I had this computer (fully-loaded) and it was a dream! It's not a laptop, it's a portable desktop with a real screen enabling massive productivity from anywhere... with a table. I'd buy this again without hesitation if there was a modern version of this...
Kinda funny you mention that, DIY Perks basically did a DIY version of this with a Framework motherboard recently: ruclips.net/video/aUKpY0o5tMo/видео.html
@@korovai672 I'd buy a 20" laptop in a heartbeat. It's brainless to me that people compromise on a $2000 laptop because it doesn't fit in their $50 backpack. Just pack it with a backpack it does fit in.
I have to say, I'm completely in favor of more videos like this that cover old hardware like this. With Linus' extensive knowledge of old tech and his regular propensity for dad jokes and dropping things, it's equally informative and entertaining.
Would be a lot better if he quit laughing at everything like he doesn't understand that tech evolves. Bahaha! Look how big the battery is! OMG! OMG! WOWW! Look at stupid daughterboard HEHE OMG!
This laptop was my dream computer back in high school. I ran through the Dell configurator and put together a sick setup that would have only cost a whopping $10k! Also, fun fact, this laptop was featured in Iron Man, when Pepper Potts was copying the files off of Obadiah Stane's Dell XPS m2010.
What would an updated one even look like? Lmao. With that much space and todays silicon it could literally have a threadripper and a 4090 if you wanted.
Just opened up the movie (happened to get to that scene with a single click, I might add, haha), and yup, there it is! Whole monitor shown, might be a bit of product placement lol. Best view is when he comes over and sees the screensaver. Thanks for sharing!
@@hudsonsabal8695 There wouldn't really be a need to add a Disk Drive, and even if one is added, they are quite compact now. Also cooling solution would be a lot better as well with that amount of space saved from the disk drive. IO would be great as well, with possibility of inbuilt 4K capture cards. Weight would be reduced as well, because of lighter panel's.
I was working at Dell when these came out. They were hell in the lab, because the keyboards and mice would happily connect with ANY XPS in the lab in preference to the closest one. You'd try to set one up, and suddenly someone across the lab is typing on your screen. Fortunately you could hard-wire the keyboards and use a wired mouse, but it was a pain.
I have similar issues with the wireless Logitech mice I got secondhand a few years ago. Both of them automatically pair with both dongles, with no obvious way to disable it. Maybe if I install the proprietary software I'll get some options, but that doesn't help me when one of the computers I want to use it with runs Linux.
how does one pait those though? i've got this weird "lap cinder block" and everything else is working quite fine but never got the keyboard to connect. referred manuals and forums but so far no avail.
@@MusicVideoMakerPro In the Dell lab we used wired keyboards and mice on them. We didn't have the time to mess around with the highly sketchy pairing and we certainly didn't need our keyboards and mice going away in the middle of a testing cycle. It's likely that a 3rd-party BT keyboard/mouse might work better than stock, but I have no experience with that.
I worked at Dell when these were released. The bluetooth was notorious for breaking. We were also strictly forbidden from referring to these as laptops so people wouldn't hurt themselves and then sue.
I worked at Office Depot when this was released. I remember the endcap designed for this, and how it was specifically billed as a “Portable Workstation”.
The fact that this was my first pc amaze everyone but it had a reason it was a gift given to me by my late uncle edit -I broke it in 2011 I guess and just gave it to someone for repair and no one could do it
@@AdamWolphe when u only move it to work sites 1 x a week yes, deffo not a mobile laptop lol but the idea sticks on, hell even Razer eventually make a keyboard thick as this one ( like a micropc +keyboard)
I was on the REC team at the time. I can't count how many of these that I captured and repaired in-house due to the bluetooth pairing issues. But those JBL speakers were awesome!
@@vardaan6704 Dad's always give you the thing you want. Uncles always give you the thing you didn't ask for x10 - usually turns out to be low key amazing.
They were 17 years ahead of their time. I was literally talking about this yesterday. A desktop PC that is portable now that people are working from home and the office. It literally saves each employee needing 2 workstations.
my ideal would probably be sort of like two really thick AIOs that hinge in the middle as a dual monitor that folds together into a briefcase form factor. one half has the computer, the other has a compartment in the back with the mouse and keyboard and such.
@@badlydrawncars6460 small form factor pc case and displays at the office workplaces. Or.....a laptop. A lot of jobs don't need a lot more power than most modern laptops can offer and are nice for when working while on the go without having access to a desk.
We just use laptops and provide monitors for both locations. Less than 1% of our employees need anything stronger than standard HP business grade gear, especially in a world where 4-8 core CPUs with solid onboard graphics are a dime a dozen. We’d have riots if we asked employees to lug a monstrosity like this back and forth.
