As mentioned before, Dave bought a netbook. I went with the Dell mini 10v, he went with the Asus EeePC 1000HE. Both are almost identical as far as specifications are concerned (CPU speed, screen size/resolution, etc.) What it really boils down to when choosing one of these are the details, such as the keyboard layout, power supply type, battery options, RAM options and so on.

For example the EeePC 1000HE does have a matte LCD display while the mini 10v has a glossy. The trackpad on the 1000HE is “taller” with actual mouse buttons while the 10v has the buttons built into the trackpad near the bottom. The 10v has more of a standardized keyboard while the 1000HE is more chiclet style (and yes that is the way it’s spelled).

Earlier in the week I stopped by with my 10v and put it side-by-side to the 1000HE. It’s not a detailed review by any means, but it gives you an idea of the small differences between makes and models. See video below for details.

Note: There is a video at the bottom of this post of my 10v, so be sure to check that out.

As I had been saying many times since 2009 started, my plan was to get a netbook as my next laptop. So I bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron Mini 10v.

My overall opinion of the unit is that it’s a decent solid build and is definitely the right size. However the one thing that I absolutely must point out is that without a 6 cell battery it’s not worth owning.

Since it’s a challenge at best to run high-powered, high-graphic apps (like many popular game titles) on one of these things, what you would use it most for is web browsing, documents and communication such as email, instant messengers and so on.

On a netbook, where one finds this most useful is not at home. Whether it’s your local coffee shop or restaurant with free wi-fi, a long flight, long car or bus ride, hotel, etc., that’s where you’re going to use this thing.

Being that’s the case, long battery life is what matters more than anything else on a netbook.

It should be absolutely mandatory that all netbooks come provided with a 6 cell battery as standard. This is not the case for any netbook currently. All of them, whether made by Dell, HP, MSI, Acer or the like all come with a 3 cell. This realistically only gets you 3 hours of battery life, and that serves absolutely no advantage over a standard-sized laptop.

On my 10v, I purposely sought out a refurb with the 6 cell battery. This was the absolute best decision I could have made because I get the most usefulness out of this netbook.

Being there are other reviews of the 10v on the internet already, I’m going to point out here (some of which will be mentioned in the video below) the points most people would be interested in learning, in Q&A format.

Does it have an optical drive?

No. What makes a netbook a netbook usually starts with having no optical drive. If you want one, you can purchase the small external USB kind. Here’s an example.

What’s the resolution?

On the 10v it’s 1024×576. Most apps will run in this resolution with no issue at all. In the browser (any web browser), you can get maximum space by pressing F11 for full screen mode, and press it again to go back to windowed. Try it right now if you like; it works on any computer.

The Dell mini 10 (the one without the v) does offer a 1366 resolution, however I know for a fact that for many people the text would just be way too small.

At the time I write this, Dell has introduced the brand new Inspiron 11z, which has, you guessed it, an 11-inch screen. Does a 1366 resolution look any more readable on that? Depends on your eyes.

1024×576 on a 10-inch screen can be read fine even for those with a “heavy” eyeglass prescription. With 1366 there’s squinting. And it is unknown at this point whether an 11-inch screen would serve any better, readability-wise.

It also should be noted that at full brightness, the 10v’s LCD screen beams, as in so bright it would literally bother you. I never have mine set at full bright. I think the only time you would have to full-bright is when sitting outside with it on a very bright sunny day.

What’s the hard drive size?

There are several sizes, starting with an 8GB SSD, then 16GB SSD, then 120GB 2.5-inch and the 160GB 2.5-inch. There’s also a 64GB SSD somewhere in the mix.

In the new 11v there is a 250GB 2.5-inch SATA drive offering. It’s overkill, but available.

The SATA drives are the purposely-chosen slower 5400rpm because they run cooler.

On my 10v, I have the 160GB. For me this is fine given the fact I don’t have anything that would munch up hard drive space.

Even if you chose to stuff your hard drive full of movies and MP3s, it would still take a while to fill this thing up. But if you gotta-gotta-gotta have the extra space, just buy an external 750GB Western Digital MyPassport (brand new at the time of this writing). Problem solved.

How does the keyboard feel?

On the 10v it feels solid and not toy-like. It is, according to Dell, 92% the size of a traditional laptop keyboard. It’s responsive, easy to type on and doesn’t require any huge learning curve.

What some may have a problem with is where the PgUp/PgDn keys are. They are shared with the arrow keys and accessible via Fn. Page Up would be Fn+Up, Page Down would be Fn+Down.

It also should be noted there are no keys which could act as a number pad via Fn. The only way to type numbers is to use the top row only.

How does the touchpad feel?

You’ll probably hate it at first. It does take a few days to get used to. Once you do it’s not bad though. It’s not great, I admit, but it’s not awful either. This is one of those things where a design had to be made to accommodate the pint-sized nature of the netbook.

What’s the performance like?

Note before continuing: The 11v is reported to have much better performance as it has a next-gen CPU in it.

The easiest way to describe the performance of a 10v is that it is about the same running speed as a upper-mid-grade laptop made 5 years ago.

Some of you may read that and say, “Bleah! That’s terrible!”

Not really. When you take away the high-powered/high-graphic apps, the 10v can basically run anything you put on it, and do so in a way where you’re not sitting around waiting for something to happen.

The OpenOffice suite for example is a chunky set of apps, but runs easily on the 10v.

I have no issues with the 10v choking and I don’t believe anybody else would.

How long does the 6 cell 56WHr battery last?

With the screen dimmed and wi-fi off, 6 hours. And no, not “about” 6 hours. I’m talking 6 hours or more.

With the screen brightness up and wi-fi on, 5 to 5.5 hours. I can confirm this as I have put the unit thru its paces.

