would this work for engineering?

goosy22 · 04-04-2006, 02:43 AM

i just happened to look at dell's business section, and i spose there must be a minimum order put through to buy it or maybe not (i didn't look), and this computer caught my eye... it seems to be the best choice for programs like autoCAD and such because of it's video card.. here are the specs:

BASE SYSTEM OPTIONS

Dell Precision M65 Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2300 (1.67GHz/667MHz)
LCDs 15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel
Operating Systems Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2 with Media
File System NTFS File System
Memory 1GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMM

STORAGE AND DRIVES

Hard Drives 80GB Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Module Bay Devices 24X max/10X min CD-ROM Drive

MONITORS AND MULTI-MEDIA

Graphics NVIDIA® Quadro FX 350M 512MB Turbocache, OpenGL

NETWORKING AND INTERNET OPTIONS

Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Dual-band Mini-Card

_____________________
it came out to about 1700USD... is it a good deal?

mrbagrat · 04-04-2006, 02:56 AM

NO.

Buying a pre-built is a rip off. I'm sure anyone on the forums can agree with me. Build your own, you could do that for ~600$.

tweaker · 04-04-2006, 03:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goosy22

i just happened to look at dell's business section, and i spose there must be a minimum order put through to buy it or maybe not (i didn't look), and this computer caught my eye... it seems to be the best choice for programs like autoCAD and such because of it's video card.. here are the specs:

BASE SYSTEM OPTIONS

Dell Precision M65 Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2300 (1.67GHz/667MHz)
LCDs 15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel
Operating Systems Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2 with Media
File System NTFS File System
Memory 1GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMM

STORAGE AND DRIVES

Hard Drives 80GB Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Module Bay Devices 24X max/10X min CD-ROM Drive

MONITORS AND MULTI-MEDIA

Graphics NVIDIA® Quadro FX 350M 512MB Turbocache, OpenGL

NETWORKING AND INTERNET OPTIONS

Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Dual-band Mini-Card

_____________________
it came out to about 1700USD... is it a good deal?

Yep, it'l get the work done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrbagrat

NO.

Buying a pre-built is a rip off. I'm sure anyone on the forums can agree with me. Build your own, you could do that for ~600$.

ehh..? You really should read the posts...

CodyJohnson117 · 04-04-2006, 04:24 AM

Yes It would work because Dell is mostly for Business Group or whatever. At my school, we all have Dell and we current have AutoCAD 2005 and going to have AutoCAD 2006 soon. It went working pretty well, but the problem is the video/graphic card is needed to add to make it extremely perfect.

Cody J. §

goosy22 · 04-04-2006, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrbagrat

NO.

Buying a pre-built is a rip off. I'm sure anyone on the forums can agree with me. Build your own, you could do that for ~600$.

i'm trying to buy a notebook... sorry if i didn't get that across right away... and thanks for all the other opinions...

can i buy just one or does dell require multiple orders for their small-medium business computers? anybody know?

LaptopExtreme · 04-04-2006, 03:48 PM

Anybody can buy from the Small Business section. There's no problem. They're just asking what you're using it for so you can get different products and sometimes things at different prices than the other sections.

suprasteve · 04-04-2006, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goosy22

i'm trying to buy a notebook... sorry if i didn't get that across right away... and thanks for all the other opinions...

most of us figured that out, probably on account of the core duo processor...

goosy22 · 04-04-2006, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suprasteve

most of us figured that out, probably on account of the core duo processor...

yeah i know... but i was trying to make it clear to mrbagrat... it seems to me that he thought i was buying a desktop... i don't know of many laptops configured for running autoCAD for around 600USD...

and thanks laptopextreme for the info... i'll seriously consider putting in that order...

one other thing, do you guys think i should just buy the base model and upgrade with components bought at newegg?... i think it'll come out cheaper...

ICANSEEYOU7687 · 04-05-2006, 12:39 AM

I just skimmed through this and thought id add in.

Building a laptop is completly different from building a PC. The IDE cords are like ribbon, and everything is much more delicate and has to be in place strategically, unlike a desktop tower where you can litterally throw everything together. (sorry if this has already been mentioned, im lazy)

Im about to go off to college (Georgia tech, and computer engineering, so our interests are atleast related...somewhat) and I just ordered a Dell Inspiron 6400, which sounds like what you are getting.

But a couple of suggestions. I would definately upgrade to the 1.83 ghz, and atleast. The graphics card is great, the one I put in my order is only a 256, but hopefully enough to run all the games and whatnot that I want

and one last thing, the hard drive. 80 gigs should be good. any extra I would suggest an external usb hard drive, which can be expensive, so if you want to be cheap like me, buy a normal computer hard drive, and put it into a 20$ hard drive enclosure.

goosy22 · 04-05-2006, 01:50 AM

my biggest question is what GPU is in your graphics card?

even better... could you post your complete specs and exactly what you paid for it? it would be much appreciated

04-04-2006, 04:24 AM	#4 (permalink)
CodyJohnson117 Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Paris, Texas Age: 19 Posts: 79	Yes It would work because Dell is mostly for Business Group or whatever. At my school, we all have Dell and we current have AutoCAD 2005 and going to have AutoCAD 2006 soon. It went working pretty well, but the problem is the video/graphic card is needed to add to make it extremely perfect. Cody J. § __________________ Standard PC Intel Pentium III Processor, Intel(R) 82810 Grahpic Controller CyberDr CW038D CD-R/RW & TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1302, Floppy Disk Drive 601 MHz 256 MB of Ram 40GB WDC WD400EB-00CPF0

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04-04-2006, 02:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
mrbagrat banned Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: See above Posts: 1,237	NO. Buying a pre-built is a rip off. I'm sure anyone on the forums can agree with me. Build your own, you could do that for ~600$.

04-04-2006, 03:48 PM	#6 (permalink)
LaptopExtreme VIP Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 880	Anybody can buy from the Small Business section. There's no problem. They're just asking what you're using it for so you can get different products and sometimes things at different prices than the other sections.

04-05-2006, 12:39 AM	#9 (permalink)
ICANSEEYOU7687 Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 35	I just skimmed through this and thought id add in. Building a laptop is completly different from building a PC. The IDE cords are like ribbon, and everything is much more delicate and has to be in place strategically, unlike a desktop tower where you can litterally throw everything together. (sorry if this has already been mentioned, im lazy) Im about to go off to college (Georgia tech, and computer engineering, so our interests are atleast related...somewhat) and I just ordered a Dell Inspiron 6400, which sounds like what you are getting. But a couple of suggestions. I would definately upgrade to the 1.83 ghz, and atleast. The graphics card is great, the one I put in my order is only a 256, but hopefully enough to run all the games and whatnot that I want and one last thing, the hard drive. 80 gigs should be good. any extra I would suggest an external usb hard drive, which can be expensive, so if you want to be cheap like me, buy a normal computer hard drive, and put it into a 20$ hard drive enclosure.