@@mcborge1 I would not exactly want it terribly thinner and lighter Prefer not to go flexing a 20" screen closing the lid etc. Instead of thinner and lighter, id rather put a sick modern tech lithium battery solution in it that is like 400,000wh which might be doable given the smaller size of a lot of modern components and the now lack of need for express card and 30 in 2 card readers, 2.5 inch HDD's, the fact no one uses optical drives much anymore and some other things. Could probably get one battery in the lid itself and one in the base? And a monster cooling setup Be neat to make one that is some insane intel/nvidia combo, with kinda no regard for battery life just to say you have a i9 24 core RTX 4090 gaming laptop that kills 400k wh in 2 hours or less :) And then do one based on AMD with a low watt cpu and some kind of mobile GPU based off the RX 6600 with reduced power draw, get a combined cpu and gpu draw of under 100 watts maybe Kind of go for a game as long as possible on the battery scenario. Walking into a LAN party, and setting down your laptop for everyone to feel the table go thud and the floor shake would be hilarious.
@@wiesshund-games Just shaving 10% off the thickness of the base and using newer screen tech and meterials would still make it lighter without sacrificing rigidity and you could easily get two modern thinner (and lighter), higher capacity batteries in a base of that size and still have room for a decent cooling system. It could still have the over engineered hinge system and you could easily add any extra io to the back of the screen lid so it's positioned underneath the screen when it's in the open position, that way you would keep most of the weight in or near the base making it less top heavy.
Prior to buying Alienware in 2006, Dell's "XPS" was their gaming and premium PC line. Dell wanted to bridge the gap between laptop and desktop usage and this was born from their efforts. The goal was to provide the biggest gaming monitor possible along with desktop horsepower while still being portable enough to lug around like a laptop(-ish). Last time I saw this was in Iron Man (2008), when Pepper was going through Tony's computer.
We had these in the company I worked for in 2006. They were awesome at the time. They were basically desktop replacements and we used them for working from home and for working in the office. Which was on a 3/2 day home/office split. They were ridiculously heavy to lug around though.
This thing was an awesome beast and very few that still run. Those who had it fought hard to have one repaired and not replaced but there was no parts available for it anymore. It was built for a show piece and got such a demand it was released publicly. I know this as I worked for Dell Hardware Support and we were told the entire story of it's creation. It was never meant to be sold to the public just a demo of what could be done but demand was so high it got released.
@@igameidoresearchtoo6511 Dell XPS machines of the time (at least the big ones) had *absurd* build quality, with very little sacrificed for cost. I had an XPS M1710 (same era as this, but their 17" gaming machine), and the entire chassis was machined out of a single piece of magnesium alloy. It was ridiculous how rigid and strong it still felt even when you had it stripped down all the way (and you could access the RAM with one screw and tear the whole thing down with 15 or 20 screws - so much easier than modern machines).
@@igameidoresearchtoo6511 Yeah, they were not cheap machines. You could definitely get a faster gaming machine for the same price at the time, but not at that build quality and with even more bulk and atrocious battery life (not that the M1710 battery life was anything to write home about anyways).
they dont really use computers, they just pose next to them and take pictures. Thats why they say everything is stupid except iphones, which they cant figure out either.
I used to work for a recycling firm that handled pallets of dell returns. I managed to build an entire m2010 including the optional extras like Blu-ray drive. In 2007! Mostly all new parts too.
There is a guy who has been using this DAILY at a coffee shop in Raleigh. He's STILL using it. He lugs it in and sits in the same chair every day. He recently started bringing a second 32" screen. He's a "writer" - and pretty crazy
A modern version of this would be wild! You could fit so much battery, crazy sound and just epic parts in a formfactor like this today to make an actaully useful computer. Maybe nobody needs anything like that today since laptops are so good anyway but still. Just imagine how awesome a modern version of this could be.
Please keep making these retrospective videos! This is such an insane nostalgia hit for me right now. I vividly remember looking up articles and browsing Dell's website for this laptop back when I was in high school at the time it was released. You should see if you can find a listing somewhere for some of the old Voodoo PC laptops just so you can see why HP wanted to buy them out to turn them into their gaming laptop division before ultimately scrapping the name of the brand in favor of retaining the product line name instead. The Dell Adamo from around the same era was also an amazing example of a company trying to one-up Apple at their own game. Then they made the Adamo XPS and ruined everything in their endeavor to have the thinnest laptop.
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
@@Emira_75 It's still an interesting video in its own right. That laptop was just insane to a degree that you rarely see in production laptops these days.
This is the coolest video you've done in a while, what an epic laptop! More obscure tech please! Also felt the perfect length and not a rushed shoot like some videos have felt recently.
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
Given how good the screen is and speaker setup, i'd be interested what internals they could put inside or outright replace to make a "modern take" on it. Use the chassis (with minor modifications), bang in a new Mobo, M.2, Li-on pack etc etc so make a sleeper PC.
