I got my XPS laptop on Tuesday this week. My first impression on the laptop thus far has been good. There are 2 words that can sum up my first impression, beauty and quality. I will write more about it once I’ve played around with it more. Stay Tune.

One of the greatest thing with buying from Dell is that you are given the opportunity to customize your system configuration before buying. You can upgrade any components you like, add more components to your system, or on some cases downgrade your component. These upgrades do not come free, they will add up to your final price that you have to pay for your laptop.

If you’re like me, you probably have the “I want a future proof system” mindset, when configuring your Dell laptop. The only way to have a future proof system is to have a powerful system configuration that can withstand the trial of time. This does mean that you might be required to upgrade the base configuration offered by Dell.

When I was configuring my XPS 16 laptop, the biggest question that comes to my mind was “Is it worth it to upgrade these components now?”. Now that I have bought my laptop, I wandered if I made the right decision by not upgrading some components early. These are the component upgrades that I decided to leave out:

• Upgrading the 500GB 7200RPM hard drive to a 128GB SSD.
• Upgrading the DVD drive with a Blu-Ray Drive.
• Adding an integrated TV tuner.
• Upgrading the battery to 9 cells.

Lets take the first case, upgrading the 500Gb 7200RPM hard-drive to a 128Gb SSD. The reason for me not upgrading early is because the upgrade is too expensive. It would cost me $267 (AUD) to upgrade, and I would lose 372GB. Now how much does it cost for me to upgrade this on my own? If I take the price of a 7200RPM hard drive ($168) plus the upgrade, this means you actually paid $435 for the SSD upgrade by Dell. According to StaticIce (computer hardware price comparison search engine), you can get a 128Gb SSD as low as $322. That’s a $100 different, which is not bad.

The second case is to upgrade the DVD drive to a Blu-Ray Drive, which costs $266.60. This is quite a tricky one, because it is not easy to find a slot loaded internal Blu-Ray Drive. In fact I was not able to find any on the market, except for second hand ones which cost around $80 on Ebay. Another option is to get an external Blu-Ray drive, which costs around $170. Again another $100 different, and it’s external too! This means you can add blu-ray capability to every PCs that you’ve got. I think that is a BIG plus.

The third case is to add an integrated TV tuner. The TV tuner that Dell provides is an integrated DVB-T digital TV Tuner, which costs $79.20 to upgrade. Another tricky one to compare, because all the internal tv tuner that I could find will take up an express card expansion slot. The cheapest that I could find is AVerMedia Hybrid + FM Express TV tunner, and it costs $95. Yes it is more expensive, but it’s also an analog TV Tuner, Digital Radio tuner, and it comes with a remote control. With all those additional functionalities I think its worth the $15 difference. Another option is to get an external USB Digital TV Tuner. I’m able to find AVerTV Volar X USB Digital TV Tuner for $50. Very good price, and it comes with a remote control too.

The last case is probably where it makes sense to upgrade early. A 9 cell Dell battery is definitely something that you will not be able to find retail. Even if you can find retail, are you really going to trust those aftermarket batteries? Battery is a very crucial component of a laptop. I may be a little bit paranoid here, but I think there might be a chance in a case of mismatch, you might end up burning your system internal circuit. That is definitely something you want to avoid at all cost.

When it comes to upgrading your component early, whether it’s worth upgrading, it all depends on the nature of the component. Is it something that can be bought on retail market? If It is not, by all means upgrade it. If it is, then you better off upgrading later and save yourself some money.

RWendi

2 days ago I ordered through a New Dell XPS Studio 16 Laptop from Dell Australia website. Here is the basic spec:

• Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53 GHz/1066 FSB/3MB). Very tempted to upgrade to T9550 (2.66GHz/1066 FSB/6MB), but I don’t think it’s worth it. T9550 consumes more power (35W compared to 25W) and yet overall performance gain, in theory, shouldn’t be that much (unless in gaming of course). Comparison of Intel Centrino 2 CPUs.
• 4 GB dual-channel 1066MH DDR3. Sweet, DDR3.
• 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive. At the moment I don’t think it’s worth it to get a solid state drive. I need to add $267 just to add a 128GB SSD. Surely it’s faster, but I have to trade off 372GB of space. No Thanks.
• Windows Vista Home Premium (64Bit) with Windows 7 upgrade eligibility.
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670. This worries me a bit, not sure how much power hungry this thing is.
• 6 Cells Battery. Wanted to upgrade to 9 cells, but it cost me $190 more. Hopefully the 6 cells battery will do just fine.
• Slot Load 8X DVD + /-RW Drive with double layer write capability. Again tempted to upgrade to blu-ray. Then I thought, I prefer to watch HD Movies on a 46” HD TV.
• 15.6" 1080p WUXGA (1920x1080) WLED display. Full HD, Sweet.

