Does anyone out there own a Dell Inspiron 8000?

[tuando]

Happy Hollidays Season everyone,

If anyone own a Dell Inspiron 8000 out there, your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Or if anyone can answer to the following question, your help is greatly welcomed.

- Is it possible to upgrade the CPU later on a notebook?
- Would it be better to buy DELL memory stick ($100) for an 64MB upgrade or it is ok to buy generic (Micron, Kingston, Viking for instance) from $40 to $73 for a 64 & 128MB stick respectively?
- With a common 7200RPM now a day, is 4200RPM for a hardrive kinda obsolete?
- If it were you, will you purchase XIRCOM 10/100 ethernet PCI card from DELL ($100) or from a retailer ($50 OEM)

Thanks in advance for any help.

All lowest price are courtesy from Pricewatch.

[DVNT1]

I don't have a Dell laptop but I can provide some input.

I'd suggest Crucial's Micron memory for any computer that they can recommend a chip for.
I've had great success using their memory for many years (including in many Toshiba and Compaq laptops).

Hard drive - sorry, no idea about what's common laptop hard drives

NIC - yes, buying from a retailer would be a good choice.

[brandon184]

I would think you would notice the differenc, if the previous hard drive was faster. Replacing the HDD is just a matter of sliding out the front bay of the Dell.

As for CPU.. I'm sure some flexibility is provided, but I've never replaced a cpu in a dell laptop, so I wouldn't know.

As for memory, I'd buy dell and if you don't want to do that, but crucial.

I recently bought a new Dell Laptop, and I bought a new 3Com EtherFast card with it. I'm sure it would have been cheaper retail, but I didn't bother and you shouldn't bother if you have the money.

- Brandon

- Brandon

[DVNT1]

brandon184, you stated "but I didn't bother and you shouldn't bother if you have the money" What's your reasoning if you are getting the same product? Did Dell give you a better warranty or something? Memory too?

[Maxwell T]

I have an Inspiron 7000 (nice toy :-)). I have an aftermarket NIC/Modem (Xircom RealPort 10/100 56K PC Card), a sweet piece of hardware. Got it a year ago on Egghead (yeah, I heard they got hacked, already talked to my bank - thanks gyoung!)Haven't had a minutes trouble with it. Also got memory upgrade (Viking, I believe) from there, no trouble with it either. I have thrown a ton of stuff at this machine; MegaHertz 56K Modem PC Card, Intel 10/100 NIC PC Card (both provided by my co. prior to my getting the Xircom), Adaptec 1480 SCSI PC Card, HP RAM Card, 2 USB Scanners (HP & Visioneer), and a USB Camera (ViCAM) without any trouble at all - wish I could say the same for my desktop....

Max

[This message has been edited by Maxwell T (edited 12-23-2000).]

[brandon184]

Its a "Dell Edition" I guess. It has Dell plastered on it, right above the 3Com Name. And yes, it is covered under the warranty for the laptop.

- Brandon