Thoughts on this laptop

[The Hunter]

Okay, well I've been looking at laptops to get for university in the fall, and the current front runner is a Dell 600m. It's not perfect, and I'd love to have a nice T42 or something similar, but I just can't justify the expense for an IBM.

So far, this is how it's configured

1.5 GHz P4-M
14.1" XGA w/ Radeon 9000 (not great, but I'm not going to do any intensive gaming)
1 stick of 256 MB DDR 266 (going to throw in another stick of 512 that I can buy elswhere for less money)
40 GB HD
8X DVD+R w/ dual layer (free upgrade, woot!)
v.92 modem + 10/100 NIC
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 802.11b/g

It meets what I need, it's relatively light (5 lbs), and it's a reasonable price. I've got a few questions though.

I like to avoid all the OEM crap that comes with freshly bought computers. So what sort of OS comes with Dells? Is it still some stupid recovery CD that puts on all the junk, or do they by some stroke of luck come with a real windows CD? Also, I can get a cheap copy of XP Pro from my university, but it's an upgrade copy. What do you need to install an upgrade copy? Can you just give it a CD key and do a fresh install, or does it have to be installed on top of an existing install?

Second, what is the performance on the P4-Ms? I thought I read somewhere that because they have a different core design than normal P4s, you get much better performance with an M than a similarly clocked desktop P4. Is that true, and what would a 1.5 M be equivalent to?

Finally, are there any huge problems with the 600m? Or is it generally an alright computer?

 

[Vargas]

That would be a 1.5GHz Pentium M (not 4-M) if it´s a Dell Inspiron 600m
The Pentium Ms are both powerful and have low power consumtion. I estimate that a 1.5GHz P-M could go neck-to-neck with a 2.0-2.2GHz Pentium 4.

Generally I have only heard good things about the 600m. Nice combination of power and portability. I would have considered it myself, but Dell doesn´t sell it here in Sweden.

 

[MISMCSA]

It is a P-M, not a P4-M. It is a great processor and you'll be happy with it. This sounds like a good system. I have the one in my sig and really like it. It has been great for the last year and a half. The 9000 will work fine as long as you don't plan on playing current games. The DVD is a really nice feature and you'll probally enjoy that. For the price a 600m configuration is hard to beat.

 

[The Hunter]

Thanks for the feedback so far. When did they start calling it just the Pentium M? I thought Intel always labelled it as the Pentium 4 - M?

Anyways, I'm more concerned with what they include in terms of OS. Is it just a shitty restore disk that puts it back to the way you got it, or does it at least let you install a clean OS without any of the junk Dell puts on?

 

[Audiochris]

You get an actual windows cd. It's an OEM version that is locked to Dell's but it is basically a clean copy of XP.