The XPS M2010 was on Tony Stark's desk in the original Iron Man film. The second Mini PCIe slot is for an optional 3G Cellular card. Back then you had to pick your carrier and Dell didn't have cards available for every US carrier at the time. The top panel cover I'm pretty sure is a die-cast alloy part and not machined. Hence the rough appearance. I never got to work on one when I was a warranty tech for Dell, but I did have to go over the service manual and take their little certification test on it.
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
@@iowatheother4986 You can only use software/drivers from the company that made the hardware. But you can physically change the wifi module usually for something else: ex. Atheros to a Intel Wifi 6 card.
@@iowatheother4986 Not really. The software/drivers sends activation signal yes, and then "translates" the data sent from the hardware itself, for windows. Without the correct driver, you cannot communicate correctly with the hardware.
I was a Dell tech back in the day, and my job was to GO TO YOUR HOUSE within 24 hours (4 for some businesses) and fix whatever problem you had. Yes, that's right; a Dell tech would repair your broken laptop screen at your kitchen table while you watched. (I worked on one of those transportables and it was just as awe-inspiring as you might think, *especially* considering I fixed it when it was just a year or two old.) When you worked on one, you had a definite sense that Michael Dell stood behind his engineers with a baseball bat, making sure that they were as easy and fast to repair as possible. (...and yes, *ANYONE* could access the complete instructions on how to replace any part in any(?) Dell computer. You could even skip having a tech pop by if you wanted. You would just put the broken part back in the box the new one came in and call UPS to pick it up.)
They still do that, So does Lenovo I had a laptop where the wifi stopped working, tech came and took it apart at my kitchen table, said the slot for the wireless card had died and then took the laptop sent it to the company repair facility they put a entire new motherboard in it and replaced the shell and I basically got a brand new laptop and they reset the warranty to the 5 years I had on it. Hands down the best service I ever got in my life.
I had a gaming laptop that was only 1 year old from dell, bought it at start of last year and it had a 4 year warranty and died and dell wont take care of it even if its under warranty cause it caught fire due to a electrical short from poor quality manufacturing.
Hahaha, do you remember your DCSE number? I think I've forgotten mine. Do remember, though, that before the Alienware acquisition that Dells were horrendous; Michael Dell and his engineers didn't come up with those ideas themselves. Dell and HP for sure will still send techs out to your house to do repair work. Worldwide Tech Services still handles it, I think.
I really appreciate the length and pacing of this video. It doesn't feel rushed like other videos sometimes do. Too often it feels like Linus is just trying to get done with the video as quickly as possible, without taking time to actually "have fun" with whatever thing they're doing. I've always watched LTT primarily because of the "fun" aspect.
As a Dell field engineer around the time when this was released, when I first encountered this at a client site I experienced a significant medical event.
@@poseidon9948I think the joke is he crushed his legs with it’s immense mass, reports from old employees say they were banned from referring to these as laptops due to the danger of someone hurting themselves by trying to use it on their lap.
I actually had one of these when I was in college, I took it to class sometimes as a joke. It had awful heat problems, I had to get the GPU replaced 2-3 times (all under warranty thankfully) and eventually they had to replace the entire thing because the motherboard died and they didn't have any replacements available. Was definitely a conversation starter for the 3 years I had it though. I also loved seeing it in Iron Man (it's on Tony Stark's desk). Lastly, one time when I called Dell to have it repaired the tech told me the only other person he'd ever known to have one worked for NASA, so that was cool. Anyway, that's my quick story about when I used to own one of these.
I did as well, I just couldn't justify it as a laptop for school. so i bought an open box macbook pro, then returned it and got a more normal xps dell, then had some buyers remorse with the dell, ultimately returned it and got a newer macbook pro which I used all through university. now i'm a multi-os house. some mac, some windows, some ios, some android.
@@PhilKnudson dell sucks i dont blame you for the buyers remorse, i experienced using them, about 3 or 4 laptops, experienced their pre builts in all schools jve been in, had a dell prebuilt opened it recently and it sucks just as bad as they do now. lenovo does everything better and im literally not touching anything dell/alienware until they do something revolutionary for themselves.
I *really* would love too see what a “money is no object” upgrade is possible with this machine. In it’s day, this was the pinnacle of upgradable laptops. It would be wonderful to see what the best MXM GPU is and try to replace it. Also neat to investigate if SSDs can be put in the internal slot or just run an optane 2.5 inch SSD. The more stupid, the more fun. I believe 1080 MXM GPUs exist. It would be cool AF to try to get that to work here.
Built in dial up modem actually makes a ton of sense on this thing if it was really meant as a portable workstation that may be used out "in the field" alongside equipment using dialup for small data transfers.