This beats the ever-loving crap out of any standard-sized laptop. Like I said, the battery is the most important part of a netbook, no question.

The video below shows what the 6 cell battery looks like. It is significantly larger than the 3 cell, but not anything that would make you run for the hills.

Does it feel like a toy?

Some netbooks do feel like toys, I won’t deny that. But the 10v doesn’t. The overall construction is solid and it doesn’t feel like a child’s plaything. When opening the screen there are no creaks or squeaks. When typing the keyboard doesn’t feel cheap. All the ports have a nice snug fit when anything is plugged into them.

How loud is it?

The 10v is silent when running. So silent you’d think something is wrong with it. Whenever I turn it on I have to purposely look at the power light just to make sure I turned it on because I’m so used to hearing fan noise from older laptops I’ve used.

How is the audio speaker?

Terrible. Sounds chintzy. A compromise of the small design. Even at its loudest volume it’s still too quiet.

Fortunately for most things where you’d want to hear the audio (like YouTube videos or music), you just plug in headphones.

Part of the reason why the speaker sounds crappy is because I believe it’s under the keyboard, so the sound comes from the bottom of the netbook. It’s more or less the only place they could put the thing. Like I said, it’s a compromise in design because of the small size.

A video review

Below is my quick review. It touches on points I’ve mentioned above plus a few other things.

For the observant, you’ll notice that a ton of computers are made in the nation of China these days. This is occurring so much that some people absolutely refuse to buy anything made from there, similar to the all-too-familiar MADE IN TAIWAN labels on so many products of the 1980s and 1990s.

On the computing front, many refer to Chinese-made computers as "those Foxconn-made pieces of sh*t".

The Mac mini, Macbook Air, Macbook, iMac and Macbook Pro are all manufactured in China. For those who have ever ordered one of the aforementioned direct from the Apple Store and had it shipped to you, you’ll notice the shipping process starts (the last I knew) from Shanghai.

The Dell mini 10v I just bought has a MADE IN CHINA sticker slapped on the back of it. Other Dell models follow suit.

It is totally possible (and this is a guess) that Dell and Apple PCs/laptops are manufactured right in the same city – and possibly even the same buildings.

Still think Apple-branded computers are better than Dell-branded now?

As to why so much of our computer stuff is made there, the answer is simple: Cost. It costs less to have electronics made there than in a Western nation (and yes, this also leads to serious e-waste problems in China).

The question however is this: Is a Chinese-manufactured computer "bad"? No, because it all boils down to design and manufacturing processes.

If a laptop has a bad design that’s been finalized and sent to production, the end result will be a crappy product no matter where it’s made.

Example 1: The Macbook (not the Macbook Pro). It is commonly called a Crackbook. Why? Because of a design flaw in the palm rest that literally causes the unit to crack even when just sitting there neatly on a table with it running – even if was never dropped, never abused, etc.

(Side note: Apple still sells this same model with the same design flaw. It can be fixed under warranty, but if your warranty runs out, you’re screwed.)

Example 2: The exploding batteries in Dell laptops that happened a few years ago which prompted a massive recall. It wasn’t the laptop that was the problem here, but guess where the battery was made?

Even with these examples, I don’t deem a product "bad" based on where it was made. I have owned several Chinese-made electronics products over the years. One company which I know has a major manufacturing plant in China that is Behringer – and I like Behringer products. A lot. That’s because they manufacture solid well-designed stuff.

If you’re going to blame anybody for poor quality computer stuff, blame the brand (like Apple, Dell and/or Foxconn). They don’t need to move their manufacturing facilities elsewhere, they just need to more thought into design for better electronics products.

What do you think?

Does the country of origin concerning where your computer stuff was made affect your purchasing decision?

In a very short period of time I’ve found that in order to get along with a netbook properly, there’s 10 things you absolutely must do.

1. Use Google Chrome

Those who know my browser preferences find this a bit of a shock being that I’m a diehard Firefox user, because I’ve made it no secret that I can’t stand the Chrome web browser.

On a netbook however it’s a totally different story.

Chrome gives you the most usable space for your monitor with the least amount of memory munching. Being that you’re only dealing with a 1024×576 (or 600) screen, space is at a premium. Granted, you can F11 it for full screen with other browsers, but it’s better if you see your menus and tabs. Chrome allows you to do this easily.

If you’re using Firefox the tabs will munch up vertical pixels easily, and so will IE 8. Chrome gives the most vertical space because the status appears as a bar that fades in but isn’t locked – and that’s good. And when you open up new tabs, no extra vertical space is taken up either.

It’s the best browser to use on a netbook, period. And coming from me, that’s saying a lot.

2. Spend quality time with your mouse configuration program.

No matter what model of netbook you use, you will probably hate the touchpad. And I mean really hate it. That’s okay because most people do. The netbook format at this point hasn’t exact found the happy medium for a mouse design, so to speak.

Side note: I do know the perfect design for a netbook’s touchpad – no touchpad. It should be the rubber eraser-tip style thing Thinkpads have. This would work perfectly on the netbook format. Yes, you lose your mouse gestures but I’d happily give them up for the mid-point joystick and two tactile buttons below the keyboard.

Fortunately on the Dell mini 10v and all other netbooks, you can control every single thing it does. It even has sensitivity recognition, so not only does it detect touch (obviously), but also how hard or soft you touch.

It is required for you to sit with this and spend a good amount of time tweaking the settings. There is no fast n’ easy way around it. Fortunately once done, it’s done and you don’t have to do it again.

Or if you still hate it, spring for a laptop mini-mouse.

3. Spend quality time with your monitor settings.

Like with the touchpad, this will take time to set correctly as well. In my situation, the screen was just too bright and too blue. And this wasn’t fixed by putting the brightness setting down a few notches. I had to manually go into the config program for the colors/brightness and set it that way. Once I did, I said to myself, “Okay, that’s the way it’s supposed to look.”

The Dell mini 10v in particular has a really, really bright screen. This is a good feature, but it’s set to FULL-ON BRIGHT out of the box.

4. Know your keyboard.

On more or less all netbooks, certain keys on the keyboard do double duty. On the mini 10v this is seen in the function and arrow keys. This is a non-standard layout, and you won’t take it to like a fish to water. For example, I use PgUp and PgDn a lot – but these are on the arrow keys whereas I have to do Fn+Up to page up and Fn-Down to page down. Being that I’m a keystroke freak, this takes time to get used to.

It should also be noted that most netbooks do not have the faux number pad, that being where the right-side keys serve as number keys when Fn is pressed.

5. Purposely seek out lightweight apps.

Instead of using AIM, use AIM Lite.

Instead of using WinZIP, use 7Zip.

Consider using AbiWord instead of OpenOffice Writer or Microsoft Word.

It’s not that the “heavy” apps won’t work on a netbook as they’ll work fine. But whenever you can use less processing power, the better because it increases battery life and they obviously run faster.

6. Purposely seek out apps that can be installed with no media required.

This means to use apps that can be downloaded and installed rather than something that requires a CD/DVD installation method. You could get around this by purchasing a 50-dollar USB external optical drive or creating ISOs and virtually mounting disks within XP, but that’s a pain to do. You’re better off if you use apps that can be downloaded. Sourceforge will be your best friend here.

7. Spring for the 6-cell battery.

This screen shot speaks for itself:

This is not Windows XP making a mistake as to how long the battery will last for. It literally will run for over 5 hours on a single charge. And that’s with wi-fi enabled! You can easily get 6 if you decrease the screen brightness a few notches and disable wi-fi when you don’t need it.

8. Know your wi-fi hotspots.

Most people don’t bother taking their laptops with them to open wi-fi hotspots because the laptop is too big, too heavy and barely holds a charge over 2 hours and 30 minutes. The netbook gives you over 5 hours with a 6-cell battery and it’s under 3 pounds, so yeah, you’ll want to hit more wi-fi spots.

How to find them? There’s two ways:

First way: OpenWiFiSpots

Punch in your ZIP code and you’ll see the closest wi-fi spots near you.

Second way: Searching for “wifi” in Google Earth.

Use the Google Earth software and position the map close to where you live, then search for “wifi”. Both business and user-contributed wi-fi listings will appear.

Obviously both ways are dependent on where you live. If you live in a more metro area, you’ll find more spots. For example, the metro downtown area of Tampa Florida has an entire area covered for wi-fi called the S.U.R.F. Zone.

9. Get familiar with netbook specific resources for your model.

Each netbook offering has at least one independent web site that is dedicated to what you use. The Dell Inspiron mini for example has www.ubuntumini.com. If you wanted to know everything and anything about Ubuntu on the Dell mini, well, there you go. No matter which make/model you decide to go with, chances are there’s a world of informational resource available to you outside of the company’s web site who manufactured it.

This happens because there’s almost a cult-like following for netbook computers. Except this is a really good type of cult.

10. Know your operating system choices.

The most popular OS on netbooks right now is Windows XP. However Ubuntu does have a “Netbook Remix” version of their own OS. The best part? You can install the whole thing to a single 1GB USB stick and test it out if you like. I’ve done so on my Dell mini 10v and yeah, it runs great.

You can expect other Linux flavors to offer “remix” versions of their own distributions in the near future.

Side note: You’d be surprised how much faster a netbook remix version runs compared to the ‘full’ version of a Linux distribution. If you have an older laptop, you may want to check it out.

I just bought a Dell Inspiron mini 10v. It will be arriving either later this week or early next week.

After examining all the different ways I could purchase it, I decided to go refurb.

Why?

Because it’s nearly $100 less than new.

For a laptop that’s in the sub-$500 range, $100 is a pretty big consideration. In my situation, I paid 23% less compared to buying new, and I got more for the money besides that.

With netbooks you either love or hate them, and you certainly don’t purchase one for speed and power. You want it for the portability factor; this is why I bought one. Later on when I actually get the thing I’ll write up more about it, but for now I’m concentrating on price.

Resale value

Netbooks will not have any significant resale value because laptops of this size are meant to be disposable tech to a degree. I know that in 2 years the 10v I bought will barely be worth $100 at best – and that’s being generous.

This is going to be a cold hard fact no matter which make or model you go with, mainly due to the reason they were designed from the ground up to be inexpensive.

Those who are anti-refurb will do nothing but pay more for the same thing

I know there’s a whole lot of you out there who are decidedly anti-refurb and say, "If it’s not new, I don’t want it." You may change your tune on that when it comes to netbooks.

Refurbs today (at least with Dell) are not like they were years ago. You get all the same warranty choices including extended options with new OR refurb. In yesteryear this was not the case as refurb warranties didn’t offer the same coverage, but now they do and have for some time.

This being the case, those who choose to go new for the same model as a refurb do nothing but spend more money for the exact same thing.

By the numbers

These are the specs of my Dell Inspiron mini 10v. Items listed in bold/red are things you have to pay extra for when buying new as upgrade options.

• Obsidian Black
• 10.1 inch WideScreen True Life Laptop Screen (1024×576)
• Processor: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
• 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 1 DIMM
• 160 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• 6 Cell, 56WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery
• Dell Wireless 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
• Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
• Genuine Windows XP Home
• Microsoft Works 9.0
• 32BIT Operating System CD
• Windows Live
• 30W AC Adapter
• Service Software
• Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950

The price I paid for the refurb: $309.21. That’s with tax and shipping included.

