Brand new is nice, but when it still does the job second-hand is dandy because it’s cheaper and I reckon, greener – one less obsolete model as landfill. Not that I think my new (second-hand) Dell Precision M60 is ready to become landfill just yet – the specs are still quite respectable by today’s standards. The big attraction for me was the dedicated 128MB graphics, along with the bigger ram and storage than my old desktop.
This nearly five year old notebook is a very sturdy model and in excellent condition for ex-lease stock. Bought for a very reasonable $610 from eBay and picked up from the local seller, saving a bit on postage. Just a couple of scratches on the case, hardly any sign of wear inside and the screen is immaculate.
Came with a PCMCIA Wireless card so I immediately set up my wireless router and have been testing the connection at various points around the house, although yet to venture outside (it’s cold!). It is an excellent connection and am delighted with this feature. Combined with the long battery life of 3 – 4 hours (with fast 1 hour recharge) I’ll be able to “diddle” with my computer anywhere I like!
Dell Precision M60
Processor: Intel Pentium M Processor 745 1.8GHz
Chipset: Intel 855PM
Memory: Fast DDR Dual Channel 2048MB (2GB) [2X1024MB Modules]
Display: 15.4″ UltraSharpTM WUXGA TFT LCD
Graphics: NVIDIA® Quadro FX Go700, 128MB DDR SDRAM; OpenGL hardware acceleration
Hard Drive: 60GB capacity, up to 7,200 RPM speed, EIDE/ATA-100
PC Card: One Type I or Type II
I/O Ports: Serial, parallel, docking connector, 3 USB, S-Video out, VGA, headphone/speaker out, infrared port, RJ-11, RJ-45, 1394 Mini, AC power
Last night I installed most of my regular software including anti-virus, ad-aware, Adobe suite, MS Office, MYOB. At the moment I have my Carbonite program running to restore over 4GB data from my desktop backup. By tonight I should have it in full working order.