The 2010 was my main machine for many years. Dell offered me money to let it finally die so they wouldn't need to keep sending engineers out to fix it. The RAID 1 configured dual drives save my life twice. My fondest memory was Friday night movies when I dragged this thing into my living room. Put it on the coffee table in front of the sofa, watching movies with my gals with popcorn, with the lights turned out. Proper cozy!
This looks like it would be pretty fun to try and upgrade since it seems like so many of the parts are replaceable. I wonder what the most ballin' version of this thing would look like.
i don't mind using it too, in fact if they could jam a full PC experience into it, i'll be in heaven. basically you can bring your desktop pc everywhere
Would be fun! Try finding a 4K BR player, swap in a modern mainboard with an i7 or i9 and beefy cooling, follow it up with twin or triple modern batteries for hugely improved batterylife.
hmm... maybe fitting a minisforum ryzen base mini pc motherboard in there and if there was an available screen on 20" 4k resolution if possible... maybe?
That thing is AWESOME!! Could you imagine what something like that could be nowadays with modern day parts. So cool. More videos of weird tech like this PLEASE!
My friend has this thing in college! 😂 A rich parents gamer boi that one, had his fully specced out and was playing games on it pretty much all the time. He took it to classes on occasion, basically it’s own suitcase with that grab handle, but he still needed a separate bag for the power brick which was a literal brick being so comically large, like 4x the size of anyone else’s charger. It had plenty of issues too! Of course my friend had sprung for Dell’s premium warranty extension service and a tech guy once had to come to our dorms in the middle of nowhere to fix it for him. At some point while still under warranty it broke beyond repair, and since it had been discontinued dell instead replaced it with a more reasonable (lol) 17 inch Alienware gaming laptop.
The repairability of their mid 2000s latitudes were insane. Two screws, replace the sata drive. Want to hot swap the drive bay to a spare battery that fits in the drive slot? No problem. want to swap the main battery to a fresh one? Two tabs and drop a fresh one. Dell used to design for repairability in the IT department realm. Then the race to the bottom happened for thin and light designs and the fact that they could cheap out on manufacturing parallel to this was another plus. Edit: and I forgot about the monitor! The display was so easy to replace - flip up the tabs just above the keyboard to get at the display connector, undo the hinge mounts through two screws on each side (back and bottom) and away it comes
@@kady5991 The D800 had the best one: two screws on the bottom to remove the fan. Compared to other laptops where you need to take the thing half apart to clean it's a huge improvement.
I used to see this laptop at a shop at an extremely high price. I loved how stupid it was I really wanted one. I even looked for it recently but didn't find it anywhere. I had no idea what the model number was and all I knew was it was from Dell. I'm glad there is an LTT video about it ❤
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
@@iowatheother4986 You don't want to use all in one driver software. It's common for them to install incorrect drivers or misconfigure them, making stuff break and also have adware packaged with it. Not sure how to help just letting you know to be careful with those sites since that's what you're looking for. Maybe you're just misunderstanding how drivers work, if you have realtek hardware, you want realtek drivers. Anything else will break...
I think this is actually quite a revolutionary system for its time, it implements futuristic elements and ergonomics with handy features and sleek styling.
As someone who’s looking for a transportable workstation solution, this actually has some appealing features. I’m currently using a laptop and various peripherals and travel monitors, but I love how large the screen is on this thing.
@@Reverae I’ve been looking into AR actually. It sounds like it’ll be the perfect solution in 10 years or so, but at the moment, there are a couple hang ups. The resolution isn’t great for reading lots of text and the pass through cameras aren’t great for actually seeing the letters on the keyboard. That, plus the form factor is a little bulky to keep on your head for long periods. Those are all things that will likely improve as the technology improves though, so I’m def looking forward to what AR is like a few years down the road.
As thin as monitors are nowdays... You could get a dual monitor mounstrosity packed on that format. Something to thinker about with the Framework guys, perhaps?
Have you ever considered some kind of interactive museum as part of LTT? You bought some weird tech (huge curved crt monitor...), some you could get as donations (wifi graphics card, passive cooling case...), some things you built (cooling with fire, watercoolled mac...). It would be great to come and try it out. edit: you could also have row of computers with each of the windows versions for people to try out (starting with DOS). same thing for mac os. you could also have different screen technologies side by side (IPS, LED, plasma, OLED, miniLED, CRT...) playing the same video.
i think a lot of the rigs they have shown are reused, but they could probably pull this off by sinking enough money if they do this and charge a fee, it could probably give more traction to the company, let sale merch increase if it's on display, and maybe just make money on its own
@@hockypockies that's bad business for a museum in tech. A guided tour of the exhibits would be much more profitable with a gift store for LTT merch. A portion of the space could also be booked out for small tech startups to host events or provide education in technology to those interested in learning. This freemium model would provide working services that induce a fear of missing out on experiences during visits, sentimental value over the experience with items from the gift shop serving as a source of promotion and profits, and a place to feature new businesses LTT and others can profit from. A museum requires a model of passive consumerism to stay afloat if they are to do this at a profit and not a loss.