If you were to price this new for the exact same model with same upgrade options, the price is $384 and that does not include tax and shipping (if included that would go over $400 easily).

In other words, with new I’d pay $100 more for the same thing.

With netbooks, you are so much better off concerning the pocketbook by going refurb. If interested in a Dell refurb netbook, the site is http://www.dell.com/outlet.

What about other makes and models of netbooks? How do they compare in price?

At present the best price for a netbook is in the high 200s (US Dollar).

The MSI Wind at NewEgg at the time of this writing sells for $289.99. With shipping added in, it still stays under $300 and it’s very close in specs to the Dell Inspiron mini 10v, HOWEVER.. the battery life sucks.

The best part about the refurb Dell I bought is that I specifically sought out one that came provided with a 6-cell 56WHr battery. Netbooks are supposed to be super-duper portable by design, but all that portability means nothing without a really good battery under the hood (literally).

If you are interested in a netbook, the battery should be the first thing you examine. If it’s a 3-cell/24WHr, you’re only going to realistically get 3 hours of use per charge. For a netbook, that’s terrible. Aim for the 32 and 56WHr batteries.

You should always go for the better battery. This is true for any laptop, but it’s especially true for netbooks.

What will the prices of netbooks be in the future?

They’ll most likely stick around the high 200s for a good while yet. However in a year or two it’s possible you may see low 200s for new netbooks.

The one I just bought will definitely not be the only. Future models (and this is happening very soon) will have integrated GPS and more television/tv tuner options for media center use. The existing Inspiron mini 10 already has an HDMI output for such a task.

Portable computer tech is looking really good right now, and it’s getting better. But most importantly, it’s cheap.

The best box that Apple makes is the Mac Pro.

The best box that Dell makes is the Precision Workstation, commonly abbreviated as PW. Both are business machines first and foremost.

It is very easy to configure either to run you $20,000 for final cost.

How to do it? Simple. Check off every single possible option you can throw in when configuring it.

First, the Mac Pro.

This is an 8-core system (two 2.93GHz Quad Core Intel Xeons) stuffed with 32GB of RAM, 3 1TB hard drives, two optical drives, two 30-inch flat-panel displays, wireless everything, fibre channel, a bunch of preinstalled software and of course the AppleCare Protection plan.

And now, the Big Dell, the Precision Workstation T7500.

The screen shot of this would have been too long, so here are the specs:

• Windows Vista 64-bit Business Edition
• Dual Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processors W5580 3.20GHz, 8M L3, 6.4GT/s,turbo
• 48GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory, 1333MHz, ECC (12 DIMMS). You read correctly. 48 gigs of RAM. This is an $8,000+ option.
• 4 Year ProSupport for End Users and 4 Year 4HR 7×24 Onsite Service
• 4.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 5800, DUAL MON, 1DP & 2DVI
• Microsoft™ Office® Professional 2007
• McAfee® Total Protection for Small Business,15 Month Subscription,Eng
• Drive 1 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 2 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 3 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 4 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
• Drive 5 – 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™ Yes, this is 5 1.5TB drives for a total of 7.5 TB space.
• 16X DVD+/-RW w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™ and Roxio Creator™
• Monitor 1 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Monitor 2 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Monitor 3 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Monitor 4 – Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™2408WFP Widescreen, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
• Chassis Intrusion Switch

There are many, many different ways I could have priced out the Dell.

Instead of the four 24-inch monitors, I could have gone with three Dell 30-inchers (which I probably would). That would be a separate purchase albeit from the same company.

In addition, the Dell costs more mainly due to the extra 16GB of RAM, the four monitors and the extra two hard drives. Mac Pros at present cannot be configured from the OEM to go beyond 3 internal hard drives or 32GB RAM, and that’s by design.

What’s the Super Dell best suited for?

AutoCAD or high resolution medical imaging. With CAD in particular, this is still PC-only world.

And not gaming, you dope.

What’s the Super Mac best suited for?

HD/Film/Video editing suite. In a separate purchase I’d tack on either Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere or Media 100. Whatever had the most local (important) support. And when I say local I mean other shops in the area you live that support what you have. Some places favor Final Cut while others Media 100, etc.

Does anybody actually buy these things?

Yes, and routinely. Neither OEM would build them if there weren’t a market to buy them.

In medical, industrial design and research facilities you will see these Dells.

In pro video houses/animation studios, you will see these Macs.

Of course, neither looks any different from their lower-cost same-model boxes, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts obviously.

Could you build a PC with the above Dell specs for cheaper?

Yes. And in fact you can go higher than 64GB RAM.

How about 256GB RAM? Sound impossible? It isn’t. You have to use a server motherboard instead of desktop, like this one.

Ridiculous for a home PC? Very. And totally unnecessary. Sure, you’ll be the coolest nerd in town, but you’ll be paying a loan off for all that RAM for the next 10 years.

On the desktop side, the most RAM supported if you bought the motherboard thru NewEgg is 24GB. This is a bit crappy because there should be 32GB RAM support options for PC builders. Alas, there isn’t. Yet. Maybe there will be come 2010?

At present you’re best off using a board that supports 8 or 16GB. And you’ll obviously have to use 64-bit Windows (or Linux) to access all of that.

Is there any way to get the cost of the Mac Pro down?

Several ways, actually.

The first rule to buying Mac is to purchase as little as possible from the Apple Store concerning the box itself.

Instead of ordering your Mac with 32GB, order with 1GB. Fill it up with RAM from another vendor. Just remember to specifically order Mac Memory.

Instead of Apple 30-inch Cinema Displays, use 30-inch Dell UltraSharps. Even Mac people know that those are awesome monitors.

Instead of ordering 3 hard drives, take 1. Like with the RAM, buy the others from another vendor and install it yourself.

This is essentially no different than configuring the Dell. You put the money into the processors more than anything else. For the rest, you go with other vendors.

