Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in PC Laptops & Netbooks
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on PC Laptops & Netbooks
Although these are now ~6 years old They are still pretty solid mini-laptops. The biggest negative is the amazingly sluggish Hard drive. A 4200 RPM 1.8" drive is standard. You can buy aftermarket SSDs for it, however due to the PATA interface and the 1.8" form factor they are harder to find and very expensive compared to more modern SSDs. Current sell prices on Ebay as of this writing means the SSD would exceed the cost of the laptop. Also they come with Windows XP a 12 year old soon to die operating system, a 32 bit processor and a fairly small amount of system RAM. Now that I have the negatives out of the way, lets cover the "fixes" Upgrade the RAM to 2 Gigabytes. It is reasonably cheap ~$25 from numerous reliable online stores. Mine was made by PNY and works fine. Ditch Windows XP. It is difficult to keep secure, seems especially slow on the hard drive and Microsoft will no longer support it after April 2014. Setting it to boot from USB is a minor Bios Change(and on this note before you kill Windows XP get the latest Bios from Dell and use their tool to install it. Pen drive Linux has a menu tool to create a bootable USB drive with any number of good replacements. I chose Bodhi Linux which is a derivative of Ubuntu(based on Debian) using a lightweight window manager (enlightenment) that runs very quickly on this computer. Nearly any non-windows XP choice should be better Though I'd suggest avoiding Windows Vista or Windows 8 (no touch features so no use for windows 8). I would heartily recommend Any of the larger Linux or BSD projects. The desktop choice will be the most important. I know Enlightenment and LXDE work blazingly fast on it. I would suspect KDE, XFCE or fluxbox would also work fine. Lets finish on a good note. It is lightweight, has both the trackpad and the traditional business laptop joystick nubbin to move the cursor and has a decent screen resolution. If yours lacks bluetooth and you want bluetooth I recommend buying a PCMCIA adapter since that slot has little use in todays world. The PCMCIA adapter for bluetooth is much easier to install than buying an internal module and disassembling the laptop to put it in. The Memory upgrade is easily accessible from the back, but the bluetooth slot inside requires a more thorough disassembly. And finally, prices on EBay for good condition Dell D420s seem to be less than $100 often about $80. many seem to include Dells propriatary external DVD drive. Additional consideration; The docks for these seem to be very inexpensive (~$20) if you plan on using it at a desk regularly.Read full review
The product advertised was Dell Netbook 450 with Windows 7. After using it for a month I was notified that the operating system was a trial version and it has expired. Now, I have a useless computer with no operating system.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Add DVD writer and working battery for my old D420 in very reasonable price
Verified purchase: Yes
Needed an addition to the fleet. This is perfect. Very portable.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
FANTASTIC NICE COMPACT LAPTOP, WORKS BETTER THAN THE BIG BOYS!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned