Sunday, November 16, 2008

My Latest Toy...

Finally after what seamed like months of waiting,(they did take their time & messed up my order) it finally arrived. When it comes to buying Tech-stuff, I prefer shopping online where you can have plenty of time to analyse, customise, compare and admire a work of art before ordering compared to going to the outlets where you have to depend on some sales agent interested in only getting you off their case and of course the shipping is usually free. Also you buy directly from the manufacturer meaning that you get a good bargain and can always apply the discount offers.

Am talking about the latest addition to my small growing family of gadgets....This time it's the over talked about Dell XPS 420. It looks something like this
hehehe I know sweet. This beauty set me back about $1500, it's a $2,279 value but I have my ways. It did come with a WNR2000 Wireless-N Broadband Router with 4 port switch and a free EasyShare C813 8.2 MP Digital Camera, which means I can actually start with picture for my blog.

The Specs are neat and most tech lovers would appreciate even the standard version reviewed on Cnet here. I did "pimp" it up a bit to match my desires and pocket and most notable is.
  • The 6X Blu-ray and 16X DVD+/-RW. At least I can now be able to watch movies and burn on the blu-ray drive.
  • 4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz It's very fast to use.
  • Intel Core2 processorQ6600(2.4Ghz 1066FSB)w/QuadCore. I don't even know what this means exactly but it sounds good and eye catching.
  • A 640GB SATA Hard Drive. I know I could have done better than this but it's like 10x's bigger than the old one and can hold lots of music and movies.

Me Likes
At first time glance, you'll probably fall in love with the thing and after sample using it, you'll be completely drawn I did like most.
  1. The 22" wide screen flat panel monitor with web cam & mic....My mum & sis complained that this is two huge and unnecessary but of course they do not know these things and showing them samples of their images was enough to change their minds. I had to re watch QOS on this and it was better than on the old one. They say this panel supports High Def but I'll test my self when I get the $$ for a TV card and hook it up to cable.
  2. Speed...So much to say on this, stuff opens faster than am used to and the use is smooth. It came with a Dell Wireless 1505 adapter and after hooking it up to the home network, I was shocked by the download speed that almost clocked a record 1.5Mbs a personal one for me and am still in shock. Now imagine if I instead use the Ethernet 2 Gigabit Network Connection by connecting directly to the modem.
  3. Blue tooth, it came with a 19 in one card reader with blue tooth, though I do not have use for this feature at the moment, it's going to come in handy in the near by future with addition of other necessary stuff.
  4. The Blu-ray disk...Also a feature I'll be able too enjoy with passing time.
  5. The Chassis is nicely and beautifully finished. worth just looking at.

Me hates
Of course I had to look for the bad bits, although some people may say am just over complaining and price might have had a role to play, but still the things i did not like and could not quite figure out are there and are:-
  1. The Sound card, It has an integrated Intel® 7.1 channel High Definition Audio sound card which is completely useless for me considering I could only afford the D"ell AX510 Sound Bar UltraSharp Flat Panel Attachable Speakers" whose out put I've failed to appreciate.
  2. Windows Vista, I have no problem with Vista and actually prefer it to XP but I totally loath any Home Edition and the system was a Home Premium edition forget the Premium bit. It's just there to make it sound big but the limitations of using a Windows Home edition OS is clear in Vista. Up to now, am failing to connect to the shared drives of the old PC running Windows XPP Service Pack-3..I did manage this fit before at my old work place by assigning a static IP address to the XPP data storage machine such that the other Vista Home users could easily access it by using the IP-add instead and it worked. This time it is not and am starting to think it could be the SP-3 causing the zibs oba I configured the router wrongly(doubt highly) but am yet to know. May be if Solomon King and other tech geniuses and wizzards can offer a hand in this matter before am forced to upgrade Illegaly/legaly to the Ultimate edition.
  3. The Include anti Virus....I hate McAfee not only is it resource intensive(not that I have issues here) but it's also difficult to use(control) and much weaker in protection compared to the Kaspersky Internet security which I've become so fond of. It has 15 months subscription which I'd hate to lose so am forced to stick with it that long.
  4. The 128Mb ATI Radeon HD 2400 Video card I could have wanted something higher.
Apart from those, there is nothing else bad with the system with time, i should be able to customise it to the perfect best friend and it should be able to meet all my entertainment and gaming demands for my satisfaction and well being

