compaqportableplus
Veteran Member
I think I have finally found the perfect Pentium III laptop! (For me). This machine has absolutely every thing I want in a late 90's/early 2000's notebook. It's also giant and weighs a ton, which I love.:D
One of my favorite features of this machine is the 15" high resolution display. This particular one has the SXGA+ 1400 X 1050 version, but I'd like to replace it with the UXGA 1600 X 1200 "UltraSharp" version. The main reason I want to replace it is because the panel this laptop currently has is actually faulty (I know 100% it's the panel because I swapped some parts around with another one that I have). It almost much fully works, except it shows artifacts on certain graphics. But it can handle a super high resolution image in Photoshop just fine, go figure.
I also really like that this machine has both a track pad and a Trackpoint. The trackpad is actually quite nice in this machine (unlike that horrible, tiny trackpad my ThinkPad R500 has for example) and I do use it from time to time, but the Trackpoint is my preferred option.
The keyboard on this laptop is very nice IMO. It has a pretty nice, somewhat tactile feel to it.
Another thing I like about these machines is that they are incredibly easy (and cheap) to find parts for. Which is very nice because these machine do have some issues from time to time. Bad fans is probably the most common issue. They are also very easy to work on.
One of the awesome things about Inspirons of this era, is that they are just latitudes with a different shell and bios! (I actually prefer the Inspiron cosmetics over the Latitudes from this era. And the ability to change the color of the palm rest's is just awesome). One mod you can do to an Inspiron 8000 (that I am strongly considering), is flash it with a Latitude C800 (the I8000's Latitude counterpart) BIOS, remove the blocking panel the back, and use a full Latitude dock with it! That's right, when you bought a Latitude back then, you were paying dell more money to simply "enable" some features! That being said though, these Inspirion 8000 series machine were not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. I believe the MSRP of the top end 8000 was $4,022!
One unfortunate thing about these machines, is that the colored palm rest's are pretty much impossible to find. The bright yellow ones are my favorite! I'll find a set of them someday, it'll just take patience. I'll even buy a whole other machine to get them if I have to!
Here are the specs of the machine.
800MHz Pentium III "Coppermine"
256MB RAM (will be upgrading to 512MB)
ATi M4 32MB graphics card
160GB hard drive (that's a damn big drive for a machine of this age!)
Win98 SE/WinXP Pro SP3 dual boot
BTW I'm actually posting this from the Inspiron 8000! (Using FireFox 48.0.2 under Windows XP Pro SP3).
Now the hunt is on for the perfect Pentium 4 laptop (for me, that will probably be the Inspiron 8200). I'm kinda addicted to these Inspiron 8000 series machines.
Anyways, here are some pics.
One of my favorite features of this machine is the 15" high resolution display. This particular one has the SXGA+ 1400 X 1050 version, but I'd like to replace it with the UXGA 1600 X 1200 "UltraSharp" version. The main reason I want to replace it is because the panel this laptop currently has is actually faulty (I know 100% it's the panel because I swapped some parts around with another one that I have). It almost much fully works, except it shows artifacts on certain graphics. But it can handle a super high resolution image in Photoshop just fine, go figure.
I also really like that this machine has both a track pad and a Trackpoint. The trackpad is actually quite nice in this machine (unlike that horrible, tiny trackpad my ThinkPad R500 has for example) and I do use it from time to time, but the Trackpoint is my preferred option.
The keyboard on this laptop is very nice IMO. It has a pretty nice, somewhat tactile feel to it.
Another thing I like about these machines is that they are incredibly easy (and cheap) to find parts for. Which is very nice because these machine do have some issues from time to time. Bad fans is probably the most common issue. They are also very easy to work on.
One of the awesome things about Inspirons of this era, is that they are just latitudes with a different shell and bios! (I actually prefer the Inspiron cosmetics over the Latitudes from this era. And the ability to change the color of the palm rest's is just awesome). One mod you can do to an Inspiron 8000 (that I am strongly considering), is flash it with a Latitude C800 (the I8000's Latitude counterpart) BIOS, remove the blocking panel the back, and use a full Latitude dock with it! That's right, when you bought a Latitude back then, you were paying dell more money to simply "enable" some features! That being said though, these Inspirion 8000 series machine were not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. I believe the MSRP of the top end 8000 was $4,022!
One unfortunate thing about these machines, is that the colored palm rest's are pretty much impossible to find. The bright yellow ones are my favorite! I'll find a set of them someday, it'll just take patience. I'll even buy a whole other machine to get them if I have to!
Here are the specs of the machine.
800MHz Pentium III "Coppermine"
256MB RAM (will be upgrading to 512MB)
ATi M4 32MB graphics card
160GB hard drive (that's a damn big drive for a machine of this age!)
Win98 SE/WinXP Pro SP3 dual boot
BTW I'm actually posting this from the Inspiron 8000! (Using FireFox 48.0.2 under Windows XP Pro SP3).
Now the hunt is on for the perfect Pentium 4 laptop (for me, that will probably be the Inspiron 8200). I'm kinda addicted to these Inspiron 8000 series machines.
Anyways, here are some pics.
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