The only drawback to this is that the other-vendor stuff isn’t supported under OEM warranty. This can be said for either OEM.

Last Friday I went to configure my father’s new PC, a Dell Inspiron 531 mini-tower. This is Dell’s lowest-priced offering and it’s as basic as basic can get. A box with Windows XP, mouse, keyboard, power cable and not much else.

This box comes provided with a 1.6GHz single core AMD Athlon 2560e 512K, your option of Vista or XP (the chosen OS was XP), 16x DVD Burner, 1GB 800MHz DD2 RAM, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, nVidia GeForce 6150 SE Integrated video, and 1-year warranty with in-home service.

If you order this box with absolutely no options that add additional cost, the price is $249, however bear in mind there are taxes shipping charges.

Being that most people will understand how this box would work as far as speed and performance are concerned, I’m going to concentrate on setup questions instead.

How much bundled crap is in the OS?

Surprisingly little. There was a Windows Live toolbar installed in the IE browser which was annoying but easy enough to get rid of.

There were a bunch of Windows Live Essentials stuff as well, also easy to uninstall.

Trial-ware was only limited to a McAfee 30-day subscription, which I uninstalled for the freely available AVG instead.

Other than that there were a few Dell-specific support programs, and those were uninstalled as well.

Usually it’s the case where you spend hours uninstalling all this crap. But in this instance it took about 20 minutes which included a few reboots.

Does it comes with A Windows CD?

No. Dell, like many other PC manufacturers, do not provide an OS disc with lower-end models. Unfortunately this is par for the course no matter who you buy from. I wish it wasn’t.

How long does it take to upgrade?

The first thing to do with any new PC with Windows after you’ve uninstalled the crap is to run Windows Update. This is a long, tedious process, but fortunately since the OS had SP3 on it already it saved some time.

Additionally, with XP you do have to run Windows Update at least four times on a brand new OS install. The first time installs the WGA stuff, the second time is for all the critical updates, the third time is for the newest software (IE 8, Windows Media Player 11), the fourth time for critical updates to those software titles. The longest was the second.

Total time patching/upgrading was about 3 hours. It would have been faster save for the fact my father has a very basic broadband internet plan that slowed things down a bit.

How loud is it?

You can barely hear this thing running. In fact I had to specifically look at the HDD light to know if the drive was being accessed or not. It is whisper quiet.

How is the keyboard?

Very good. Dell does provide some of the best standard keyboards with their PCs.

How is the mouse?

Terrible. It’s basic, all black (and I mean all black – there’s not any other color on the entire mouse), feels odd in the hand and the software mouse options allow for almost no wheel-click control whatsoever. I had to use my father’s old Logitech optical mouse which does have those options with the MouseWare software. This wasn’t a big deal since he was used to it already.

Tip: If you have a Logitech mouse and want all the options available for it, just download the control software from here. If a Microsoft mouse, you want the IntelliPoint software (which also works perfect on Windows Vista and 7 by the way.)

How much does it weigh?

Not much. This box looks a lot heavier than it actually is.

How loud is the optical drive?

Surprisingly the DVD burner drive is very quiet. You can hear it but thankfully it doesn’t make an annoying racket when in operation.

One complaint: When the tray is open, the button to close it is blocked. You can push the drive tray closed, but nevertheless this is a design flaw.

How are the ports set up?

Four USB ports in the front mounted mid-height on the tower. Very, very convenient. This works out very nicely whether you have the box on a desk or on the floor. There are four USB ports in the back also. In front, the USB ports are horizontal 2×2. In rear, vertical 2×2.

The audio ports in rear are very plainly marked and color coded as is the video port (which is VGA by the way) and the network port.

This is a stark contrast to the way Dell boxes used to be. The user-friendly nature shows throughout. No, it’s obviously not a Mac, but this is light years better than the way yesteryear Dell boxes were.

How is the case construction?

Solid. It doesn’t feel cheap even though it is a cheap box. Even the power button feels solid.

Is it worth the cash?

I’d have to say yes. This is the lowest-priced offering and what you get is fair for the price.

This box is upgradeable, however most who would buy it probably wouldn’t do more than add in more RAM, possibly another hard drive and not much else.

There’s also a 3½ and a 5¼ bay free. You could stick one of those 13-in-1 card readers in the 3½ and whatever else you’d want in the 5¼.

Bonus: The 5¼ bay has a flap-style door in front of it, so no matter what drive you install, the box will retain it’s look. For example, if you want to add in another DVD burner, you can completely disregard the color as when it’s closed the drive is hidden by the flap. In other words, if the white drive is cheaper than the black one, go for it because it will be hidden when not in use.

What would happen if you added in some options?

The only upgrade worth getting on purchase is the AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core CPU. All other options would be cheaper to buy and install yourself.

If you tack on the best CPU available for this particular model (the X2 5600), it adds $90 to the price. However there are two others besides that which are lower, that being the X2 5000 ($60) and the X2 4450E ($30). The X2 5000 with Windows XP or (or Windows 7 later) is more than fast enough with that and 2 or 4GB RAM for daily computing purposes.

Final notes

For those wondering if this is a slim model, no it isn’t. That would be the 531s, with ’s’ for slim. I’m happy to report that the 531 is a regular mini-tower, as in the kind that’s easy to work on if you want to add things into it.

With XP this is a very good day-to-day machine. With Windows 7 it would work well also.

Just remember that this box is not meant to be a tower of power. If that’s what you’re looking for, see other models besides this one. But if you want to stay basic and cheap, it’s tough to beat the Inspiron 531.

I bought a refurbished Dell Dimension 4400 back when Windows XP was brand new in 2001. It was $625 shipped.

