Picked Up Dell Inspiron 6400
At last I have got myself a Intel Core 2 Duo based laptop, I had ordered Dell Inspiron 6400 on 29.09.06 and it arrived on 14.10.06. I actually had two laptops in mind and it was pretty difficult for me to decide between these two; one was Dell XPS 1210 with 12.1″ widescreen and Dell Inspiron 6400 with 15.4″ widescreen. The confusion in my mind was cleared by Arun and Techz and I thank these guys for giving me their valuable suggestions. Dell XPS 1210 is a good laptop except for the screen size of 12.1″ which is a bit too small where as Dell Inspiron 6400 is real good laptop as it has everything one would require at present.
So here is the Configuration of my New Laptop:
- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 (Merom Core) @ 2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB
- Intel 945 Chipset Family Motherboard
- 1GB (2 X 512MB) DDR2 SDRAM @ 533MHz in dual channel mode.
- 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 Hypermemory Graphics Card
- 15.4″ Wide Screen XGA TFT Display with Truelife: 1280×800
- 120GB SATA Hard Drive at 5400 rpm featuring 8MB of cache
- Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capabilities
- Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet
- Integrated Sigmatel HD Stereo Sound
- Internal Dell 87 Keys Keyboard (English)
- Internal 56K Modem
- Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module
- Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Dual Band 802.11a/g 54Mbps Wireless Mini Card
- 1 ExpressCard Slot
- 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- 90W Primary AC Adapter (110V/220V)
- A/V Cable Kit
- DELL Large Nylon Case
- Microsoft basic optical mouse
[eminimall products="dell, laptop"]
Right now I am benchmarking and reviewing the laptop so by this weekend or by early next week you can expect the complete review of this laptop along with photographs and I hope my laptop doesn’t explode when I am using it. 
Click on the image to enlarge
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Good configuration
The color looks cool 8).
wow great ! but somehow i dont like the looks of this dell model. It looks very bulky
And i also have a 15.4 widescreen, believe me, its a pain to carry it around..
if you are carrying the laptop, then 14 inch is a perfect fit, in dell i like the latitude range a lot
In this photograph it does look bulky, but in reality is pretty compact. But currently I won’t be carrying it around here and there.
Latitude range is good, but when I was planning to buy it Core 2 Duo option was not available. This config it self cost me 76k and Latitude is still more pricey. 
u got it in india..i dont think so .. i guess in india it might be 15k more right ??
Venu I got it in India only.
Now laptop prices have come down in India, I ordered this via Dell India’s homepage.
Wow, congrats Shiva, that’s a pretty well spec’d laptop! I used a few of those myself (not mine) and found they are quite good to use.
Oh, hey! I have this computer! (Well, okay, I have the Inspiron e1505, but they’re identical, I believe.)
I’ve had mine since May, and it’s great. Lots of power and very reliable… no problems for me. I don’t think it’s too bulky (depends on what you’re carrying it around in), and it’s a great desktop replacement.
Only problem? I’ve been consumed by the most intense need (fine, not need. it’s desire) for a Macbook Pro. I simply lust after them. So I think my e1505 is going to be passed along to someone who will love him more than I ever could. But, if I were keeping a separate PC & Mac, this would definitely be my PC. A solid machine. Hope she’s working out for you.
Hi Erin welcome to my blog.
Dell Inspiron 6400 and E1505 are the same only difference is in the name. This machine really rocks and I am pretty happy with it. Even I always fascinate a Mac, but right now it is pretty expensive in India so will opt for Mac only when it gets more attractive pricing. For the price of Mac I can get a much more powerful computer than the Mac itself.
That’s what has always put me off Macs, the price. Hopefully with the new changes in Apple, pricing will be a focus of their selling strategy as well.
Price is definitely a major factor for me, as well. I don’t think I would have considered purchasing a new Mac before the Intel Macs. However, now that I can double boot, the increased price is worth it to me.
When we’re purchasing a computer, we pay not only for the hardware, but for certain extras that will make our life easier (because, after all, isn’t that the point of technology?). For me, doing what I do (I work with website development & SEO), the ability to view my sites in OS X, Windows, and Linux (if I so choose), without having 2 or 3 machines, is indispensable. Therefore, the extra bucks are well worth it to me (plus, it’s still much less expensive than owning two new machines!).
