written by on 08/01/2011
I have owned a Dell Inspiron 7000 for 11 years. Yes, that's right. The 3 year warranty was useful, as the board fried and was replaced. But I used it everyday, very intensely, for over 11 years! I have a new laptop now, but use it to run an old printer and hardware that Windoze 7 won't run.
But this was a solid machine. I bet a new hardrive, and it could run for more years yet. So it was well built.
But it cost almost 5 grand when it came out!!
written by Ernest 1 on 07/03/2009
Dell Inspiron 7000 very resistent to really hard conditions the plastics where this computer was made protects very well all the parts including the monitor (flat screen). works good the problem too old. for new systems. The new computers are so fragile than can resist a simple crash.
written by amethyst7000 on 25/12/2007
I have had my 7000 for 3 years now, and although I have a newer machine I can't See myself getting rid of the Dell. It has lasted extremely well, despite several knocks, and has been far more reliable than my others. As can be expected considering its age, this machine is quite heavy; I tend to use it instead of a desktop.
The battery life on this machine is astounding. I don't know exactly how old it is now, but considering it was secondhand and ageing when I got it, must be ancient in computer terms. I still get 3 and a half hours out of the battery! In comparison I am lucky to get 2 hours out of my brand-new Fujitsu Siemens.
I have a 366MHz Pentium 2 processor, 192MB of RAM, and a 20GB hard drive. I upgraded the machine to XP, which it runs quite happily, and friends knowledgeable about computers tell me it should be impossible for a machine of this spec. to run at the speed it does! The screen is bright and clear, far better than many newer screens. The only downside is that the catches on the lid are very easily broken by anyone as clumsy as me. Also the hinges are apparently prone to breaking, although mine show signs of damage but don't actually cause a problem.
written by alien1 on 11/09/2007
I needed something I could store at work that I wouldn't worry about being stolen from my locker. I bought this one at at thrift store for $50. I just need it as a word processor to do reports. What I like is how many ports it has: USB, Cardbus slot, printer, and I think as many that exist. It has both a floppy and DVD drive (if you upgrade). I'm going to install a larger hard drive and upgrade it all around.
written by meckleboy on 12/12/2006
Ok so I was given this laptop as a way of keeping me at a job. Now I have built all my computers except my very first one way back in 94 and I laughed when I checked the stats on this machine. Pentium 2 366 mhz, 4mb video card, 56k fax modem and 64mb memory, 24x cdrom and a 3.5 floppy drive and Windows 98 (I was happy for that see above statement). When it was given to me I said why not as I needed something to amuse me at this job. Over time and lots of research I was able to upgrade the laptop a bit - a friend gave me his old laptop memory, two 128mb memory chips added up to 384mb with on board memory. I installed 4 speed DVD player I got from ebay for $20, a second battery for $30 and a high speed Internet card, $20@ Comp USA - I tell you the Internet runs pretty smooth and keeps up with a lot of updates to run quicktime and windows media player. I installed Windows Millenium and have had no problems and that enabled a better Internet explorer and media player. I am going to install a bigger hard drive (found a 40GB one for $40 - I love ebay). I will partition the hard drives so I can run Windows 95 through XP - as you may have experienced not every bit of software always ran optimally, so to have choice is a good thing. It stores music well and converts to mp3s well with the help of conversion software. The screen was fine and clear with no dead pixels and not a mark on this machine - I guess the old guy who owned it really never used it that much and bought a mac book a year or two ago (what a sell out).
Well needless to say I like this laptop even though it's way outdated - I payed nothing for it and invested less than 110 dollars into it - where else can you get a deal like that? A laptop today in 2006 would cost well over $800 and more for a loaded model - my wife thinks Im a geek and that I'm just wasting time on it but I see great value in it and to play my old 95 games brings a tear to my eye. If you find one take it or if you see a sweet price (usually $300 or less on ebay then grab it). You may even find a higher processor if you look hard enough but make sure your handy to open up your unit to install it. I never pay anyone to fix something that I could do myself but exercise the usual precautions with circuitry. Thanks for reading and good luck with the dell Inspiron 7000 if you find one.
written by brian10161 on 25/08/2005
Well I'll start off on how I got my DELL Inspiron 7000. I was working in a building and they had a dumpster just full of laptops and other computers, and this one was sitting right on top of all of them. so, I grabbed it and looked it over, it looked to be in mint condition, plus this was just 3 months ago, so the computer is all of 6 years old now, and it was still in great shape. The only thing wrong was it had no hard drive or caddy/connector. when I got home, I went on Dell's website and punched in the service tag and checked the original configuration, and it was as follows, Pentium II 366MHz, 128Mb of ram, 6gb hdd, 15Inch display. I was really surprised with the performance of this laptop, its amazing. its just like the laptop that I use at work and that's a Celeron 2ghz, and to be honest this PII runs better. The screen is really bright and big, the sound isn't too great though. Thats the only complaint I had about this computer. The sound can't be to loud or else the speakers bottom and that can severely damage the sound. However another thing that I thought was kind of dumb was, who would run Windows 98 on this thing? I know it doesn't matter and goes by mainly taste in an operating system, but this thing runs so good with Windows XP, it's like having a fast laptop that you pay $1000+ dollars for. So I guess it goes to show you that old laptops can still perform very well even though they're outdated. now I know you can't buy this laptop new anymore, but if your in the market for a used laptop or even a new one and dont want to pay to much seriously consider looking at an Inspiron 7000. They're built solid. and I say this because this dumpster I found this computer in was about 5 feet deep ( myself being 6"3' and I can see in) and there wasnt too much else in it, so its likley the guy that put the computer there just dropped it in and could have done damage, but because its a Dell, it didnt croke. I bet you can find this computer fairly cheap, like maybe 0 - 400 bucks with Windows loaded and a fairly decent size hard drive with tons of ram. now, there are several different types of this computer I hear. There's one with a 13inch display, a 14, and a 15, I have the 15 and its very nice. I have a 14 inch model to actually, I found it at my shop sitting on a table and this one was in extremely poor condition, it had a huge melt in the top of the lcd plastics, and the screen seemed fine though, I put the caddy in it and loaded XP on that one and everything loaded up fine, but I'm keeping it for parts for the good 7000. Now I hope it didnt take too long for you to read this, lol. It took me a long time to write it. Also the keyboard on this computer is great, I wrote this review on it.
Conclusion, all in all, this is a great little computer, and I hope you at least consider this computer when getting a used laptop. Its great for, light gaming, movie watching (with dvd upgrade, I dont have one though, I have watched DivX movies on it and its great) and just plain old internet surfing. Now I just need to get a battery for it and see what it's like, however my friend says that she gets about 4 hours on battery. the touchpad works good, but touchpads only work so good anyway, IMO they totally are useless at some times. if your finger gets any amount of moisture on it, thats it you have to wait for it to dry out. The only problem really is the speakers aren't really that great for multimedia, but with a good set of headphones the ESS maestro is good enough for some heavy music listening.
One last thing, if you do get this computer, I stongly recommend you install Windows XP (either Pro or Home) on it if you haven't already done so. Windows 98 just cannot take advantage of the power this computer is capable of, trust me (but back up your data before hand, I will not be held responsible for any problems.)
Hope no one hates me for putting so much. I had fun writing it all believe me. Best laptop I have ever owned, I applaud Dell for this computer. =)
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