@@GM-hh2hf ahh i see, i'm not that experienced in that sorta thing, at best my idea was more of a concept. i respect your comment though and theres plenty of ideas to take into consideration!
@@NormanF62 who cares about portable, when you can have _transportable._ the history of over 20 inch laptops.. remember ASUS ROG Mothership, the 8000euro gaming tablet? it had 4 speakers in the front because of the tablet design. and unique thermal.
Hey! It was sold as a concept. It came fully loaded with a crazy leather rolling travel case, and the tops presentation remote with built-in display so you could pick songs from your playlist. During the day I used it for business presentations and training new hires using the loud bass speakers and presentation remote, then during the night, I tore up my livingroom night after night, doubling as a DJ computer. I had to have it serviced and the Dell tech who came to service it didn't even know what it was. The first ever computer I financed too, I'm pretty sure I ended up paying 6k but I was perfectly happy. My favorite system ever. Sure, it had problems like the keyboard, and the DVD but the pro's far outweighed the cons. This was around when electronic music exploded thanks to Skrillex. So many people thought my system was absolute cray. Speaking about compensation Linus.. in all fairness, I think you should review a video you made 13 years ago compared to a current one without giggling. Other than this simple indiscretion, still love the show. Just had to comment on this video cuz I loved that system so much. Love the show guys. Just take it easy when reviewing tech from us older people's past lol.
I'd like to see you guys make this into a sleeper monster machine, i mean, imagine rolling up to an Esports tournament and walking in with this absolute unit.
I have a project going right now to make an eSports all in one for lans and travel and stuff. Laptop ergo is usually horrendous for me. I didn't realize Dell had already(kind of) made one lol
I remember picking one of these up in 2009 for like £180. Looking back now I wish I still had it!! They could do a rebuild with modern components inside it :D❤
i had one and i loved working with it. i love big displays and i had a second 21“ screen attached at the office. also the keyboard was great to type on. i threw mine away last year … fully functional … oops! mainly because that fake leather finish turned into that sticky plastic over the years and it was gross to touch it. it also came with a custom fit laptop bag … with wheels and a retractable handle. a truly unique piece of tec … :)
I worked in a laptop repair role for awhile back in the day and this was probably one of my favorite devices to work on because it was so easy to disassemble lol Great video guys!
6:31 That was a pretty common feature in business notebooks back then. The person using the notebook would have one or more spare batteries inside his bag and to see which one is full, it had a button.
Yeah, exactly. I remember my dad had a specific compartment in his laptop bag just for spare batteries. He worked sales and flew all across the US and Canada with, yes, a Dell notebook.
I appreciate you guys for returning to a much slower editing and talking pace as opposed to the videos you released in Q4 last year. It gives me a room to breathe and mind to think.
You should have upgraded the ram with 8GB and placed the best CPU compatible for that socket/motherboard. Those old CPU's are SUPER CHEAP and sometime a huge upgrade depending on what's already installed. You could make this into one hell of an emulator PC.
I want to see them do a modern version of this, let's see what they can fit in there nowadays, and I imagine that there are many people (like me) who want the ability to just take their main computer with them if they need to but don't want to be stuck using a laptop
On the topic of laptop sound, you should try and get your hands on a Toshiba X205-S9349. It was marketed as a gaming laptop with it's 17" display and Harmon/Kardon speaker system (with subwoofer!). It would be interesting to see a comparison between the two as they are around about the same era when released.
@@TT-zh4oq why does the number of speakers mean the new Mac book has good sound? I'd be interested to hear it but I've never been impressed by their speakers so far.
I own and love this laptop and bought it brand new. I also bought it with the case and the windows media server RF remote control. When this came out you could get it with the windows media center edition version. This wasn't a laptop, it was definitely a portable desktop and the custom-made case the Dell produced was awesome for travel but no doubt, the whole thing wait a ton. The whole idea was that you could conduct business as well as sit in the hotel and have the screen on the far side of the room and the RF remote that ran the media center or the keyboard right next to you. It also shipped with the video capture device and other dongle based hardware. Everything had a place and pouch to store it and use when needed. I still consider it my favorite laptop I've ever owned I pull it out every now and then to run updates. My only complaint was having to replace the video card a few times which would be amazing to find one that doesn't fry.
Super cool to hear from OG owners of these sorts of unusual devices. It certainly seems like the sort of device that would be perfect for someone with just the right mix of unusual needs.