The only thing I ever did to it was upgrade the processor from 1.6GHz to a 2.4GHz and bumped the RAM from 256MB to 512MB. Other than that, everything in it is original. I used it for a few years then gave it to my father who has been using it ever since.

Last week it finally developed a problem. The system detected that the processor coolant fan was failing. This is indicative that a major failure is imminent, because even if I replace the fan, something else will probably bust shortly thereafter. And even if nothing happened after the fan replacement, the box is just plain old and would be too much of a risk.

After nine years of faithful service it was decided to finally retire the 4400.

Contrary to my computer needs, my father only needs the basics. He is the definition of the type of user that uses a computer "for internet and email only." And the box needed to be cheap besides that. After some research I instructed Pop to call Dell and purchase an Inspiron 531 desktop (pictured) with Windows XP, no monitor and no options. The cost with taxes and shipping was a tick under $300 and it will arrive next week.

Why didn’t I tell Pop to go for a refurb? Because at present the new Dell boxes are actually cheaper. Were he to use the Dell Outlet Store it would have cost an extra $50 even with the lowest-cost offering.

I asked Pop how his experience was with Dell sales. He said there were no issues at all. There weren’t any high-pressure sales tricks or any of that stuff, so that was good to hear.

Why did I tell him to go with XP? Because as configured the box will run XP much better than Vista.

The box comes outfitted with an AMD Athlon 2560e 1.6GHz CPU (512K) with 1GB of DDR2 RAM at 800MHz, a 16x DVD burner, nVidia GeForce 6150 SE integrated graphics and a 160GB hard drive. It also comes provided with keyboard and mouse. For just under $300 that’s not bad, especially considering it has a full 1-year warranty with in-home service.

If you were to buy a pre-built from NewEgg, the cost is about the same with shipping included.

If you were to build a box from scratch, the price is also the same. Remember, you have to add in the cost of Windows XP with all the hardware – and I’m not about to put my dad on Linux. It took long enough to get him used to Windows.

Like it or not, the cheapest computer desktop box right now hovers at or very close to $300 as the final price when all is said and done (purchase price, taxes, shipping, software license, all of it).

It kind of sucks that the 4400 box had to start developing problems now, because if it had lasted until October I would have purchased this same new box with Windows 7. Vista needs a big beefy PC to run optimally. Win 7 on the other hand will run on (much) older computer hardware. This has been proven to be true.

But oh well. XP is mature, stable and will get the job done.

The low-end Dell for the money is a decent box. It’s on par with the price of from-scratch builds and other pre-built boxes with similar specs.

I can’t give it a thumbs up or down at present because it hasn’t arrived at my dad’s place yet. Once it does I’ll be stopping over to configure/update it. When I sit down to configure this thing, I’ll post what happens here. Watch for it.

If posed the question as to what you think the worst possible thing could happen to a PC is, your answer would probably be, "when the hard drive dies".

Wrong.

The worst possible thing that can happen is fire. This is when something in your computer overheats, catches fire and starts melting the "guts" (motherboard, chips, etc.). Fire is the worst because it makes any computer literally unusable – and that’s far worse than a hard drive that croaks.

A small and true story before continuing:

Years ago I was working for a large corporation and the LAN Administrator was delivering a brand new laptop to one of the six-figure guys in the corporate office in Boston Massachusetts. The laptop in question was a Texas Instruments TravelMate 5100. This was at a time when the Pentium processor was still new and laptop makers didn’t really know how to cool those things down just yet.

The guy goes into the six-figure employee’s office, sets up the laptop, plugs it in, presses the power button, and..

POP.

Sounded like a small gunshot.

Smoke comes streaming up from the keyboard. The smell of burnt silicon stunk up the office and more or less the whole floor soon after that. The stench stayed there for a week it was so bad.

Modern-day PCs and laptops thankfully rarely if ever catch fire and start melting stuff, however the threat of fire is not 100% out of the question.

Two common situations that may set your PC ablaze

1. Unbound wires/cables

Dangling unbound wires in a PC case is a fire threat. This is because a wire can get too close to a fan, a fan blade chops the wire, that sets off a spark and if that spark hits the right spot (which it always does), it’s burn city.

Or..

A wire gets too close to a hot item in your case, the wire wrap melts, wire is exposed, throws sparks and produces the same disastrous result.

I cannot stress enough that you should never have dangling wires in a computer case. Ever. Bunch your cables, keep them as far away from fans and sources of heat as possible.

2. Dead fan(s)

A fan’s job is to cool. If a fan dies and for some crazy reason the computer doesn’t shut off like it’s supposed to when it gets too hot, whatever it was cooling will overheat, burn up and possibly take the whole computer with it.

Indicators that your computer is running too hot

1. When you touch the side of your case, it literally feels hot to the touch.

This is bad news. It is normally okay for a case to feel slightly warm to the touch, but if hot, that’s a problem.

If you have a laptop, that’s a different story. Many laptops run hot on the backplane (a.k.a. the bottom) due to the very limited space inside the chassis and there’s really not much you can do about it other than deal with it, or use a laptop stand with built-in fans.

2. Your computer randomly shuts off for seemingly no reason.

There probably is a reason – it’s running too hot. And your computer is saving itself by powering off to prevent itself from burning up. The solution is more fans or better fans if you can’t add any. Maybe a cooling system if you’ve got the cash for it.

What type of PCs have a higher risk of fire?

Custom built. Many people who build their own PCs cut corners and this can lead to disastrous results like fire later.

Bear in mind that I’m not talking about just high-powered gaming rigs here. Any improperly wired/fan’d PC box can burn up.

OEM boxes on the other hand, be they by Dell, Apple, Gateway or the like almost never have fire threat issues, much less actually catch on fire. The manufacturing process is done in such a way where extra special attention is given to ensure fire (almost, repeat, almost) never happens.

