|
 Dell
Inspiron 1000 Review
Revised
on 00-00-00
Originally posted on November
17th, 2004
Good Basic Computing Power for $600
Bucks!
The Ford Pinto of the laptop
world ca. 2004.
I'm going from a Sony Vaio PCG-V505DX
4.4 pounder to this standard sized 6.5 pound not so basic lappy.
Every year I trade-in, sell or give away my current laptop and
buy a new one. I go through the normal transition of backing
up and migrating all my stuff from the old world to the new.
You always learn something more when you do this exercise and
I look forward to it and enjoy it every year. This is also my
first Dell computer. I'm going to be using this lappy for the
next year. You can check back here to see how it goes. I'll be
updating this review from time to time.
When I ordered this puppy it
took me all of 15 minutes. The Dell rep kept attempting to sell
me up, but I insisted that I wanted the bottom feeder. Click
here to see my actual packing slip from Dell. He gave me $15
bucks off bucks off because I was buying 3 of them. 1 for me
and 2 for clients. I also got a $100 mail in rebate. My total
out the door price was $736.24. Minus the $100 mail in rebate,
that's $636.24. Not bad for a good basic lappy.
The akilies heel of the 1000
is it's CPU. Starting up and shutting down, most especially starting
up isn't the Celeron's best friend. To get around this I have
started using the Hibernation mode when I shutdown. If you use
this to shutdown your lappy when you reboot it cuts startup time
to a few seconds vs. 2 minutes after you have all your software
and anti-virus programs loaded. Try it. Unless you're hooked
up to a network domain or something when you reboot it's really
the way to go.
The Inspiron 1000 has an 8-cell
NiMH battery in it's cheapest configuration. You'll get barely
over an hour of use. If this isn't a possibility for you then
upgrade to the 8-cell lithium ion (65Whr) LiON battery. Rumor
has it that Dell went with the cheaper battery to bring the price
down just before it's release. It's okay for most people, but
not me. I'm looking on ebay for a upgrade. Most of the time you
can find a original battery for have the price.
The very first thing you need
to do if you havent already done so is get the ram maxed out
to 512mb. I recomend Crucial.com. Here's the direct link to buy
the ram for this Dell
Inspiron 1000. The next thing to do is pump up the hard drive
to 80GB. Toshiba is coming out with a 100GB laptop drive soon
(December 2004) and that should be the biggest laptop drive for
a while. I get all my hardware from my wholesaler (ASI) but you
can get very good prices at NewEgg.com
too.
Specs
Key Features
Intel Celeron Processor - All three Inspiron 1000 configurations
come standard with the Intel® Celeron® Processor at 2.2
GHz.
Operating System - Pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition.
Display - 14.1" and 15" XGA Display Configurations
- The Inspiron 1000 standard configuration comes with a 14.1"
XGA TFT (1024x768) display or choose from one of two configurations
with an upgraded 15" XGA TFT display.
Combo Drive - Watch movies and burn cds with the standard
24X CD-RW/DVD drive.
VideoCard - The Inspiron 1000 has up to 64MB of shared
graphics memory for basic computing needs.
Optional - Dell offers an optional external wireless card,
Broadcom 802.11b/g card and Floppy drive.
Limited Warranty - Service and Tech Support: The Inspiron
1000 comes standard with a 90 Day Limited Warranty, Mail-In Service,
and 1-Year of Tech Support.
Detailed Specs
CPU: Mobile Intel® Celeron® Processor
at 2.20 GHz with on-die 256 KB L2 cache and 400MHz front side
bus.
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
Memory: 256 or 512 MB shared DDR SDRAM, 266MHz bus frequency
Storage: 30 or 40 GB Ultra ATA hard drive
VideoChip(s): SiS M650 Integrated Graphics - 32MB shared
DDR SDRAM [14.1" XGA TFT active-matrix display with 1024
x 768 resolution]
SiS M650 Integrated Graphics - 64MB shared DDR SDRAM
[15" XGA TFT active-matrix display with 1024 x 768 resolution]
Optical Devices: Fixed CD Burner/ DVD Combo Drive: 24x/10x/24x
CD-RW and 8x DVD-ROM.
