Dell Inspiron 6400 or 6000

Hi Clark,

This is only my opinion, which is meant as food for thought. I can analyze the hell out of almost anything, to the point of paralysis so keep that in mind!

For the best price, check out the $650 off coupon on the Inspirons at:

In order to get the discount you would need to buy from Dell Home and your similar options would be the E1505 and 6000.

The Inspiron 6000 allows choice of a dedicated graphics card. The 6400 has integrated graphics. Depending on what you will be using your laptop for, this could be important. If you plan on running any modern games on it or intensive video editing production, then you would want the dedicated graphics card that the 6400 has.

As for myself, I don't need a dedicated graphics card so I ended up going for the 630m which has 6-7 hours of battery life and is more portable. I went with a Pentium-M because I know that it's a solid machine that will fit my needs and I don't need a Core Duo processor.

However, if a Core Duo was available, and if it didn't significantly affect battery life, then I would have opted for the Core Duo. Also, if the laptop were to be my primary PC, I would have opted for a Core Duo. In my case, the laptop will handle basic tasks.

Integrated graphics has been mentioned in some reviews as being better for battery life. So that may be a consideration for you. This was mentioned in several reviews of Dell laptops. For most people I don't think the difference would be significant, but if you add up any extra power the Core Duo may require plus extra power the dedicated graphics would require it could be a factor.

I think the 6000 will be phased out soon and the 6400 will be offered with dedicated graphics. I think having dedicated graphics for the 6000 may be a way to either reduce the inventory of those, or probably more likely to still offer the 15.4" form factor and reduce demand of the Core Duos because there might be a shortage of those chips right now. Dell wants to be able to offer Core Duos, but if the demand is greater it could affect wait time and result in lower customer satisfaction, so selling some 6000's may reduce the demand for the 6400, until the chips are available in sufficient quanbreasties.

I have had a 1505 Core Duo on order for a few weeks and it hasn't moved into production. Due to a glitch on Dell's web site I got a really good deal on a 630m and that is at the boxing stage and I only placed the order a few days ago. So, there does seem to be a chip shortage.

As far as the Core Duos being buggy, I don't think that's a factor. Various companies have been selling Core Duos for a month now, including Dell with the 1705, and aside from one bug about power drain and USB 2, I haven't heard of any other potentially serious bugs (all processors have bugs, usually they aren't significant).

If it were me and the laptop would be a desktop replacement then it's a no-brainer -- I would choose Core Duo. I ended up going with a Pentium-M with integrated graphics because I lucked out with the price and because there are many reviews out saying it's a solid machine with good battery life which is exactly what I need.

Anyway, please let us know what you choose.

Journey