Inspiron 9300 Questions - Help Appreciated

Toddster18 · #1 06-12-2005, 02:45 AM

Hi Guys-

Sort of an interesting situation here, and i'm hoping for some advice from some people who have more knowledge than I do on the inspiron 9300.

So I was recently about to purchase myself a 9300 and either 1 or 2 2001FP's for some 8-tabling before stumbling across a recent (pleasant) surprise.

I just received an Inspiron 9300 as an unexpected gift from a relative (long story). It's quite a nice machine, but theres a couple problems:

-The included hard drive is the standard 40gb hard drive - I've heard the 7200rpm one is quite a major improvement.

-The display is not the WUXGA with truelife display, its just the standard widescreen XGA+ display.

-The video card is the standard 64MB ATIs™ Mobility Radeon™ X300. It appears that the best resolution I can achieve is 1440 by 900.

So, basically, this is my machine as of right now, and I have opened it up and used it to post this. I want to have a machine that starting in the fall I can 8-table with (no overlap) with either 1 or 2 2001FP's, and it appears that I can't currently do that.

My questions:
1. Can i acheive higher display 1600 by 1200 with this display, with a new card or something?

2. My ram is good, but the hard drive isn't so hot, just the standard 40gig stock one. Is that going to be good enough?

3. If I'm stuck, there isn't a chance in hell Dell would "upgrade" the existing machine at whatever cost, is there?

4. If in my position, what would you do here?

Sorry for being long-winded, but that's how I tend to be. Please help me out if you've got time for a quick response. And feel free to ask any questions about info I didn't include. Thanks!

-Todd

MicroBob · #2 06-12-2005, 03:24 AM

you can sell your machine on e-bay and then use that money to purchase the kind of inspiron 9300 machine that you want.

if you haven't told the person who gave it to you that some of the features are a little lacking then they will never be the wiser now will they. afterall, it will still look like the same 9300 unit from the outside.

Maybe you can sell this machine for $1k or so....and then get a better one for $1500.

If you keep that one you will be stuck with the 1400x900 display.
It's not TOO terrible...that's roughly the display I have on my 15.4" screen on my inspiron 5100. So I can tell you that the overlap is survivable. But obviously you can do better.

Toddster18 · #3 06-12-2005, 04:03 AM

[ QUOTE ]
you can sell your machine on e-bay and then use that money to purchase the kind of inspiron 9300 machine that you want.

if you haven't told the person who gave it to you that some of the features are a little lacking then they will never be the wiser now will they. afterall, it will still look like the same 9300 unit from the outside.

Maybe you can sell this machine for $1k or so....and then get a better one for $1500.

If you keep that one you will be stuck with the 1400x900 display.
It's not TOO terrible...that's roughly the display I have on my 15.4" screen on my inspiron 5100. So I can tell you that the overlap is survivable. But obviously you can do better.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Bob-

Thanks for the thoughts. Yeah, this was sort of what I feared. I understand that this monitor can't achieve better than 1400 by 900... but ... If I bought a pair of 2001FP's, could I somehow make this machine run them at 1600 by 1200? Or is that impossible?

-Todd

MicroBob · #4 06-12-2005, 05:51 AM

you should be able to run ONE extra monitor at 1600x1200.

At least my Dell 5100 at 1400x1050 for it's regular screen can.

To run two extra monitors off of the laptop I'm not sure.
I can't do that with mine but perhaps that is something that you are able to do with the newer model. But I think it's a windows application anyway so it might just be the same as mine.

There is a product by a company called VillageTronic that will let you run 2 monitors off of the same laptop.
It's generally marketed for day-traders and the like.
To run 2 monitors off of the same laptop you might need to get the card from that company which you can look up on Google I suspect.

Toddster18 · #5 06-12-2005, 12:55 PM

Bob-

Thanks again for the thoughtful response. I appreciate it.

Just one more. This one's open to the public:

With or without that card, how would I get this machine that can only run at 1400 by 900 to operate a 2001FP at 1600 by 1200? What process would I need to go about to do that, and how would it work?

Thanks again!

-Todd

P.S. if there's somewhere on the web I could find this at, please let me know so I don't have to keep posting. Thanks!

JRichman · #6 06-12-2005, 02:15 PM

You can run two external 2001FPs off the 9300. I am doing this as I write.

MicroBob · #7 06-12-2005, 04:18 PM

I thought this was a possibility with the 9300 but wasn't sure.

In my previous post I indicated that you can almost DEFINITELY run an extra monitor at 1600x1200 even if your laptop screen doesn't do that.

That's pretty cool that the 9300 has the capability to run 2 2001FPs.

So lets see....when I get mine with 1900x1200...and then finally get around to getting 2 of those monitors at 1600x120 each.
That would be 12 tables of 800x600 completely overlap free....and I'll still have 300x1200 on the side of my wide-screen for e-mail, GT+ updating, etc.

(this is assuming that the laptop screen is still active when you have 2 monitors plugged in....which I am now supposing might not be the case).

JRichman · #8 06-12-2005, 05:05 PM

[ QUOTE ]
(this is assuming that the laptop screen is still active when you have 2 monitors plugged in....which I am now supposing might not be the case).

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not the case. You can only have two active monitors at a time.

Toddster18 · #9 06-12-2005, 07:02 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(this is assuming that the laptop screen is still active when you have 2 monitors plugged in....which I am now supposing might not be the case).

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not the case. You can only have two active monitors at a time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, Bob [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

But I could definitely (hypothetitcally) run at least one 2001FP at 1600 by 1200, despite my 9300 only being able to do 1400 by 900?

-Todd

JRichman · #10 06-12-2005, 10:38 PM

[ QUOTE ]
But I could definitely (hypothetitcally) run at least one 2001FP at 1600 by 1200, despite my 9300 only being able to do 1400 by 900?

[/ QUOTE ]

You can run both of the external monitors at 1600 by 1200.