Ports: 3-USB 2.0, Video: 15-pin monitor connector, 10/100
Ethernet LAN: RJ-45 connector, Modem: RJ-11 connector, Audio
jacks: Microphone in connector and stereo speakers/headphone
connector, No parallel, serial or S-Video ports.
Display: 14.1" XGA display: Height: 1.46" (37.2
mm)
Width: 13.0" (330 mm)
Depth: 10.6" (268 mm)
Weight: 6.37lbs
Battery:8-cell Nickel Metal Hydride battery (43Whr), Approximate
operating time: 1.5 hours (depends on usage), Enhanced Performance
system: 8-cell Lithium Ion battery (65Whr), Approximate operating
time: 2.5 hours (depends on usage).
AC Adapter: Input voltage: 100 to 240 VAC, Input current
(maximum): 1.5A, Output current: 3.16A, Output power: 60W standard,
Dimensions (H x W x D): 1.14" (29mm) x 1.95" (49.5mm)
x 4.5" (114.5mm), Weight (with cables): 0.66 lbs. (0.3 kg).
Slots: Connectors: (1) Type I or Type II card, 3V / 5
V cards supported.
Modem: Internal 56K capable v.92 Fax modem.
Network Interface: Integrated 10/100 Ethernet.
Wireless Networking: Optional: Dell 1300 Wireless PC Card
(802.11 b/g).
Sound: Integrated stereo sound..
Floppy Drive: Optional: External USB floppy drive.
Price. You can't beat this... $595 complete with wireless
card. The only thing that comes close to this guy is the Averatec
3200 series lappy for $799 around town. You can get the Averatec
at MicroCenter & CompUSA for around $799 or better if you
look around. MicroCenter had a special for $699 if you signed
up for their Visa card.
Case design. Nice and rugged. Just what the doctor
ordered. PCMCIA (card slot) is on the left front.
Memory Speed. Dell Inspiron 1000 sports DDR 266MHz
PC2700 memory. Too bad you can add only 1 more chip giving you
a total of 512mb.
The battery sucks. I'm mean really sucks. I'm lucky to
get an hour from this sucker. Just good enough to get a coffee
at Starbucks and check email. When I first start her up and check
the battery meter it says 1:44 (1 hour 44 mins). Then after 2
minutes it says 1:32... from there it gets worse. After 10 minutes
I'm down to 49 minutes.
Ports. This is the 21st century kids. No more parallel
printer port or serial port. So, if you're a palm user and all
you have is a serial port for synching your stuff, yer out'a
luck.
Memory. There isn't enough and you cant expand beyond
512MB. There is one plus, it's DDR PC2700 type memory so it's
decent. This lappy only comes with 256 which is just barely usable
in my opinion. To make this lappy usable on a daily basis you'll
have to upgrade to 512mb, it's maximum allowable amount. I'm
looking into a hack to let you add more and if I find out how,
I'll post it here...
Hard drive bay; located in the front of the lappy by a door with
2 screws. |
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Here's the door removed. |
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DVD / CD-RW Combo Drive |
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Keyboard layout. The only thing I don't like, only 1 CTRL key
on the left. |
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Here's the front showing the 2 LEDs that indicate charging and
battery. |
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PCMCIA card lot and the mic and headphone jacks. |
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Closeup of the power button, hard drive, caps lock, scroll lock,
and num lock lights. |
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Back side; 3 USB 2.0 ports, Network/Modem, and video ports. |
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Here's the laptop latch. |
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The TouchPad with left and right buttons. |
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Here is one 1 of the 3 heat vents located on the back lower left. |
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Front; here you can see one of the speaker outlets and the hard
drive cover in the center. |
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The top cover complete with Dell logo. Hey Mr. Dell, loose the
Enron "E". |
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The understuff; Ram, battery, hard drive access covers. You can
also see the CPU fan. |
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Here is the Ram cover. Only 1 more slot and, the first one is
locked in. Max ram = 512mb. |
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Battery cover access port. |
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Ram cover removed showing the empty slot allowing 256mb more
memory. |
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Battery removed from it's bay. |
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Here's how you upgrade the hard drive on the Dell Inspiron 1000.
Remove 2 screwed and slide out. |
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It's just a standard 2.5" laptop hard drive. This one is
a ATA100 5400rpm type. Toshiba |
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It's very easy to replace the drive. |
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The memory bay exposed. |
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Michael Chukov
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