Dell Inspiron 8600: Mobile Multimedia goes Wide Screen

Construction — Under the Hood (continued)

As we previously mentioned, our test system came with a single 512MB DDR PC2700 memory module. This leaves one other SODIMM slot unpopulated for upgrades down the road.

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The mini-PCI slot on the 8600 is default configured with the Intel Pro/Wireless 2100, which qualifies the system to be called a “Centrino notebook.” Since our sample came configured with Dell's TrueMobile 1300 DualBand, it can't technically qualify for the “Centrino” dubbing. But this is more of simple marketing semantics, since the branding of “Centrino” gives the mobile vendor access to Intel's co-marketing funds. We found the TrueMobile 1300 DualBand to work just fine in comparison to Intel's standard Centrino wireless standard. This choice also provides us with 802.11g connectivity, which Intel has yet to provide.

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On the back, lower right-hand portion of the motherboard, there is a riser, which interfaces with the PCTEL modem that the 8600 uses. Our system didn't come with Bluetooth, which connects to the white connector below and to the right of the modem riser, so we weren't able to test this feature.

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Below is the motherboard, which as you can see, is basically the same as the motherboard that the Latitude D800 uses.

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We noticed that there was hand soldering involved for the D800's motherboard. The system we received this time seems to have undergone whatever they needed to fix.

The hard drive that came with our Inspiron 8600 is the Hitachi Travelstar HTS726060M9AT00 60GB 7200RPM. This is one of the more popular 7200RPM drives that we have been seeing in desktop replacement notebooks. This has some give-and-take issues. Since the 8600 is based on Centrino technology, it will benefit from the 5400RPM hard drive, which is the default configuration option. A 7200RPM drive will benefit those seeking to dedicate this for multimedia or other high-end purposes, but on the other hand, it will consume more power.

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