Hi
It’s a masterpiece. How much did it cost you in INdia?
I am video editor. These specs look good for video editing.
Chowdry
Chowdry,
Welcome to Shivaranjan.com.
I got it for around INR 76k.
Thank you very much Shiva. YOu have presented your stuff in a very unique and good way. Keep it up!
Chowdry
Hey Shiva:
Where did you purchase the laptop? I’m from Bangalore. I tried to contact the Dell guys but they did not respond.
Chowdry
I ordered my Dell laptop online from Dell India’s website. You can order it from here.
I have the 6400, love it…very fast and great at two tasks because of dual core processor. Make sure to check the Dell website for updates…the bios is on version 9, and the software for the intel pro wireless has been updated a couple of times, one was a security issue that was fairly serious. Also, extra power supplies are cheap on ebay, I leave one at my office.
The 6400 is the small business version, the E1505 is the home version. To see the 6400, you must go to the small business area of the site. I have found that the small business area gets you a better warranty for the same price.
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 6400 back in November.
To this date I have had a number of problems.
The computer kept crashing and even with Dell support its
still having problems with the Bios and a Windows Xp
The Support folks now plan to do a 32 bit recall or whatever to see if they can actually get this thing working properly
“Crossin my Fingers”
Dear Shiv, Congrats on purchasing this notebook. I happen to have the same (bought it a week ago). Great computer. I like Dells for the simple reason that they are reliable and user machines. I have used and owned many macs but frankly I dont find any point in paying a fortune just to get the job done. I like this Inspiron 6400 simply because its simple in design, robust and reliable. Wont like paying a huge amount for a similarly configured Sony or Mac just for the heck of design.
Shiva, tell me frankly,,,,,,what are the problems (if any) u faced in ur inspiron 6400…..i am intending to buy one
I bought this same laptop in December, and it had been working fine. A couple of months ago, the machine simply decided not to start up. It would try to start up the system, but then it would just not do anything (blank screen). I even spoke with the folks at Dell Support, and they could not find the problem. They asked me to send the machine back to them, and I almost did (I was reluctant because I use my laptop on a daily basis), but then, the computer started working fine again…..until last night. Now I’m having the same problem again, and I wanted to know if anyone else was facing the same issue with their 6400.
Hi, I have a 6400 Inspirion - 1GB RAM. Up until about 3 weeks ago, it hadn’t put a foot wrong (13 months) - now it just decides not to start, and then will quite okay for several days - and its just stopped again now. I’ve tried different shutdowns - hibernate etc… no difference. It seems to be a BIOS/motherboard related issue… the DVD is polled and then nothing else happens. When you press the power button again - the bluetooth light flashes and then it stops. In a normal/successful startup this occurs after the DVD is polled.
Anyway - next time (hopefully) that it starts I will see if there’s a more recent bios version in the hope that it may improve the situation.
Hopefully someone has an answer - since its a great software dev. laptop otherwise and it takes hours to load up the IDE’s and licenses etc. on a new laptop.
Update:
I realised that transportation using a Del rucksack carrycase may be contributing to this startup problem. I ALWAYS put the laptop into the rucksack with the DVD facing up. I therefore briefly, firmly but not too vigorousy shook the laptop with the DVD facing down.
It started first time next go.
Early days - but a possible cause and effect scenario
To PC expert, any one can help me, I bought used acer laptop after I reformatted it its partition D is missing and storage memory remained 112Gb out of 120Gb. Is it possible to recover the said missing partition? How?
Hello sir,
i have purchased a dell laptop from u.k (INSPIRON
6400)
There is an icon of both bluetooth and Wi-Fi on
the keyboard but none of them are working. PLease help
Hey shiva,
no offence man but u paid 76k for that laptop ??!!!
I too bought a Dell 2 weeks back, the Inspiron 1520
* Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T7250 (2.0GHz, 2MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
* Screen - 15.4″ Widescreen WXGA (1280×800) Display with TrueLife (TM)
* Memory - 2GB (2 X 1024MB) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
* Hard disk - 160GB SATA Hard Drive
* Graphics - NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR2 dedicated graphic memory
* Operating System - Windows Vista Home Premium
* Optical Drive - -Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capability
Even with the extra 1gb ram and an 8600 GT card, it only cost me 57k
Alfred-
I got this a year ago when this was sold at this price. It is good to see that the prices have dropped.