This is the second most powerful machine am having at my exposure and use. The first one was an XPS 700 Jet black which was more costly and not as powerful as this because it only had 2GB ram & a 20" monitor without webcam. Originally I'd thought I'd call it the beast but It's actually quite a handsome machine and would certainly pull other female Pc's if they saw him.....

Am just now lucking a suitable name. Prince charming sounds really lame & gay....any suggestions?


17 comments:

Ugandan girl said...

Socks, socks , socks at least....lol...i shld start waking up early for this...i agree prince charming is abit........sorry have no suggestions for this one.

Anonymous said...

eddsla

cooool

Robyn.K.Y said...

welcome to the club,dont know the model but i gat me one of those Dell Xps notebooks but i hooked my self up with one with DDR3 i think the first in my group of college buddies ram 3 gb 500gbHdd good enuf for gaming,,my view is anyone intrestED in such power has alot of intentions.Emi you have my attention.Hey performance is too good.But am now running after the Hp touch smart,,,

Tandra said...

Gawsh! the joy seeping through... i needs to find me a toy to gush over like THIS:-)

Anonymous said...

4GBRAM? Quadcore? Jesus Christ Your Majesty. I'm jealous. Go tell it on the mountain. I am jealous. Shit!

Petite Femme said...

Blah blah blah gadgets...some of us are jewellery peoples...show us Jacob & Co bling.

Anyway, Emi, I want a Vaio. Please. I'm on my knees.

Princess said...

Skipped over all the tech details. :)
You sound pretty excited though, so good on you!

Emi's said...

Eddsla, coool, wht kida name is that.
Robyn, I did see that HP touch screen & It's cool but am not yet ready for a touch screen PC. You should have most of these stuff at your disposal being in china where most of these stuff are made, they should even be cheaper...
Cheri, princess we are tech freaks...

Unknown said...

Bro, I completely understand you on this. The video card RAM could have been better you, know, so i feel for you there.

I like the Quadcore bit, 800MHZ is good, but for a game freak like me, I would need 3GHz.

Nonetheless, this is a good looking toy. Congs on the purchase!!

@ Ugandan Girl- congs on socking!!!

Anonymous said...

Dude,you got all that muscle and killed it with Vista home AND a measly ATI 2400??? Dude thats like buying a Lamborghini with no rims!!! But i know you can get a great HD ready card to juice up that beauty of a screen. Go for one of the Nvidia's with like 640MB ram. But otherwise, i have serious nugu for you right now. Double damn

Elle B said...

Nice to know you're excited about your new toy.If i was fluentin computer speak, I'd prolly say," double click space internet download gigabyte!" but since i aint, I won't say nothing

Anonymous said...

Looks like something I'd like to have for myself. Now where did I put that professional burglar's number?

Anonymous said...

Apprentice, lol...I hear you but having an Nvida like that would cost the price of another laptop..and i had to sacrifice a little to get it within my price range...
The ATI is HD ready and plays fine with GTA, I just feel I could have done better...
Minty, It's already Insured.
Elle B tht's enough said..it's cool

Anonymous said...

Can i borrow ur new toy?

Carsozy said...

First time here. could'nt help but gawk at the monster, if ur looking for a name christen it Hulk.

Anonymous said...

My 2 cents: I would call it Taki. Nothing to do with tacky, of course, far from me this idea.
*beware, tongue stuck out*

Anonymous said...

Apr9, Yeas feel free to come and enjoy it...

Carsozy nxs for dropping by.I like the hulk name because of the strength but hulk lacks beauty.

Kancil, where did Taki come from?