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"Latitude 820 Review" on by ucgsb
Pros: very fast great screen
Cons: Motherboard does not use full video ram
Summary: I purchased this on August 17th 2006. I was very excited about this laptop as it supposedly met my perfomrance needs with speed, ram, 7200rpm HDD etc.
When I purchased the DEll 820 with 512mb video, I was specifically told that this was a dedicated 512mb card. Once I get it, I see the bios sees only 256 not 512 or 256 shared only 256 and thats all the motherboard reads.
Dell went through a number of problem solving trials.
Flash the bios
Reinstall video card software.
Claim that Windows overrides Bios and that what the motherboard sees doesn't matter. Backed off when I asked about motherboards that can't handle more than X number of Gigs of Ram or X number of gigs of HDD.
Pressure me into giving explicit descriptions of how performance was affected by only having 256 ram.
Set up tech call.
Cancel tech call, claim that 256mb is shared even though bios can't read it...it is there.
Refuse return, told me I should have read specific documentation about how the motherboards work and the turbo memory. Told me I would need to pay for shiping and 15% restock.
Called Nvidia. Dell 820 is the only motherboard that can not read the additional 256 on the card. There is 256 shared, but the board used may not be able to see the card. LOTS OF COMPLAINTS TO NVIDIA.
Result.... Gave laptop to wife. Bought the remainder of the 15 laptops for the office here at the university from Toshiba. $2,290.00 *15.
Dell does everything to be obtuse and lie. They promised specific performance then treated me like I should know everything about their motherboards...which according to NVIDIA can't even see the ram.Updated
I have been going back and forth will Dell concerning the video card that was sold to me. The card was sold as a 512mb with Turbo Cache. Emails from Nvidia state to me that in fact the card is 256mb with the ability to page 256mb additional and NOT 512mb with the ability to page.
Pasted below is an the log of communication with Dell where there rep admit it is not 512 and can not be 512. The part number from the invoice is 320-4613 512mb Nvidia Quadro 120m Turbo and not what was delivered 256mb Nvidia Quadro 120m Turbo.
I spoke with a supervisor at Gold Care "Bruce" last night who stated that the card is only technically a 512mb.
There is a big difference between being sold a 512mb card that turbocaches and a 256 turbo cache card.
My call to customer care ended witrh them stating they can market anyway they please.
I post this for informational purposes so that others are not tricked the same way I was into paying an upcharge for something that does not exist.
Time Details
02/02/2007 10:58:24PM Session Started with Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent)
02/02/2007 10:58:36PM Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent): "Hi Marc
Welcome to Dell's Gold Technical Support!"
02/02/2007 10:58:46PM Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent): "Please give me a moment to pull up your service tag information"
02/02/2007 10:59:58PM Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent): "Thank you for your patience This Latitude D820 is under warranty until 8-14-2009. How may I help you?"
02/02/2007 11:01:26PM Marc Archambeau: "Still having issues with Video card. When I log on to Dell and have the system identified, it sees only that I have a 256mb video card on this machine. Originally, I was told it wa -
"Its a great computer," on by skyhawk396
Pros: very fast, light weight, great screen, long battery life
Cons: nvidia quadro nvs 120 is fast but not fast enough to play 3D games like Oblivion over ~75% quality
Summary: The D820 packs the most amount of performance in a 6.5 lbs laptop that you could possibly squeeze into one with its size. The advantage of this computer is that you get a ***t load of battery life (with a 9 cell battery). You’re more boring aka business tasks like excel and word will yield an unconditional 5 hours of battery life, watching movies will give you around 4 or so...I haven’t tried playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion while on battery, so I couldn't tell you. I know a lot of people have been asking about the D820’s graphics card, it’s comparable to an ati x1400 and an nvidia geforce go 7400. Yes the game is playable and it looks GREAT but the graphics card is brought to its knees at max quality. Yes I know this is a "business" lap top, but if you are like most people, you want to know you can play games, because when the day is over, you spent a few thousand dollars on a laptop computer and you want to know you can get your moneys worth. Besides, windows vista will be released soon, and I hear it is a graphics BEAST. Don't even get me started on how important your graphics card will be with that operating system.
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"Great machine" on by ChriS_00
Pros: Fast, sturdy, great screen (1920×1200), good battery life (with 9 cells battery)
Cons: Touchpad buttons could be a little wider
Summary: Overall I am very happy with this machine. It is well designed: the keyboard is nice, the light indicators are well placed, the screen is great (I got a 1920×1200) and the sound is acceptable (much better than on my previous laptop anyway). It is sturdy. I've got about 4h30 of battery life (with a 9 cells). Last but not least, it runs well GNU/Linux (as reported on http://math.umh.ac.be/an/D820/)
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"Absolutely terrible quality" on by heavyuser
Pros: powerful machine
Cons: lack of service
Summary: Our B2B salesman told me directly that the video card was 512mb with turbo cache. What was delivered on our 12 laptops were 256mb video cards with turbo cache 256mb and not 512mb video cards with 256 turbo cache.
