Dell Inspiron 8600: Mobile Multimedia goes Wide Screen
by Andrew Ku on October 9, 2003 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Conclusion
The Dell Inspiron 8600 was a delight to use, as it performed great as a mobile multimedia notebook. Its size, however, make it inconvenient to make it an on-the-go solution. For those who don't mind the weight, it will come up to par with what Apple can offer. To be honest, we were very tempted to tote this along with us to watch movies on our business trips.As a matter of target marketing, the 8600 hits two-fold: mainstream desktop replacement and as a high-end mobile notebook. Due to its weight that is just shy of 7+ pounds, the 8600 falls well into the desktop replacement class, but due to the use of Centrino parts, it can classify as a high-end mobile notebook. In Dell's press release, it states, “The Inspiron 8600… offers features for those who play video games, enjoy digital entertainment and edit video… enables increased productivity with side-by-side display of documents and Web content.” This shows Dell's willingness to market to both personal and business users. Either way, the 8600 is a far cry from being a ultraportable, and for those looking for one, we would suggest other solutions (like the IBM X31).
Purely as a performance notebook, the 8600 will have mixed results, depending on its use. For gamers, the NVIDIA GeForceFX Go5650 will perform fine in DX8 titles, but for the moment, it will not give competitive frame per second ranges in DX9 titles (at least in the scenarios we tested). For multimedia enthusiasts, this will give the range of performance and mobility needed for digital entertainment and editing video. As for business users, the ability to view documents side-by-side is a great feature that can be used to negate the need for two monitors. Just take a look at the screenshot below, which shows the 8600 in native WUXGA (1920x1200). This ability alone is something that we can't get enough of because it did increase our own productivity in browsing and writing.
Click to enlarge.
The mixed results we mentioned earlier come from the lack of performance when paired to Mobility Radeon 9600 based notebooks. VoodooPC's Envy 460 and other thin and light notebooks that use the Mobility Radeon 9600 may take some steam off of Dell's Inspiron 8600 for those looking for the cutting edge when it comes to mobile gaming. As for business and multimedia users, the Inspiron 8600 certainly has shined its stuff.So far, we have no word from Dell when it comes to the use of Mobility Radeon 9600 on their notebooks. We have already passed word along that this combination has shown interest by our readers, and we are sure they are investigating this possibility. Dell doesn't seem to be treading too lightly on the DX9 scene, since they were sponsoring the ATI event at Alcatraz; we do expect to see Dell continue to use mobile ATI graphic processing parts in the future. Right now, we are still waiting to hear more about NVIDIA's next generation of mobile graphics parts, specifically NV36M. NV38 seems more promising than its predecessor, which leaves us curious about the mobile side...
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olberd - Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - link
I've bought a Dell 8600c and I'm wondering if I can use generic SODIMM 200pin RAM for it, or I must use the more expensive RAM from kingston specifically designed for it.Some computer resellers tell me that I must use the kingston RAM 5150 for Dell. But a Dell supporter told me that standard RAM will do as well.
I understand that some notebooks are made with customized RAM modules. This makes spare parts more expensive and thus makes it an interesting note to add in the review of a notebook computer.
Rune
Duddy - Friday, November 26, 2004 - link
I just purchased an 8600 from Dell.com and the option for a Mobility Radeon 9600 was there and I ordered it. :)VIDEO: 128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY® RADEON? 9600 PROTURBO
Total came out to be around $1800 plus 20% off all Inspiron notebooks. I paid exactly $1,516.40.
akodi - Thursday, November 6, 2003 - link
I bought a dell 8500 last week and am typing on it currently, it is the most awesome laptop I have ever used, the screen is super sharp (15.4 sxga+) to tell you the truth 1900x1200 would be way too small, 1680x1050 is preemo, so much damn realestate. I had a centrino but wasn't too impressed (600m) battery life was not that much better than a standard p4m, perhaps only a difference of a half hour. Being a college student at Cal I believe the 8500 is perfect, because at the library there are many power outlets so battery life isn't an issue, also if you plug in a wlan card you can use it in the library without a hitch (preemo bandwidth). On the video card issue, I wouldn't want to play games on a laptop not because of the graphics but mainly for the sound quality...sigmatel in my opinion is not kosher on the ears. Long live the forums and dell stackable coupons.Andrew Ku - Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - link
Sony, doesn't sell in the same volumes as Dell. Toshiba was the first to market with the Go56x0 (we mentioned this in the M10 and NV31M head to head). However, this was mainly with the Japanese market. This is also the case with Sony, as they are not widespread domestically. We didn't say that the 8600 was the first with NV31M; we said it was the first mainstream laptop with NV31M. This is in the context of the domestic market and demographics.Anonymous User - Saturday, October 18, 2003 - link
Just wanted to correct an error in the article. The Dell is not the first laptop with the Geforce FX 5600go. In fact I'm typing on a laptop that has one in it right now - a laptop I bought 3 months ago. The Sony Vaio GRT170. Just thought I'd let you know.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 16, 2003 - link
Somebody know EUROCOM notebooks?? are they good quality? They have "nice" notebooks wit m10pAnonymous User - Thursday, October 16, 2003 - link
nice photoshop art in my opinion... otherwise Andrew Ku would aahve known this don't you think????Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
http://forum.tt-hardware.com/uploads/pub_dell_pcac...This scan shows a Dell 8600 with a mobility Radeon 9600XT (128mb). It does not show up on any of the dell sites I visited (French, Dutch, English). Is this a hoax or a dream come true?
Anonymous User - Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - link
Whatever... Dell is bull....Anonymous User - Sunday, October 12, 2003 - link
I must apollogize Mr Ku , I do seem to be wrong on certain facts there , but for my interest , would you kindly explain where the term Molex comes into mbile processing ,as it also refers to the electrical connector for a hard drive(or so I have been told/taught ) . As for Mobile processing often been entirely diffrent park , doesn't a desktop replacement laptop like , say a dell 8600 user a Pentuim-M chip , which uses 478 PPGA Flip - chip 2 array , just likes its desktop brother , the same that can be found in certain laptops as well , ? and doesn't Laptops use 333MHz DDR -Ram (albiet in SO-DIMM format ) , latest GPU'S , 7200 RPM hardrives , and some even with RAID systems . Please would you clarify this , as I am not challenging you , just simply asking ?Bandwidth Boy