Presenting the Behemoth

OK, so I bought a new laptop, like I said I was going to. It is being financed by the sale of my PSP and DS. I already nearly have sold both, so that's fine.

The laptop I chose was a Dell Inspiron 9400. Back at my last place I was very critical of Dell, as the old Latitude CPi and other models fell apart worryingly often. When we switched to Dell at the council, I was very dismayed. But fortunately the newer laptops are much improved and my desktop Precision workstation at home has been rock solid. The other good thing about Dell is that because they are fairly popular, the machines and spares parts are readily available on places like Ebay. This was just one of many Dells on there, and I had quite a choice.

I had already narrowed it down to the Inspiron 6400 or 9400, as they are pretty much the same other than the screen size. They were quite a popular model a couple of years ago so spares wouldn't be a problem. They are also quite upgradable, it's possible to swap out the Core Duo for a Core 2 Duo, the graphics card can be swapped out and even the screen can be changed.

The 9400 I got has a 2ghz Core Duo, 2gb RAM, a 120gb hard drive, a 17" 1440x900 display and the main reason I wanted a new laptop, a Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GS with 256mb dedicated memory. It's a refurb from a place on Ebay. I didn't actually expect an operating system to be installed and while there is no COA on it, it's got a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate installed. Apparently it is fully activated but I need to check that. It also has a German keyboard, which is interesting. Z and Y are the wrong way round, there are various characters on the keyboard and the Ctrl keys are marked Strg. There was a very similar one with a 1920x1200 display but while that might be nice on a 24" screen, it might be pushing it ona 17".

So far it seems nice, although 'laptop' is rather a kind word for the hulking beast. It's so big that there is even room in the case for a mini subwoofer. I tried to take a picture but my main camera had no batteries and my phone took a hideous blurry picture. So I attached a generic picture off the Internet. I've got one of those beanbag tables that Em gave me a while back and the 9400 is a perfect fit. It makes it possible to use on your lap without blocking the many air vents. The battery works but it remains to be seen how well it lasts.

In other news, the pickup finally arrived and I've mounted it into the Partsocaster. I managed to solder it up OK and it works fine. The switch and controls do what they should and it doesn't make any bad sounds. It needs a good setup and some tweaks, but on the whole it works and makes a nice sound, especially distorted.