Hopefully I haven't lead a colleague on a bum steer, but they recently
bought a "new" Vista restricted laptop from a UK shop, PC World.
It turned out it wasn't new at all, and was a customer return (they're
well known for that sort of behaviour, passing off second hand
products as new) - they only found out tonight, having waited for a
friend to come around for two weeks to set it up for them. There were
files going back to September last year, and the networking was
phucked...
Anyway...
I happened to point them to the dmxdimension site, and since their use
will be fairly strictly limited to email and web surfing, I spotted a
Vostro 1000 with XP Pro, 120Gb HD, 2Gb RAM with Turion processor for
~£150 less than they paid for the "new" one (comes in at around £330 I
think - even with the biggest battery option available for it)
I strongly suspect they'll be buying it tonight due to an "£80 off"
and "free delivery" offer that ends today :-}
Are there any major gotchas with these ?
Weight shouldn't be an issue, nor should portability - it'll be for
household use only so they can go online away from the kids.
I'd guess it's about half as fast as a Vostro 1400 or 1500
on RAM and cpu intensive jobs (not that these are normal,
just what I know), owing to a tiny cache of 512kb instead of
2mb. Anyway the Inspiron 1501 is half as fast, with the
AMD cpu, as the core 2 duo.
-- rhhardin@mindspring.com
"Ron Hardin" <rhhardin@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:47AA4051.1DA0@mindspring.com...
> I'd guess it's about half as fast as a Vostro 1400 or 1500
> on RAM and cpu intensive jobs (not that these are normal,
> just what I know), owing to a tiny cache of 512kb instead of
> 2mb. Anyway the Inspiron 1501 is half as fast, with the
> AMD cpu, as the core 2 duo.
> --
> rhhardin@mindspring.com
>
> On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.
The Vostro 1000 does, in fact, appear to be virtually identical to the
Inspiron 1501 except with a black exterior rather than the 1501's
white/silver plastics.
So long as everyone who's buying it/using it understands that it's a basic
budget notebook and sets their expectations accordingly..........then I
guess it would be fine for basic internet/email/browsing.
> The Vostro 1000 does, in fact, appear to be virtually identical to the
> Inspiron 1501 except with a black exterior rather than the 1501's
> white/silver plastics.
> So long as everyone who's buying it/using it understands that it's a basic
> budget notebook and sets their expectations accordingly..........then I
> guess it would be fine for basic internet/email/browsing.
Given that the "new" machine they were supposed to have had was
apparently similarly specified but ran^H^Hcrawled Vista :-} (I think
the one they were returning was a celeron)
Either way, I suppose i'm off the hook to some extent if it all goes
belly up, as they'll have had their other mate checking the specs out
prior to ordering it.
"Colin Wilson" <REMOVEEVERYTHINGBUTnewsgroup@phoenixbbsZEROSPAM.c o.uk> wrote
in message news:MPG.22146f0e5c45a9a598a59a@news.individual.ne t...
>> The Vostro 1000 does, in fact, appear to be virtually identical to the
>> Inspiron 1501 except with a black exterior rather than the 1501's
>> white/silver plastics.
>> So long as everyone who's buying it/using it understands that it's a
>> basic
>> budget notebook and sets their expectations accordingly..........then I
>> guess it would be fine for basic internet/email/browsing.
>
> Given that the "new" machine they were supposed to have had was
> apparently similarly specified but ran^H^Hcrawled Vista :-} (I think
> the one they were returning was a celeron)
>
> Either way, I suppose i'm off the hook to some extent if it all goes
> belly up, as they'll have had their other mate checking the specs out
> prior to ordering it.
As long as you're covered, and as long as they know what to
expect............go for it.
the vostros 1000 is not a terrible laptop but has a couple of major
disadvantages vs the 1400 or 1500.
the performance is fine, but the build quality is not as good, and the
standard battery only last for 1/2 hour.
if performance is something that is important to you the the 1400 or 1500
are better choices. don't get me wrong, the performance of the 1000 is
certainly fast enough for basic office type applications, but if you are a
gamer you will be disappointed.
the build quality is not so good. so if you are rough on machines or intend
to travel with it a lot then it isn't a good choice.
but the most glaring problem with the 1000 is the miserable sub 1/2 hour
battery life. the higher capacity was not an option on the configuration
page for a sale price machine i had recently looked at and a new high
capacity battery cost over $165usd or more than a third of the cost of the
hole laptop. add the cost of the long life batter to the sale price of the
1000 and you could have bought a 1400 or 1500 instead.
"Colin Wilson" <REMOVEEVERYTHINGBUTnewsgroup@phoenixbbsZEROSPAM.c o.uk> wrote
in message news:MPG.22143a7a16eee7fb98a58d@news.individual.ne t...
Hopefully I haven't lead a colleague on a bum steer, but they recently
bought a "new" Vista restricted laptop from a UK shop, PC World.
It turned out it wasn't new at all, and was a customer return (they're
well known for that sort of behaviour, passing off second hand
products as new) - they only found out tonight, having waited for a
friend to come around for two weeks to set it up for them. There were
files going back to September last year, and the networking was
phucked...
Anyway...
I happened to point them to the dmxdimension site, and since their use
will be fairly strictly limited to email and web surfing, I spotted a
Vostro 1000 with XP Pro, 120Gb HD, 2Gb RAM with Turion processor for
~£150 less than they paid for the "new" one (comes in at around £330 I
think - even with the biggest battery option available for it)
I strongly suspect they'll be buying it tonight due to an "£80 off"
and "free delivery" offer that ends today :-}
Are there any major gotchas with these ?
Weight shouldn't be an issue, nor should portability - it'll be for
household use only so they can go online away from the kids.
Vostro 1000 laptop 
Linear Mode