Got a disaster story with a computer burning up?

Whether it’s your story or someone else’s box, let us know in the comment section. Bonus points if you have pics (although not required).

Yes, this is a netbook 9-inch screen model that I’m talking about.

The computer industry is hurting right now so most of the larger OEMs are slashing prices left and right and Dell is no exception.

The Inspiron Mini 9 is selling well, but evidently not well enough so the price has been dropped significantly.

With Ubuntu Linux installed, the price is $249. With Windows XP, $299. But even with XP, that’s still cheap. I mean, seriously, you can’t even buy used decent units for that cheap.

New laptop, anyone?

I really find it humorous when I read articles like this basically insinuating that Dell can’t build a decent small computer, and in this case a SmartPhone.

From the linked article above, the tail of it states this:

Still, would you buy a Dell smartphone? What kind of features should MePhone have in order to convince you to chose it over an iPhone, Blackberry or T-Mobile G1?

To answer up front: If I were in the market to buy one, yes I would whether it had more or less features than competitors. The reason? Good build quality.

Some people laugh out loud because they think "Dell" and "good build quality" shouldn’t be in the same sentence. Oh, how easily people forget the Dell Axim. Yes, I know that was a PDA but it goes to prove that Dell can build a decent small computer. Those who have used Axims understand that unit was solid, worked great and looked great all at the same time. And I knew a few people who beat the crap out of those things and they never skipped a beat.

Were Axims the most feature-rich? No. But they worked and were "rugged" as far as PDAs were concerned. If Dell can build a phone up to that spec, it’s totally okay to not be as feature-rich as long as the price point is agreeable with the masses.

And obviously any phone that’s not tethered to a specific wireless provider (*cough* iPhone *cough*) is always better.

Recently announced: Best Buy will be carrying MSI’s offering in the itty-bitty "netbook" style laptop, called the "Wind". It will come with Windows XP Home Edition, an Intel 1.6 Atom processor, 120GB HDD, 3-cell battery and comes in black or white.

I’ve been following the netbook-style laptops for a while now and the industry has proven that there’s definitely a market for it. The reasons? Price and portability. These things are on the lower end of the price spectrum and obviously provide the best portability in a pint-sized computer.

Most people who haven’t used a small-screen unit like this would probably say "A 10-inch screen? How can anyone read anything on a screen that small?" The answer is that the native resolution accommodates for the smaller size. You’ll either get 800×400 or 1024×600 native resolution. If those numbers look "odd" to you, bear in mind netbooks are widescreen format. These smaller native numbers make for readability on a netbook screen fairly easy.

If you’re in the market for one of these, I’d recommend going at least 1024 wide on the native because most modern web sites require that when viewing them. Your only option with 800 is to deal with a horizontal scroll bar or use CTRL-Minus to size down the site in your web browser of choice. All major web browsers have this ability.

Most major manufacturers have netbook offerings. Dell has their recently announced Inspiron Mini 9, we all know about the Asus Eee PC, HP has their Mini-Note, there’s the MSI Wind listed above and more are coming. In 2009 you’re sure to see more companies getting into the biz of "smaller is better".

Things the netbook-style laptop has proven

1. More than a few people really don’t care about the optical drive.

Netbooks don’t have optical drives and this is part of the reason they are physically smaller. However it seems that people who buy these units really don’t miss them. True, you can’t burn discs or watch DVD movies on one of these things – but how often are you going to do that compared to everything else you do on a computer? Probably not that often.

The lack of an optical drive is something customers of these units are very aware of, readily accept and have – surprisingly – easily dealt with it.

To note: You could easily attach an external optical drive connected via USB to it if you wanted to if you needed to install apps that were disc-only.

2. It has escaped toy-like status.

When netbooks first appeared most people didn’t deem it to be a "real" computer and shrugged it off as more of a novelty than anything else.

That attitude has changed.

People have found that netbooks – many of which are in the sub-$500 price point – do pretty much everything one would want to do with a portable computer. And that small size is oh-so nice.

3. It "saved" Windows XP.

Vista can’t run on netbooks strictly for the reason that units that small do not have the horsepower to run it optimally.

There is no netbook that I’m aware of that even offers Vista, so for people that want Windows they are given XP Home Edition instead.

Nobody has really complained about this.

And for those that think I’m Vista-bashing, I’m not. The blunt honest truth is that Vista is too "heavy" for netbooks, plain and simple. That’s why it’s not offered on them to begin with.

4. You can easily escape the "Windows tax" by using Ubuntu instead.

On most netbook offerings, ordering one bundled with Ubuntu will shave $50.00 of the total price. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for example is $349 with Ubuntu and $399 with XP Home.

This is an excellent example of how using Linux can truly cut costs in a great way.

5. Most people don’t need a super-powerful box anymore.

Netbooks are not for gamers, videographers, graphic artists or anyone that needs computer boxes with gobs of storage, memory and speed. This accounts for the vast majority of computer users out there.

Said honestly, the netbook fits in very nicely in today’s computing world. We’ve finally got laptops that truly embrace their portable nature more than any other – and they’re cheap.

This is definitely a form of computing that’s here to stay.

Don’t Make Me Think is a book about web usability. It’s an older book but required reading for anyone who designs web sites. In a nutshell it states that if you want a successful web site, make it stupidly easy to use. Go complicated are it’s nothing but a big ball of fail.

In the world of tech commerce there are basically two types of consumers: The 18-27 market and everyone else. I fall into the “everyone else” category as I’m 33 years old. Many PCMech readers also fall into the same category as well – and that’s just fine.

Given our choices with internet tech shopping, who wins and who loses? Let’s find out.

I’ll be using a 1 to 5 scoring system. 5 = best, 1 = worst.

