Vostro 3400 - who else?

[Scrappy]

Also, your XPS M1330 and Studio 14z are consumer level machines, thats why they are highly customizable. These are small business machines. Dell's marketing strategy is you pick a model that is closest to your needs and with in your budget and you order 5 of them. Its less hassel, especially when you are dealing with businesses that most likely are not technology based and lack IT departments to that would want to sift through detailed components.

[Smooth_J]

I just ordered one a week ago, supposed to get it April 20th. Ordered the top of the line because I need it to do multimedia intensive presentations. There hasn't been a refresh on the 3000 series, its just that the series itself is only about a month old I believe. Even trying to get a discount through my sales rep was a pain because its a new series. I think only the 3500 will get a multi-touch screen, and I don't think the 3400 will be refreshed when that happens.

I am excited though, this thing should be easy on the eye, fast and has everything I need. I just hope that the build quality is as high as dell claims this new design is. Spill resistant back light keyboard is a nice touch.

One annoying thing is that a business level machine comes standard with Windows Home 32? Not that I care because we have a license for windows 7 ultimate 64 upgrade, but still they should offer professional standard...

The new latitudes come with Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic SP2, 32-bit... :/

Also, your XPS M1330 and Studio 14z are consumer level machines, thats why they are highly customizable. These are small business machines. Dell's marketing strategy is you pick a model that is closest to your needs and with in your budget and you order 5 of them. Its less hassel, especially when you are dealing with businesses that most likely are not technology based and lack IT departments to that would want to sift through detailed components.

+1 When I was in helpdesk, we didn't have any time to go through a bunch of specs. Plus we ordered like 20 or so at a clip, so it was easy to get WDS setup and etc. Granted there were some other cases in which we ordered a one off, but that was rare.

[bozeefus]

quick question, does it come with optimus switching? i've read that 310m card + i5 proc. is all the hardware needed for it.

no, Asus is the only manufacturer that uses nvidia optimus

[chris_compson]

I just received my Vostro 3400. this is my second vostro my first one was the V13 which had a solid build just a bit on the slow side(i got it fully loaded) So when the 3000 series came out i saw how sturdy they looked when compared to the previous 1x20 series vostro. I am very happy with my 3400. i got it with the i5-520m, 6gb ram, nvidia 310, 500GB HDD, 7 ultimate 64.

but when i got it i pulled the 2gb stick and put a 4bg stick in for 8gb, pulled out the 500GB and put in a 256GB dell ssd with Trim, and will be putting in a 6300 intel wireless card(the 3400 only ships with 2 antenia wires but i did find a antenia from an older laptop that had a 1" lead to the tiny antenia array that i will put where the wwan card goes for the 3rd antenia) I run vmware alot and this thing rocks i set the virtual os (suse 11) to use 2 cores and 2GB of ram and it smokes. the processor was able to idle at 1.3ghz but if i hit it hard then would go up to 2.66GHZ because suse was using 2 cores i set it to one core and hit it and it got to 2.93 GHZ per CPU-Z and in windows 7 i get on the performance 6.7/6.7/4.9/5.9/7.1. The system feels solid and so far no complaints except for the backlight on the KB must be turned on every time you reboot but i assume they will fix that in the next bios rev.

my order date was 3/19/10
My deleivery date was 3/29/10

EEDIT: oh and no optimus.

[Joel]

Ok, reading through here, I need to say something, even though you are getting a 32-bit OS, you can still use that SAME key to install the same version, but in 64-bit. Just download the 64-bit DVD here. [Completely LEGAL]

BTW, congrats to those who have purchased. I personally wouldn't buy a Vostro, to me they seem like lesser quality Latitudes for business users on the cheap. - May not be this way, I have never used one, just from my observations

[chris_compson]

Ok, reading through here, I need to say something, even though you are getting a 32-bit OS, you can still use that SAME key to install the same version, but in 64-bit. Just download the 64-bit DVD here. [Completely LEGAL]

BTW, congrats to those who have purchased. I personally wouldn't buy a Vostro, to me they seem like lesser quality Latitudes for business users on the cheap. - May not be this way, I have never used one, just from my observations

they where of lesser quality in my opinion as well but the 3400 seems very riggad and feels like a quality built notebook. i am very happy with it i only wish it had a slightly better video card...caugh...ATI...caugh that would be the only way to make it beter besides the backlight keyboard issue i mentioned earlier.

[Rusty2003]

I just received my Vostro 3400. this is my second vostro my first one was the V13 which had a solid build just a bit on the slow side(i got it fully loaded) So when the 3000 series came out i saw how sturdy they looked when compared to the previous 1x20 series vostro. I am very happy with my 3400. i got it with the i5-520m, 6gb ram, nvidia 310, 500GB HDD, 7 ultimate 64.

but when i got it i pulled the 2gb stick and put a 4bg stick in for 8gb, pulled out the 500GB and put in a 256GB dell ssd with Trim, and will be putting in a 6300 intel wireless card(the 3400 only ships with 2 antenia wires but i did find a antenia from an older laptop that had a 1" lead to the tiny antenia array that i will put where the wwan card goes for the 3rd antenia) I run vmware alot and this thing rocks i set the virtual os (suse 11) to use 2 cores and 2GB of ram and it smokes. the processor was able to idle at 1.3ghz but if i hit it hard then would go up to 2.66GHZ because suse was using 2 cores i set it to one core and hit it and it got to 2.93 GHZ per CPU-Z and in windows 7 i get on the performance 6.7/6.7/4.9/5.9/7.1. The system feels solid and so far no complaints except for the backlight on the KB must be turned on every time you reboot but i assume they will fix that in the next bios rev.

my order date was 3/19/10
My deleivery date was 3/29/10

EEDIT: oh and no optimus.

you got yours that quickly? I ordered mine on 3/17 and it hasn't even shipped yet, the estimated delivery is 4/12. And I got one of the bottom end models with only a upgrade in ram and a 320GB hard drive.

[Convoluted]

they where of lesser quality in my opinion as well but the 3400 seems very riggad and feels like a quality built notebook. i am very happy with it i only wish it had a slightly better video card...caugh...ATI...caugh that would be the only way to make it beter besides the backlight keyboard issue i mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the mini review! Could you also comment on the screen quality and fan noise? These are two thing which can make or break a laptop for me.

[Scrappy]

My ship date actually just got moved up to next week (was supposed to be the 20th). I am glad to hear about the sturdiness. I wish I could have afforded a latitude, but a similar spec'd latitude would have run me over $1300, about $400 outside of my budget. A better video card would have been ok, but I am not playing games on it, just need it to handle video and imaging well.

[chris_compson]

Thanks for the mini review! Could you also comment on the screen quality and fan noise? These are two thing which can make or break a laptop for me.

The screen quality is great its no IPS display though. color and brightness is great and the matt Finish is a plus. The fan noise is there but ist like any other notebook i have used none are silent but its pretty quiet most of the time.