Still top notch (Dell Inspiron 9400 Superb)

Member Name: Ghostkov

Product:	Dell Inspiron 9400 Superb
Date:	10/09/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good specs especially if modified, durable

Disadvantages: Hardware failures, poor support

Got this laptop (with higher specs as I customized it on the Dell website) 2 years ago and it still runs like a charm, though with a few issues here and there.

The difference in specs were:
- Core Duo 2.16 GHz
- 2GB of RAM
- NVidia GeForce Go 7900 GS (256MB)

To start off, its massive, huge screen, thus huge weight - not ideal to carry around, but I would say just as good as a desktop computer but taking less space.

In terms of specs, 2 years on it can still run the latest games and work applications with its Core Duo allowing you to run other stuff in the background as well.

Overall, I had several issues with it in that using the default Dell CDs to install (especially after reformatting), some random hardware component would go bonkers, so I just downloaded the latest drivers direct from Dell's website and had it on a USB stick - very handy, no problems. Now as for other problems, its been making the dreaded wheezing noises for some applications and the wireless card has been malfunctioning about 6 months ago causing all kinds of graphics (!) issues until I deactivated it.

Dell Support was quite poor too with me sending the laptop in for repairs (after spending hours on the phone with an engineer who was just wasting my time) and getting it back the same + a few scratches.

Still, sending it to a local repair shop got it fixed up well and I look forward to using it many years on!

Summary: If you are on a low budget and need a great laptop, get this one

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