Apple

Score: 5

Design is a cornerstone of Apple philosophy concerning all their products. Their own web site is no exception. This is one of the absolute easiest places to shop. Right on the home page it’s obvious you click on “Store” to go to (duh), the online Apple store.

Product pages are easy to navigate, easy to read (important) and prices are listed up front. There’s no hassle involved.

Dell

Score: 4

The recent redesign of the Dell web site is a welcome one. It puts a fresh face on Dell and makes their products look more attractive.

The reason this site doesn’t score a 5 is because it’s not entirely obvious that you have to hover (yes hover, not click) over “FOR HOME”, “FOR OFFICE”, or “FOR DATA CENTER” and then select from the drop-down.

When on a product page you’re greeted with lots of itty bitty tiny text. That’s bad. All the nice large text on the front is gone at this point. But at least the prices are listed up front.

NewEgg

Score: 4

NewEgg’s home page was redesigned a while back and it desperately needed it. All text on the home page is very legible. The SEARCH field is placed on the left side which is smart.

Considering the monster inventory of stuff NewEgg has it’s actually fairly simple to get around and find what you’re looking for. The left sidebar on any product screen is helpful to sort by manufacturer or other options presented. Prices are also listed up front for just about everything.

CDW

Score: 2

CDW is a bit of a mess. Too much really small text. Menus at the top that stretch out to the right.

The links on the left are more or less worthless. If you click on Small / Home Office, you get this:

This tells me nothing. I don’t want to “discover” anything. I want to see the stuff you have for sale, get a price and BUY.

In addition there’s a poll on the home page. There is no reason for polls to be there. This is a place to shop, not take polls.

Circuit City

Score: 3

Circuit City puts categories direct on top of the home page in very easy-to-read format. The drop-downs only go one way – down. And that’s great compared to the down-and-to-the-right way CDW does it.

Product pages suffer from the same fate Dell does – lots of itty bitty tiny text. But prices are listed up front.

In addition, Circuit City puts links on the right that are actually useful, such as the Outlet store, Consumer Reports buying advice and other items. Very nice.

Best Buy

Score: 3

The first thing I notice about the Best Buy site is that it’s aligned to the left. This is 2008! Center your web site!

Aside from that this site is fairly easy to get around and the Outlet Center is directly linked on the home page – that’s good.

For products listed the price couldn’t be any easier to spot. It’s in bright yellow. Ugly? Yes. But effective and I appreciate it.

Alienware

Score: 1

Yeah you just knew I had to put a “1″ (worst) in here, right? I won’t disappoint. Alienware has an awful web site designed with all the “cool factor” in the world but very little in the way of being helpful.

You are immediately greeted with useless Flash animations and images on the bottom that you don’t know you’re supposed to click on unless you hover over them first. On Web Pages That Suck this is called Mystery Meat Navigation.

The product page has LED-looking bars that basically say nothing. It looks like stats for characters in a video game – which is exactly the intent. And it sucks. Bars don’t mean anything.

This is what you get when a company tries to target the 18-27 market. Lots of fancy useless Flash, information that’s worthless and a doomy dark look.

No thanks.

Even though Alienware is under Dell’s umbrella and has been for some time, you can obviously tell Alienware is totally gunning for the 18-27 market.

Even though I champion Dell as the best go-to company for most consumers wanting a computer from a well-established company, my single largest complaint about them is the constant shifting of model names; it confuses the crap out of people.

Classic example: Inspiron. This should have never been made a desktop model name. Inspiron was known by everyone as “Oh, okay. That’s a laptop model.” Surprise! Not anymore! Now it’s a desktop and and laptop model name (groan…) Dell, seriously.. you gotta stop doing that.

So anyway, Dell now has a new laptop model called the Studio. You can see it now @ dell.com. I think ZDnet pretty much nailed it when they said “…offers a good mix of features for the price, but we’d be tempted to save up a few extra dollars for a thinner, lighter XPS.”

Yes, exactly. This model seems to have been shoved into the mix because… I don’t know. The 15-inch model is 6 frickin’ pounds (for a modern laptop that’s too heavy). and the processors used are nearing the end of their generation (tip: wait until September for the faster Centrino 2’s).

The Studio series is “cool” looking but it’s a mystery why Dell had to introduce yet another model into the mix. If this is the model destined to phase out Inspirons then I can understand that. But if it sticks around it makes no sense.

I’d pass on this one. If you were looking to buy a new Dell laptop, stick with the Inspiron or XPS models for the time being until Studio gets some more horsepower under the hood and goes on a diet.

If you were thinking of buying a new Dell PC but Vista makes you want to crawl under the bed, go into fetal position and suck your thumb, you can cancel those plans because Dell does have a few boxes that you can have delivered brandy-new with XP instead of Vista.

There are 4 boxes. Two Inspiron and two XPS desktop models.

None of these are Dell’s top-of-the-line models – but they are new and at least you’re not forced into buying Vista whereas you were before.

Perks:

• With the exception of one XPS model, they all come with an included 19-inch digital widescreen flat panel monitor.
• All boxes have Intel processors, starting at 2GHz.
• Three of them have Core 2 Duos, one with dual-core.
• The base RAM offering is 1GB on 2 models. The other 2 have 2GB standard.
• The smallest hard drive offering is 250GB.
• All have 1-year in-home (meaning on-site) warranty service. Includes parts and labor.
• All have DVD burner drives.
• Three have the Integrated Graphics Media accelerator, one has the nVidia 8800 GT 512MB.

The best bang-for-the-buck model:

Dell Inspiron 530 (not the 530s).

It’s a regular tower and not a slim. Suggestion: When “configuring” the machine, ditch the existing Intel Accelerator and go for the nVidia or ATI Radeon video card. If none of the offerings are your thing you can always replace with a card you can purchase later on.