Hey linus, great vid! I bought one of these as a project when I was 11 for about $200, really glad to see them getting publicity. Id absolutely love to help you with the drivers and tell you a bit more about it if you like! I also have an acer 9800, the 2nd biggest laptop ever made (also 20 inches)
They found the pair button on the computer. And Linus just paired the keyboard to his phone. AND Linus was gaming on the keyboard at the end of the vid. But I envy you for having these cool things. Now I am starting to want to make something similar myself (probably with ITX motherboard, bare IPS panel and a huge 12V UPS)
@@yuxuanhuang3523 sorry, didnt finish the vid. Thats goof to hear. There are a few things that I could help them with, like the drivers, that Id love to talk to them about as ive owned mine for 6 years now
Always been a huge fan but you guys gained even more of my respect when y'all replaced my buddies screw driver after he lost it in a house fire. That's some true customer care and values from you guys💯
I remember lusting after this machine after Maximum PC reviewed it in their honest-to-goodness paperback magazine oh so many years ago. Awesome to finally see it come to life through video, guys!
This brings back memories from repairing Dell laptops back in 2010 when I worked in my college IT department. We had lots of older Latitude D620 and D820 laptops from the mid 00's with very similar big chunky daughter boards. I'm not certain but I bet that top cover is probably a powder cast magnesium alloy. Dell started using that in their higher end latitude models in the late 00's and my college laptop was a Latitude E6400 with a magnesium allow case from 2009.
Linus' historical knowledge of past computer parts is so impressive to me. All Alex had to say was "x1800" and Linus was able to remember the card in only a few seconds.
@@christopherrichardd That's fair. I deal with computer hardware on a daily basis and have a lot of older equipment so it's not information archived in the back with cobwebs 🤣
I was really into building computers around that time. I definitely recalled that card. I had a X800XT. That was around the time ATI was kicking Nvidia's ass, before AMD bought them.
2006 Dells are surprisingly survivable. I got a hand-me-down Inspiron 6000, still have it, still works to this day. I even used it for college a few years ago (still in college right now, btw). It ran really slow, like type a sentence in Word, go get a cup of water, and come back and see it just start to spell out your sentence letter-by-letter slow. One time, it even took a literal hour to open PowerPoint. So I opened it up, and found out *the factory never put thermal paste on the CPU* and it was still running! The die had burn marks! Little dab of thermal paste, and it ran like new. Old game consoles from that time also lacked thermal paste, so if you're repairing them, check on that.
I loved this review! I actually had one of these in my old job and got to use it for a few months. It was an amazing machine when it came out and absolutely hilarious to carry around! One of my coworkers saw it and convinced my boss to let him take it home because he was "having health issues", he retired a few months later and I never saw this amazing machine again. Definately one of the coolest "portable" workstations I've ever used! Thank you for the trip down memory lane!
the comparisons they kept making to modern laptops was astounding. probably the most interesting part of the video, IMO. but what kept sending me back through time was how linus kept remembering how someone else's display always looked better. I remember how this felt back in the early 2000's
Definitely in part due to glossy being king when it comes to display clarity! And in 2023 I still can't find a good glossy 27" 2560x1440 display to replace my old dying one. It's infuriating.
Note: comparing a 2023 laptop to this thing is like comparing this thing to a i486 computer. Hell, a laptop released in 1989/1990 didn't have fucking Windows
@@ChaplainDMK Keep in mind the comparisons were not for it to be a race. I'm actually incredibly impressed with it's performance compared to the modern laptop. My PC from 2008 wouldn't keep up with it lol
I found the comparisons annoying, to be honest. It felt like they were stating the obvious by going "ohmahgawd, look how this old piece of tech is less powerful/efficient/capable/... than modern-day tech". No shit, Sherlock, of course it got its ass handed to it by modern tech, it's over 15 years old. The video content (the laptop, the hardware, the disassembly,...) was very interesting, but the comparisons just plain sucked. And that plastic talk, god damn... How middle-class can someone be to act so shocked at old matte plastic leaking glue and getting sticky?
Honestly unpopular opinion here: this might one of the best design I ever seen. You even seen those ports? The full desktop keyboard can be detach from the computer? The screen hovering? Holy shit I’m in love.
No literally just found out abt this machine and im OBSESSED id sell a kidney to get my hands on one of these... I so wish theyd bring that back its such a unique and cool machine
This is by far the best video you guys have done on your main channel in a while imo. Something about when you guys review old tech brings me back to the old days!
I loved this! I purchased the DEL M2010 new back in 2007 and ordered it with every option Dell offered including the remote and suitcase! If memory serves me correctly, I paid about $7000 back then for it. I used it for two years then put it on a shelf with other relics from my past. I still have it and it still works.
