Dell Inspiron 9300 Media Notebook

[Ioman]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1769571,00.asp

"Dell's latest notebook release, the Dell Inspiron 9300, is full of firsts—well, firsts for Dell anyway. Most noticeably, Dell is finally joining the ranks of manufacturers that offer PVR notebooks. The company is offering Microsoft's Media Center 2005 with an optional external USB TV Tuner ($199) for the first time. Dell is also debuting Dell Media Direct, its own version of a "Quick On" DVD/CD audio player that will play without the need to boot into the operating system. Dell Media Direct will also work from hibernate/suspend mode."

The Inspiron 9300 will have interchangeable covers that allow personalization and will come with an ATI X300 video card, or the more powerful Nvidia GeForce GO 6800 (256mb). The Inspiron 9300 will start at $1599.

[teco70]

Has anyone had experience using the Inspiron 9300 as a CAD workstation? I use AutoCAD for 3D modelling and rendering and was wondering whether the 256MB Geforce 6800 could handle 3D modelling well enough to make the much more expensive Precision M70 with openGL graphics cards (eg quadro fx) not worth getting.

[Ioman]

My initial thoughts are that it should be able to handle AutoCAD without any problems, but I cannot confirm this.

But if it is not as good at AutoCAD as a Quadra might be, my guess is that they would perform very similiarily since they are basically using the same GPU. It might just be a software/driver that makes the Quadro faster.

The bright side is that the Geforce 6800 is a very versatile card and would be good at several other things as well.

[teco70]

thanks for your comments Ioman

[neuroking]

I'm considering one of these for when I'm off to grad school. I'll probably need a Mac and PC notebook, so this plus a 17" Powerbook would be 20 pounds of hot computing power!

I think the 9300 is the same as the XPS series except for some flashy design.... hrmmm... checking....
k...
9300
- you can opt for a slightly worse screen
- 256 MB RAM standard
- don't have to get a service plan
- 60Wh battery standard
- 40 GB HD minimum
- 3 options for graphics card
- Max speed 2GHz

XPS 2
- Max Speed 2.17GHz
- 512 MB RAM standard
- Have to get a minumum 1 year service plan
- Only graphics card is the 6800
- No 6 cell battery option, only 9 cell (80Wh)
- 60GB min HD

The base model XPS costs $2249. The exact same computer configured as the 9300 costs $2145. Where did the $100 go? Nobody knows.....

Maxxed out, but remaining still comparable (so CPU stays 2GHz), XPS: $3395. 9300: $3438. Somehow the prices flipped... not even the inconsistency is consistent. Oh wait.