This system costs me about $1570. I think its a pretty good deal, considering the specs is not bad at all. The estimated delivery time is about 9-12 working days.  If you wander why it takes that long, it’s because most Dell computers are manufactured in and shipped from Malaysia. I hope I can get the laptop by the end of next week, can’t wait to get my hands on it. :)

RWendi

Yesterday, I found that my laptop was infected by a virus. I was a bit surprised by it, because, well, it’s my first time. I always try to keep my computer pretty clean whenever I’m using it, and I’m not sure where and how I got this virus. The virus is undetectable with AVG Free, which I have installed in my machine. This can mean 3 things: The virus is relatively new, the virus is not a BIG threat, and lastly AVG Free sucks. Anyway, the virus has the following symptoms:

• Internet explorer title bar has “[--Hacked by ROCKSTREET—] @InF” message.
• Your computer keeps on prompting you with “Drive was not found, please insert disk at location” dialog.

As you can see from the symptoms, the virus is not very threatening. The second symptom can be a bit worrying, but I’m finding that all of my drives can be found and work with no problem. Thus that dialog window is probably a bogus dialog window. After gathering some more information from the net, finally found a way to remove the virus, here is how:

• Go to “Start Menu” and then “Run”. In the dialog box type “msconfig” and click “Ok”.
• Select the “Startup” tab, and un-tick rockstreet entry. Click “Apply” –> “Ok” –> “Exit without Restart”.
• Go to “c:\windows” and the root of every drive that you have (e.g. “c:\”, “d:\”), and then delete the “rockstreet.dll.vbs” file.
• Go to the following registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run”, and delete the load key.
• Go to the following registry key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main”, and clear up the “Window Title” value key.
• Restart your machine.

Hope this helps in removing the virus if your computer is having the same problem.

RWendi

I finally got my MSI Wind on Thursday. Since then, I have been busy setting it up and installing all the necessary software. I’m not going to do a full review on this, as it has been done before by millions of other MSI Wind users. But I’m going to share some fun facts of the MSI Wind:

• MSI Wind is very light. Much lighter than any notebooks.
• It runs cool and quiet.
• The LCD screen is very bright, brighter than my old Sony Vaio laptop.
• Screen size is adequate for watching videos, browsing the internet, photos editing, and doing some work.
• It is not as underpowered as many has claimed.
• It runs Visual Studio 2008 express and SQL Server 2008 Express with no performance issue.
• 1 GB of ram it comes with is sufficient. You can upgrade to 2 GB, but upgrading will void your warranty.
• The keyboard size (92% of the standard size) is good. Have no problem typing with the keyboard.
• One complain with the keyboard, they shouldn’t have switched the left Ctrl key with the Fn key, it’s annoying.
• Track pad area is too small, and the button feels cheap.
• The speakers suck. Get yourself a good pair of earphones. 
• Battery will last around 3 hours and 30 minutes on full brightness. On acceptable brightness it will run for 4 hours 30 minutes.
• Last fun fact: This little thing is AWESOME. :)

RWendi

I finally decided to get MSI Wind U100. I wanted to get Dell Insipiron Mini 10 (as mentioned here), but after seeing the initial specs of the netbook, I have to say “No, Thank You!”. Yes, the initial spec is really that bad. Most of the cool promised features, such as: 720p resolution, built-in GPS and built in TV tuner, are not in the initial specs. Lets compare the specs between MSI Wind U100 and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (NOTE: red color denotes better spec):

The Mini 10 only has few advantages, which are: a more efficient CPU, and bigger Hard Disk. Even though it comes with a more efficient CPU, it only comes with 3 cells battery, which means nothing in comparison to the MSI Wind 6 cells battery. As a general rule of thumb when it comes to Netbook batteries, 1 cell = 45 minutes – 1 hour of usage time. Thus, the Mini 10 will probably give 2-3 hours of usage time, on the other hand the MSI Wind will give 4.5-6 hours of usage time. Moreover with MSI wind, you can actually purchase an after-market 9 cells battery, which is rumored to give MSI Wind a massive 7.5-10 hours of usage.

The lacks of Wireless N support really hurt Dell Mini 10, but the biggest bummer of the Mini 10 would be the RAM. It comes with the same 1GB of RAM, but its not upgradeable. The RAM is fixed, soldered to the motherboard (WTF!). This does not make sense at all, Dell should really fire the idiot who made that decision.

