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Published on 01/29/08 at 01:37
I had high expectations for my first laptop (my first PC at all, actually). After several weeks of work at the factory, I order on the Dell website late August 2006. It is very clear, just check the boxes to determine the technical characteristics of the machine. Perfect. I receive a fortnight later. Upon receipt, I was trying my new sound card, a PreSonus Firebox on a Toshiba laptop was not mine (flawless installation using the sound card: 6 ms of latency, not a shadow of a problem on the horizon). Never mind, since I got mine, I will not wait any longer to try it.
After the unpleasant moment you boot XP the first time I install the sound card and the sequencer, I plug my bass, and then, surprise: a festival of noise (the "cracks and pops" that they call it) as to monitor the recording. I increase the latency, good, no noticeable change. I had to wait four or five months of painstaking research and travels forumesques to solve the problem, which was in fact the reader / writer brand Tss-Corp that fucked the shit, for some reason. I mention to Dell that I refer a reader / writer Sony no questions asked. Throughout this research, I also noticed that I was far from alone with this laptop with a gallery (and in general those of the Dell brand) and a firewire sound card ...
But it's not all. A few weeks later, the firewire port of the laptop has become very sensitive and the slightest movement (even when I brush the cable), the audio stream is broken, I must reboot to make it work again. Fortunately, I never had this problem during recording sessions. I contact Dell and explain my problem and telling them that I'm pretty sure that it comes from the motherboard. A few days later, a technician arrived to my house to change all that, and in less than an hour's over. It is now two and a half months that the intervention took place, but the firewire port tends to become very sensitive. In one month, it will again become a mess, so I expect a new change of motherboard soon.
Best of all, at Christmas, a friend gives me the Orange Box, box games from Valve. I can launch any game, and after a few hours, I understand why: they are incompatible with the Intel 945 GM chipset graphics. Guess what's on the Dell Inspiron 6400 ... Yes, the chipset in question!
This time, too, I'll part with it.
Although it is a well made computer (robust appearance, nice keyboard, many ports, multimedia buttons on the front - very convenient - Proco effective wireless impeccable), I would do absolutely no choice. This is a good laptop, provided it does not try to play (I'm far from being a hard gamer), and even less to do with computer music. The chance was certainly not to go this time, and I imagine that many Dell owners are happy with the config, but I do not. I met too many problems to be satisfied with my purchase. But customer service is perfect, and the machine itself very nice ...
The exact config of my laptop:
OS: dual boot Windows XP SP2 / Linux Ubuntu 7.10
CPU: Core Duo T2050 1.66 GHz @
Motherboard: Dell Inc.. 0KD882
Hard drive: 80 GB SATA
RAM: 1024
I put 5 / 10: 3 / 10 for use computer music and 7 / 10 for the rest, and I still seem to be quite nice in the evaluation.
After the unpleasant moment you boot XP the first time I install the sound card and the sequencer, I plug my bass, and then, surprise: a festival of noise (the "cracks and pops" that they call it) as to monitor the recording. I increase the latency, good, no noticeable change. I had to wait four or five months of painstaking research and travels forumesques to solve the problem, which was in fact the reader / writer brand Tss-Corp that fucked the shit, for some reason. I mention to Dell that I refer a reader / writer Sony no questions asked. Throughout this research, I also noticed that I was far from alone with this laptop with a gallery (and in general those of the Dell brand) and a firewire sound card ...
But it's not all. A few weeks later, the firewire port of the laptop has become very sensitive and the slightest movement (even when I brush the cable), the audio stream is broken, I must reboot to make it work again. Fortunately, I never had this problem during recording sessions. I contact Dell and explain my problem and telling them that I'm pretty sure that it comes from the motherboard. A few days later, a technician arrived to my house to change all that, and in less than an hour's over. It is now two and a half months that the intervention took place, but the firewire port tends to become very sensitive. In one month, it will again become a mess, so I expect a new change of motherboard soon.
Best of all, at Christmas, a friend gives me the Orange Box, box games from Valve. I can launch any game, and after a few hours, I understand why: they are incompatible with the Intel 945 GM chipset graphics. Guess what's on the Dell Inspiron 6400 ... Yes, the chipset in question!
This time, too, I'll part with it.
Although it is a well made computer (robust appearance, nice keyboard, many ports, multimedia buttons on the front - very convenient - Proco effective wireless impeccable), I would do absolutely no choice. This is a good laptop, provided it does not try to play (I'm far from being a hard gamer), and even less to do with computer music. The chance was certainly not to go this time, and I imagine that many Dell owners are happy with the config, but I do not. I met too many problems to be satisfied with my purchase. But customer service is perfect, and the machine itself very nice ...
The exact config of my laptop:
OS: dual boot Windows XP SP2 / Linux Ubuntu 7.10
CPU: Core Duo T2050 1.66 GHz @
Motherboard: Dell Inc.. 0KD882
Hard drive: 80 GB SATA
RAM: 1024
I put 5 / 10: 3 / 10 for use computer music and 7 / 10 for the rest, and I still seem to be quite nice in the evaluation.