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The Discounted Dell Vostro 1000 |
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I own two
laptops. My favorite is a 17-inch core 2 duo Macbook
Pro, the other, I like to call it my backup laptop, is a Toshiba
Satellite P10 with a Pentium 4 processor I bought back in 2003. I
use the Toshiba on the road, its battered blue lid and weathered
chassis far less attractive to thieves than my shiny Apple
Macbook. That stays parked safely on my desk at home, connected
to an external keyboard, mouse and 24 inch monitor. |
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A few
months back the two fans on my Satellite P10 began whirring
loudly, the notebook began overheating and switching itself off.
I've cleaned out the heatsink and fans but the problem is
persistent. So I decided to start hunting for a cheap backup
laptop as a replacement, and Dell's new Vostro line, particularly
the Vostro 1000 caught my thrifty eye. Vostro means YOUR in Italian, and for $499 it's not expensive to make the Vostro 1000 "Your" laptop. The Dell Vostro 1000 is being billed as a bargain priced business notebook. The 6.26 lb black magnesium alloy chassis appears very solid. A thoughtful feature is the mylar sealed keyboard. This will be a crumb and spill safety net for road warriors eating baguettes and drinking at wireless coffee shops while they work. What's under the bonnet? Well for less than 500 bucks you get an Athlon 64 bit X2 AMD processor, a 15.4 inch Widescreen WXGA (1280x800) widescreen, 512MB of RAM (1GB for another $50), and a 60GB hard drive (up to 120 GB available for extra $70). Wireless comes in the form of a Dell 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi card. For our UK readers a laptop with similar specs is available for the discount sum of £239. If you're still unsure about Vista, you can always ask Dell to install your Vostro with good old Windows XP. Or if you're an open source fan why not experiment by installing a Linux operating system? Dell have preinstalled Ubuntu on their Inspiron 1420 N to a chorus of approval from Linux aficionados. However, just because Ubuntu runs smoothly on the Inspiron doesn't mean it is guaranteed to work on this Dell. Indeed, I have heard whispers of wireless compatibility issues with Ubuntu on the Vostro 100. Not to worry though, it appears Gentoo Linux works fine on the 1000, check out Tuxmobil for the installation guide. As for me, all the files on my Toshiba are backed up, and I'm ready to swap them over to a new notebook. If/when the P10 succumbs to the dreaded blue screen of death, the Vostro 1000 is definitely being considered. Related article: - Fujitsu Tablet PC - The T4220 By Todd Gold - Laptopical Monday, September 10, 2007 |
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