With much cheaper price and a lot better specs, MSI Wind is a clear winner. I wanted to wait for the new Asus EEE PC 1000HE, which comes with the new Intel N280 CPU and the new HD Capable Intel GN40 chipset, but Im running out of time. Im going to Japan next week and I want to bring a Netbook with me. Im going to get the MSI Wind this week, it’s gonna be Awesome!

RWendi

Many people say that building your own computer will give you the best bang of your buck. Is that really true? In this blog post I will be comparing a couple of intel based computer builds in comparison with Dell Australia’s current lineup. All the computer parts that I choose are based on my personal preferences and I will be using IJK online as a store choice. Please note that I’m not in any way affiliated with IJK or Dell.

Core i7 PC

Quad Core PC

Dual Core PC

As you can see that building your computer is indeed cheaper, but the price difference is not really that much. The extra price that you pay for the Dell machine is for better warranty policy and customer service. With Dell offering free upgrades every week, I think that the price difference has become negligible. For example, sometimes you can get a free upgrade to 23” LCD monitor. The price difference between a 21.5” monitor and a 23” monitor is about $125, which is the difference between the Dell Studio XPS with the Core i7 build.

One problem with building a system is that, there is a chance of incompatibilities between components. Does this memory module work for this motherboard? Does this PSU has enough power for the whole system? When you are getting a premade system you do not have to worry with those kind of questions. Getting a premade system means that it is guaranteed to work. You also get the convenience of plugging a couple of cables and your system is ready to use. No hassle of assembling your system and no skin cuts too.

Building your own system has its benefit too. You can mix and match any components and choose components of best quality. Building your own system means you will get better quality components. I’m not saying that Dell has a subpar quality, but most likely that the components you get from dell would be generic value oriented components (probably not the case for XPS pcs). For example, in Dell machine, You will not get RAMs with heat spreader, You will not get high speed HDDs (not on default configuration), and most likely you will not get good efficient PSU. With better hardware you can push your system further by overclocking it, and that is a big plus for building your PC. You can still overclock a Dell (on certain models), but doing that will probably void your warranty.

I think when it comes to choosing whether to get a premade system or build your own, you should not really be worry about cost, as both option will virtually cost the same. It all comes down to your personal preference. The convenience of a premade system or the better quality of a ”build your own” system.

RWendi

As I have mention before, I had a christmas wish list of a getting a nettop, MSI Wind in particular. I decided not to get it because it lacks of built in mobile broadband(very important), the latest generation of Intel Atom CPU (important), built in CD-ROM(not so important but good to have). Im still in the market of gettin a nettop, but there is just no good options available at the moment. In case you haven't notice, the current generation of nettops pretty much offer the same specs. Intel Atom N270, 9-10 inch screen, 1 Gb Ram (upgradeable to 2Gb but will void your warranty if done by yourself), 3 cell battery, and wireless BG. Regardless what model you choose (MSI Wind, Asus Eeepc, Dell Mini 9, etc), the only variations you might get is 6 cell battery and wirelss N.

In CES 2009, which was held in Las Vegas, Dell and MSI introduced new nettop models. MSI introduced the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid nettop and Dell introduced Inspiron Mini 10. From the pictures I've seen on the web, MSI Wind U115 looks very similar, if not the same as MSI Wind 100. Comparing the specs of the U115 with U100, the new version sports Intel Atom N530 and Hybrid storage system. Hybrid storage system basically means the nettop has both SSD and Harddisk install in it. The idea behind this is to put the operating system in the high speed SSD for better performance. Very interesting concept, especially for a nettop (even laptops never had this kind of storage before). And since SSD doesn't weight much, this should not add much to the nettop total weight.

Now for the Dell Mini 10, it has some interesting features that you've never found in a nettop before. Appart from the usual Intel Atom Z530, wireless b/g/n, and built in mobile broadband, it sports the following features:

• 720p 10 inch LCD screen (16:9 ratio, 1280x720): better view when watching movies
• Built-in TV Tuner: well you can watch TV programs
• Multi-touch and Gesture touchpad: mac-like gesture?
• Built-in GPS: handy for road warriors

I have to admit the first three features sounds very appealing especially the touchpad (assuming if it works well). As I said earlier the lacks of built-in mobile really put me off buying the MSI Wind U100, but this Dell Mini 10 really fills in the gap (except for the CD-ROM bit). Now you can say that Dell Mini 9 has a version with built-in 3G, but the problem is that it is not available here in Australia. Moreover, I HATE 9 inch nettops. Why? Because small screen and cramped up keyboard sucks. If this beauty doesn't cost more than $AU 800, I will definately buy it. Can only hope it comes out before my trip to Japan.

RWendi