XPS M140 performance

November 27, 2005 at 12:01 am · Filed under Uncategorized

I just got my Dell XPS M140 last week which I did not expect til December as the email previously sent. I changed my mind a couple times on the specs and on the 2nd, the Salesperson told me that it has been shipped on Sun 11/20 (arrived on 11/22). I was requesting to downgrade the memory from 1Gb to 512MB (pricewatch has the lowest 512 ram = $35) and to add bluetooth on the my order but it was too late obviously. They are going to ship the bluetooth for FREE though which I’m very happy for.
The system is so sleek and very quiet. The only noise that I hear is from the DVD drive. I’ve removed some of the software that I don’t need and it was a lot better than my 8400 desktop that has bunch of crapware pre-installed. After installing my favorite DVD editing tools and Photoshop, I tried firing them up all the same time and looks like the only lag that I get is from the HD. Runs smoothly so far and the wifi is pretty awesome. I’ll be installing autocad 2006 later on and see what will happen. The Media Direct is ok, it would have been better if that USB remote control works with it. On the other hand, Media Center is fast enough once it’s been loaded. I see some lag between switching mode but that’s typical I guess. What annoys me is the ‘blinking’ part when you switch from MC to Desktop.
I looked for the Recovery disks that SHOULD come with the system but they did not. I asked my friend who just got his too and he said the CDs are not included unless you buy them for $10 (I did not pay attention to all other accessories during checkout), that kinda sucks. The hidden 12GB partition better have the whole OS installation or I’m going to install pirated XP if I have to. To carry around this notebook, I purchased Targus Sports backpack from Amazon -they have it on sale for $46 free shipping
I got 2 linux live CDs that I tested (ubuntu and knoppix) and both of them did not work. Ubuntu loads them and had some trouble loading X server and just stops responding. Knoppix fired up pretty quick but then the keyboard and pointing device, only the mice worked. If anybody can comment on live linux CD on XPS M140 please do, I will try Mandrake move or Linspire live and see what will happen.

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laptop in production…

November 10, 2005 at 8:49 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

This is how it feels like to order a new system from DELL:

• FRUSTRATIONS
• crappy website
• I called them and my XPS M140 just starts 11/7 in production.

It better be great or I’ll beat it up til it crashes and I’ll definitely share with you my first BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH with this notebook.

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XPS M140 on the way

November 1, 2005 at 10:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

I have not been in buying new system mode for a year. Last gadget that I bought was the Zen Micro mp3 player and Logitech 5.1 speakers. I went to DELL website and there it was, XPS M140 Notebook. And I could not resist the 18 months no interest plan. I called them and I’ll probably be dreaming of it every night until it comes.

I already have plans for this. It will be a dual boot of windows and linux and I will run orb at my home system and will be listening to my jukebox in the office over the internet (that if I can get wifi signal ). I will also be able to do some video encoding on the fly. Man, I can’t wait!

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