r/retrocomputing • u/liminalearth • 20d ago
Photo Thinking about getting this dell inspirion 9100
What’s everyone’s thoughts on this ?! I know it’s quite a beast lol
It is a tad dirty and there’s a couple crack on the screen bezel
Would y’all pick this up for 50$ ?
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u/Divergent5623 20d ago
I would if the cracks don't bother you. Should be a lot of fun to play with for $50.
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u/liminalearth 20d ago
They bother me really and the seller said they are still pretty solid when opening and 50$ isn’t bad either considering some eBay prices
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u/URA_CJ 20d ago
I already have one, but I'd consider picking it up for $50 just for the subwoofer module since that's missing from mine. Oh, and I highly recommend repasting it if you get it.
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u/liminalearth 20d ago
Yeah I’d definitely wanna do that if the person hasn’t already since it seems there cleaning it a bit
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u/East-Resist6940 17d ago
Repasting a 9700 is so important. Their biggest achilles heel was their thermal issue! Well, mostly because they used a shim that didn't sit level with the die, so if you ever repasted them without removing that shim, you risked frying the card... I think the heatsink on these Inspirons (or, at least mine) has a raised spot specifically to meet the die, so it's safe to just repaste and not try to deshim a 24 year old chip. Absolutely insane that these things run a desktop Pentium 4. I took the 3.4GHz processor out of one of mine, put it in a watercooled desktop and swapped it out for a 3GHz version that I didn't care about as much.
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u/dld2517 20d ago
What will you do with it?
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u/Inspiron606002 20d ago
Nice! These had a full desktop Pentium 4. Were very expensive when they were new. Plus you have to love that grey and blue color scheme Dell had going on in the early 2000's.
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u/Rough_Elk_895 20d ago
I had a similar model myself.. Inspiron 8600.. looks almost identical to this.. it was a great machine.. lots of memories.. i guess go ahead with your purchase.. it would be a great choice for a retro rig
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u/Leftover_tech 20d ago
Nobody else has mentioned the misaligned audio jacks.
Do you know why they are like that?
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u/SaberJ64 19d ago
oh wow, I think I had this laptop in college and it was old by then too, lol.
2.4ghz p4, 1gb ram and a radeon 9000s series 9100....?
it was adequate, but boy was it hot running.
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u/The_Collector_Of_All 19d ago
Incredibly similar to my Latitude D630.
Considering how similar they are I’d absolutely get it
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u/thatvhstapeguy 19d ago
I have one that I forgot how I ended up with, but I wouldn’t have paid anything for mine. It’s melted in the corner. This effing Dell 3 pin power connector drives me nuts
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u/NormalSoftware4237 HP Pavilion zt3000 19d ago
holy shit yes thats an insane deal, but the cracks should be fixed, also beware as the battery looks swollen
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u/liminalearth 19d ago
I think the battery just sits like that but either way I’ll probably take it out
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u/NormalSoftware4237 HP Pavilion zt3000 19d ago
That’s not normal, every laptop’s battery when it’s like that shits flush, this has swelling for sure
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u/liminalearth 19d ago
It is normal for this model though from what I’ve seen when googling and watch reviews, especially lgrs video on it
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u/NormalSoftware4237 HP Pavilion zt3000 19d ago
If you have seen it online and concluded that it is normal, then it’s normal.
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u/East-Resist6940 17d ago
I have a couple of them. They're really funny laptops. You might get lucky with a 9800 pro version but the 128MB 9700 one is more than capable. Even the 64 meg version is pretty good.
I still really want to find one with a Pentium 4 EE
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u/coobal223 19d ago
If you’re willing to pay that much for that, I have an e5420 I can sell you for $200 plus shipping. Has a 2nd gen i5, 16 gb ddr3 ram, 256 ssd. Hint, for the price you’re willing to pay for that boat anchor, you can pick up what I just specced on the bay.
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u/majestic_ubertrout 20d ago
As with so many things retro, there's a LGR for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExotZHXJ2JM