That was the first in a long line of problems with our machines. Of the 12 we purchased 4 had 100mb 7200 rpm hard drives. All failed.
Next Day premium support means that Dell sends some slob with his pants at half mast to come look at your problem the very next business day and not actually fix it. On average the replacement time for the hard drives was 2 weeks.
The 12 were to have been shipped with 9cell lith batts. They were not and again, a slob came over to look at the issue. It took a week to get the replacements.
2 screens have failed and do not have the brightness of the other 10. When we showed the screens side by side to the repair guy, his take was that there is going to be some difference in parts used and some percentage difference between machines. Customer care would not replace the parts or the machines until their techs wrote up that a problem existed.
8x DVDRW does not operate at 8X. Don't try to explain the issue to Dell because no one there understands write speeds.
Several of our keyboards have lost their lettering. Even with our heavy use our other models of Dells, Toshibas, Ibm/Lenovos, Mac have not lost letters 4months into ownership. Tech support and Customer care refuse to replace these items as they claim it is a user issue; even if our 3 year old Dell laptops still have their letters.
It is a shame to have purchased these machines and to be left high and dry by Dell. We continually replace 157 laptops rotating over 3 years. Rest assured Dell is axed from the list of suppliers. -
"Great system and worth every penny!" on by drums308
Pros: Quality of construction and components. For the most part, lightweight
Cons: Roxio Creator will BOMB if you upgrade Windows Media Player to version 11
Summary: I work for an I.T. company and unfortunately, they won't supply me with "company issued" equipment. I'm more or less on my own. At least it's a tax write off....lol
Anyway, I decided to go ahead and purchase my D820 after reading reviews not only on CNET, but other sites as well. It seemed to be a great alternative to the WAY overpriced Thinkpads and HP Business Notebooks. Dell had a promotion going on Latitude's that knocked $400.00 off the total price of any customized system that reached over $1688.00, which isn't hard to achieve when customizing a Business class Notebook.
Unfortunately, by the time I made my mind up to go ahead and order one, the promotion ended and I would have had to pay close to $2000.....Ouch!
I checked out the Dell outlet store and was able to get a Latitude with Intel 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 1 GB RAM, 100 GB 7200 RPM hard drive, the NVidia Quadro NVS 120M (512 MB RAM), the WSXGA+ screen, Intel 3945 Wireless, DVD+-RW, and Windows XP Pro. Cost before taxes, etc. was $1409.00. They were able to overnight it to me the next day, which I thought was amazing being that they are swamped beyond all belief because of the holidays.
I was impressed with this unit as soon as I pulled it out of the box. It feels very rugged and sturdy. The latch for the lid also feels very durable and has a nice "positive" lock when closed. I notice no flexing of the keypad when typing, which can be commonplace on many "consumer" orientated notebooks. No ripples or flexed images on the screen when minor torque applied to the lid while it's running. Although weight has never been much of a concern with me personally, I know that there will be some people out there that would prefer a few more ounces shredded off of it.
As far as performance, all I can say is that this baby SCREAMS! The default resolution on the WSXGA screen will more than likely be too small for some people at 1680x1050 but I love it. I can literally have 2 or more seperate Word or Excel files open and not have to use the old ALT + TAB command to switch between them. Another thing I love is that they didn't bloat it out with a bunch of cheesy software and B.S. I'm not much of a gamer, so I can't really tell how the "hot" video card performs under those type of video intense scenarios, but as far as overall graphics ability, it SMOKES! Digital/scanned pics are incredibly sharp and no delay or choppiness when zooming in or out on large JPEG/TIFF/BMP files.
One thing to be aware of: My system came with Roxio Creator (Sonic) pre-loaded and worked hunky-dory until I upgraded Windows Media Player to version 11. The software would still work ok and I was able to burn both CD's and DVD's, but upon closing 3 different errors would pop up relating to illegal page faults and memory references, plus a Visual C++ error. I researched and found that there's an issue with WMP 11 and the Sonic Roxio software. As of now, there is no patch or fix from Roxio and from what I've been reading in the web forms, they don't really seem to care. Although I could still burn CD/DVD's with mine regardless of those errors, some people in the forms are reporting that they can't even get the program to open. My solution: Uninstall it and get NERO. I'm now using Nero 7 Ultra Edition and it recognizes my DVD burner with no problems and works fine.
Besides that little flaw, all else is good and I would recommend this system to anyone looking for a business class notebook as an alternative to the pricey Thinkpad's and HP Business Level notebooks.
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