Oh, you gotta do the HP HDX Dragon next. It was even bigger, and packed a beefy GPU for the time (8800GTS) but was aimed to be a combination desktop replacement and entertainment center. It also had a build in remote control, and I don't mean that dinky little card remote - it had a full on remote control indent on the body to hold it. I may or may not own 3...
That is amazing! Id love one to complete my collection of the 3 big early 2000s 20 inch laptops - i have an M2010 and an acer 9800. Sidenote - the HDX wasnt even bigger, the M2010 was the largest and heaviest of the 3, while the HDX was the lightest. If you are ever selling me one let me know!
I had one of those a while back, it was an absolutely awesome thing! shame the graphics cards are so prone to dieing :/ it would be cool if someone could put a little micro pc in the case to revive one!
The smallest kid in my 9th grade class brought one of these to school one day. It was hilarious seeing him carry this thing and struggle to keep it from dragging on the ground. He got made fun of about his giant laptop so he never brought it again.
I worked for Dell just as these were being discontinued. During training, we'd regularly have UT2k4 tournements and I always grabbed this computer off the shelf. Sure, it was the slowest of the bunch, but that screen, and the subwoofer... I wanted one so badly.
That top metal panel is probably injection moulded magnesium, or possibly aluminium. This was a common choice for the frame of laptops in ~2000, where the primary concern was being stiff enough whilst also providing enough space for the huge components.
Definitely magnesium. A lot more brittle (and combustible) than aluminium, but very lightweight and Dell (and Alienware) were using it at the time. I have an Alienware M15x from 2010 (though the model launched in 2009) which is a Magnesium shell and frame.
You can see the "Mg" magnesium recycling mark in the video close to where the stickers are. My 2009 Dell Precision M4400 was the same. Agreed also cast rather than being machined, so not all that expensive.
I remember seeing this on Dell's website back in the day when I was ordering my Inspiron 1525. I still think it looks cool lol. You guys should retro fit it with a Framework motherboard etc.
I actually got to use one when I was about 10 years old! I went to a small film club mostly aimed at kids, and one day I go and they bring this bad boi out. I have to say I was EXTREMELY impressed haha to me it was the coolest thing ever, briefcase laptop
My friend's dad gave me a old Inspiron, which I ended up upgrading and putting an i7 620m, and the old dell service manuals are really well documented and detailed
Yeah, i'd love to see them upgrade this thing as much as possible and maybe try to find the rest of it's components. It seems like a really cool computer, even now!
That's actually a really cool design. Throw in some modern hardware and this would be a cool LAN machine as well. Just look at other custom transportable diy projects for AiO PCs. There probably is more of a market for something like this today then there was back then.
Exactly. The same people (me) who want to buy a thick 17” desktop replacement laptop would absolute by something like this too. I basically want an all in one that is portable (or transportable as the video said).
I remember back in the DVD burning days, I had a shiny red dell laptop that had a 40GB hard drive. That was only enough for a few 1080p movies. Ahhh, the good ol days.
I started working at Dell in 2011. During my new hire training, we had one of these in the lab and since then I have a thing for unnecessarily large and powerful portable computers. That's one of the reasons why I bought a Toshiba T3200SX. The second reason was the orange plasma screen. I'd still love to find an XPS M2010 though.
I was in Dell's XPS Support team when these were around. I know they were buggy and had weird issues with the DVD drive but I still have a soft spot for weird systems like these.
Holy crap you unlocked a memory for me. I had around the same period this crappy Acer laptop with a sadly onboard Nvidia gpu (the ones that had a recall in 07 or 08) and it had similar stuff, you could swap the cpu very easily and it was EXACTLY the same chip mechanism. I really wish we could still do that with laptops.
socketable laptop cpus lived until intel core 4th gen, I have a gaming laptop from that era with socketable cpu and mxm upgradeable video card unfortunately a couple extra mm of thickness became unacceptable for most devices and the highest end stuff where it doesn't matter got desktop CPUs
This thing was amazing! Ahhhh seeing vista again was a vibe. 2006 was around the time I last saw it. When i was fiddling around downloading any and everything to make XP look like vista or trying to make a separate partition..Even though my basic home edition Dell could CERTAINTLY not handle Vista.
Owned one of these units. The major drawback for me was the ATI video card and was not compatible with several of the games that was release around late ’06 early ’07 timeframe due to ATI drivers not being updated that often. The case was $250 US and zipped up around the laptop and the hinge on the back side of the screen was used as the carrying handle. Finally ended up giving the laptop away to Salvation Army because the graphics card could not be replaced/upgraded.
