:

Here is my biggest complaint about Dell, their customer support. I ordered my laptop on September 19 and it didn't arrive until October 10, 20 days later. During that time, my order got cancelled and I had to reorder it. I initially ordered on the phone, but the salesperson recorded my phone number, address and postal code wrong! I had to phone Dell to find out about what happened to my order, I didn't receive any call from them, but I think that's because they had the wrong number. I then went to the Dell kiosk to order it, and because of the previous problems, they did give me a good deal, better screen and 3 year accidental warranty for only $150, the original price would be around $300. But other than having to wait 3-weeks for my computer, I really don't have that much to say about customer support.

Conclusion:

The Inspiron 9400 is definitely one of the best desktop replacement laptops on the market for the money I paid. It is powerful and fast, plays the latest games and can outperform most laptops.

Pros:

• Cheap, great value
• Great performance due to a blazing fast processor and an extremely powerful GPU
• 6 USB ports
• Great keyboard
• Fantastic Screen
• Great build

Cons:

• Gets pretty hot
• Loud fans
• Lack of PCMIA slot
• No numberpad
• Pretty bulky and heavy

 

 

Nice review!

 

Nice review.

Why is XPS so much more expensive with the same spec?

 

Yes, excellent review and thanks for the benches. Sorry to say that it took so long for you to get the notebook. That isn't the first time a vendor has gotten it screwed up before...

 

Man, you would think that if a customer service rep makes a living selling notebooks he'd want to copy down a shipping address and phone number right!

 

I think its because you get much better customer service, you get some lights that can land a plane, and you're paying for the "XPS" brand. I hear that the XPS has a special customer service just for them thats supposed to be better. But in my opinion, paying almost $500 more for those perks is too much...

 

XPS Tech and CS are just people promoted from the Inspiron division I think. Same accent, same locations, just more competent.

That being said, my old XPS M140 was had for around the same price as the old i630m so it was worth it for me.

 

wow where'd you find the information about how to flash the 7900gtx bios onto the 7900gs?

 

Sweet review and nice pics, shame that it gets so hot but then all of the Dells I or my dad has had get rather hot to. I am on the verge of putting a little AC5 on the CPU and give the inside a careful cleaning to see if that will cool down the laptop a little.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write up your review. Those are some nice benchmarks!

 

Awesome review.
Glad to see that your quite satisfied with your notebook.

That's some crazy benchmarks with your GPU .
And I absolutely love the gorgeous scenery of Oblivion from your screenshots.
But I did found it strange, that your Super Pi from your 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo is only 1 second lower than a 2.0ghz Core 2 Duo.

Perhaps, it's the bloatware slowing the notebook. Maybe a clean install would have shown different results.

 

Nice review and not a bad choice . Enjoy .

The only thing that stopped me from ordering is that its the same platform as the 9300 , I'd like to see better style , screen quality , improved audio etc.

Dell has been using the same basic platform for several years now .

 

Excellent review! Those are awesome benchmarks!

 

Nice review! I just think that the keyboard looks so small on that frame. There really is no excuse in my opinion for this not having a number pad. There is plenty of room for it and they should have one in my opinion. Other than that I like it.

 

Great review! Thanks for taking the time.
BTW, after flashing the bios with that of the 7900GTX, did you also get the 130w ps that the M1710 comes with? I have read that in order to get the most out of the 7900GS with GTX flashed bios, it is recommended that you upgrade the ps.

 

The 110 PW? I am going to get it later, but right now, my overclocks are low enough that I dont need the 110... yet

 

Very nice benchmarks. I am starting to think it is time to upgrade from my I9300. I would love going from 4,200 3dmark05 to nearly 8,000. To bad dell stop releasing those sweet $750 off coupons.

 

I have just boosted the overclock, cause i just picked up a notebook cooler, now i am getting 8654 marks on 3DMark05, stable, no artifacts in atitool

 

Good review. I think the keyboard is fine and doesn't need a numberpad. If one does a lot of number crunching work then they should attach an external keyboard or number pad for it. Because if you add number pad on a 17' laptop then it would shift the main keyboard by 1.5' to 2' to the left of center of laptop making it awkward for typing especially when using it on lap.

 

I think one of the main reasons they didnt add a keypad was to save money. They didn't want to redesign the keyboard, because they wanted to keep it the same as the e1505.

 

That's just cheap...it looks so bad.

My guess is they haven't realized yet this is why the dv9000 trumps the E1705 with regards to non-gaming functionality.

 

Ya, it looks really generic and bad... but the funny thing is when i show up at lan parties. People always ask me if my laptop is even going to be able to run the games, because its a dell and it looks cheap. Its priceless when you see the look on their face when u tell them the specs and it outperforms their desktops

 

Haha! That's funny. But its true, PsycoticClown, your Inspiron 9400 is more powerful than the desktop I'm using right now.

Thanks for the review, PsycoticClown, and by the way, have you ever tried Thinkpad keyboards? You might want to trade the Dell keyboard for it .

 

I tried the Thinkpad keyboard at costco...compared to HP laptop it feels much much better. The feel of keyboard of both HP and dell are about same. Dell keyboard might be more suited for longer use.

btw: In Dell what's the difference between audio options 'none', 'Integrated sound' and 'audigy sound thing'

 

hmm, i didnt know theres a "none" option. The integrated option is the default one, I think... Basically, integrated is nothing special. the audigy sound isnt worth the purchase. It is only software, it isnt truly hardware, its not a different sound card, it uses the same card as the integrated one. the software just includes EAX and some other stuff, tbh, not worth the extra money.

 

which one is cheaper though when configured with the geforce 7900gs

e1705 or this one with the most run down basic config and best monitor/screen option ?

 

whats this thinkpad keyboard anyways? is it a seperate keyboard, or is it just the keyboard on the thinkpads?

 

whats this thinkpad keyboard anyways? is it a seperate keyboard, or is it just the keyboard on the thinkpads?

 

whats this thinkpad keyboard anyways? is it a seperate keyboard, or is it just the keyboard on the thinkpads?

 

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=thinkpad keyboard

The normal keyboard on thinkpads.

 

Wow wats with the trpiple post?

 

wow, i dunno, i just noticed it, sry

 

whats the best coupon to apply on this laptop dell inspiron 9400 customized basic run down configuration w/ WUXGA TFT 17 inch screen & Geforce GO 7900 GS 256mb ?

The $300 instant savings comes up by default bringing the grand total before tax and shipping to approx $1197

Anyone else find cheaper?

 

thats prolly about the cheapst your going to get.

 

is dell.com the only place to have a CTO on this inspirion 9400 ?

 

hey Psyclown,

Great review man. i'm curious to know which notebook cooler did you end up getting? im having a hard time finding the perfect cooler for my e1705. Cant seem to find any coolers with the fan at the top end corners.

also, have you tried doing a benchmark on 3dMark '06? i'm curious to know what your score would be. Before i sent my laptop back for repairs I was getting 3404s and from people on the net they were avg'n 3800s.

 

I am curious how the price came in about $300 dollars cheaper then my quote and you have an upgraded CPU from my specs with the audio option.

I want one and need a good price. Maybe I will have to flirt with a sales person at the kiosk. sacrifice for what I want.

Why is Dell so weird?

 

My 9400 was about that price but i only have the 1 year warrenty xga+ screen and a 1.83 core 2 due? You got a insane deal there.

 

This review says the Inspiron 9400 is the "Canadian version" of the e1705. Is that accurate? It looks like the Inspiron 9400 is also what American customers get if they shop for the e1705 in the Dell Business stores.

 

Hey man,

I hope you are still enjoying your E1705. I gotta tell ya, I bought that computer because of your review. I know I may sound like I newb asking this, but I was wondering up to which core and memory speeds (Mhz) did you overclock your card to in your review. I don't want to strain my card so your previous settings there seem great.

Also I wanted to ask you if you could briefly tell me how you got around doing it. What programs did you use or what website did you use as a guide or reference concerning the overclocking.

Also do you know if this has a permanent effect on the notebook's battery? I mean with the added power is the strain on the battery too great? Or is there a setting to make the graphics card work with default settings (core and memory speeds) when unplugged?

I'd appreciate any help. Take care!

 

Hi,
I am planning to replace my 9300 to a 9400 model.

I hope you don't mind me asking have you tried using the microphone jack. I owned an inspiron 9300, but normal microphone won't work. I have an amplified one and works ok albeit the static. Some review said USB microphone works but not on all applications.

Cheers.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write that review PsycoticClown. I was actually looking for some info on the Inspiron 9400 before buying one and your review was the most comprehensive and complete. I'm from Puerto Rico (caribbean) and here we don't have the E1705, even though its the same notebook with different model number as you said. So it was kinda difficult finding a review specifically of the 9400. Even though mine is not as packed as yours is (no UltraSharp LCD and 2.00GHz instead of 2.16GHz), I hope that still it runs as good as yours. Working at Gamestop I can't help being a gamer, so later on I would appreciate if you could guide me through the overclocking of the video card if needed. I know I will regret not getting the 9 cell battery.

INSPIRON 9400
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200
(2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
LCD Panel 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ TFT Display with TrueLife™(glossy)
Memory 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
Hard Drive 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400-RPM)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD
Primary Battery 6 cell