I remember this came out a year after I started college and probably would have bought this to game on if it weren’t for its insane cost and the fact I already had bought an already chonky Inspiron 9300 in 2005 (I still have it in a closet somewhere). I almost never took my laptop to class, so it wouldn’t have gone anywhere much anyways. The 9300 had a similar subwoofer, but it had a slightly better battery life of a whopping 4 hours (if you were judicious). Great to see you snagged one of these, I remember how insane these things were and was always curious about it. God, I feel old now.
The great grandfather of mobile workstations. I really like this semi-business bag design. It's almost like the Pelican Case PC, but with Dell's fingerprint all over.
Yeah but the M2010 is like, literally Core 2 Duo era. If you are a big boy engineer/businessman with like, 3D models and/or mathmatical models, you can just lug this around the world, plonk this on the table, and give your demonstration.
My 1st job was as a salesman for Dell in '06. I thought the laptop was awesome & my largest sale was one. Sold it to a guy, no joke, in a white tank top, gold chain, and 2 women on his arms. He laughed when I said he could get it financed for 30% APR. His CC was well under that.
I was on the fence of buying one of these back in 2007. I ended up with the XPS M1730 with SLI instead. It was damn near as impractical but at least it fit into a bag.
sound has been a solved technology in speaker form for the better part of 60 years now, headphones for the better part of 30 years, iems are honestly the only place innovation really happens, everything else is just kind of how to cut costs while maintaining quality.
yeah fr i have an Atlantic Technology system paired to some sort of Denon receiver, from the 90s and 2000s respectively, and i don't think I'll ever get rid of it. it's perfect.
I use some quality late 70s headphones to watch most of my RUclips and music. I payed 4 dollars for them and I compared them to modern 80$ high end headphones and they sound the same. We figured out high quality sound a long time ago
@@alidan Yep. And the greatest headphones of all time were made in the 80's (Sony MDR-R10). They discontinued them a long time ago, though, because they were too expensive to make. Used ones go for no less than $10,000 these days
Looking at how impractical and bulky this is yet interesting. I feel like an updated one would be cool and rather easy to put together, especially 3rd party due to 3-d printing being easily available to the public
@@redsed1925 welcome to youtube my friend, bots are now copying semi-popular comments and liking other bots' posts so that they are higher up in the comment section
@@redsed1925 Something similar happened to me not too long ago, where a scammer copied my comment and used other bots to push themselves further up the algorithm.
I used to have a compaq laptop and the upgrade batteries for it had capacity indicators on them because, among me and my peers anyway, having multiple batteries back then was pretty common and chargers that could charge your battery external to the laptop were a thing I remember a few of us having too lol. Treating your laptop like a power tool "yeah AFK I gotta change my battery" lmao
I totally forgot this thing existed. I worked in IT at a research lab when this thing was released and they had a contract with Dell. So of course one of the nutty tech loving professors/department heads ordered one. Everyone in the office had to come over and look at it when it was delivered because it was such an insane thing back then. I should really look into maybe acquiring one.
I knew a guy who had one of these when I was in college. Also knew another person who had the HP equivalent, which wasn't as crazy, but was still pretty wild.
I love this... With today's tech I sure as hell would buy this. Very few people use their laptop on their lap, and many professional designers, photographers, etc. are currently lugging around tons of extra equipment just to make their mobile setup feel more comfy (e.g secondary displays, mice, audio equipment, etc)... this just makes sense. Plus, it's so much more ergonomic than tilting your head down to look at a laptop on a desk, and the detachable keyboard is awesome. It's just the size of a damn briefcase, and today this kind of setup can be far lighter.
This NEEDS a Frameworks collab so they can make a full custom rebuild for this bad boy. Also a video of Linus taking this out to the streets to a coffee shop and playing CoD
I had this computer (fully-loaded) and it was a dream! It's not a laptop, it's a portable desktop with a real screen enabling massive productivity from anywhere... with a table. I'd buy this again without hesitation if there was a modern version of this...
who is the dell employee with the gun to your head
Kinda funny you mention that, DIY Perks basically did a DIY version of this with a Framework motherboard recently: ruclips.net/video/aUKpY0o5tMo/видео.html
@@korovai672 No, I'd totally buy one of these too. This is an incredible thing if you do content creation or especially music production.
@@korovai672 I'd buy a 20" laptop in a heartbeat. It's brainless to me that people compromise on a $2000 laptop because it doesn't fit in their $50 backpack. Just pack it with a backpack it does fit in.
@@zodwraith5745 the hp envy line has 17in desktop replacement laptops and still has dvd drives too the battery is ass though
I have to say, I'm completely in favor of more videos like this that cover old hardware like this. With Linus' extensive knowledge of old tech and his regular propensity for dad jokes and dropping things, it's equally informative and entertaining.
In combination with anthony would be nice, since he probably has experience with older tech too.
"extensive knowledge of old tech" kek. lol. )
Would be a lot better if he quit laughing at everything like he doesn't understand that tech evolves. Bahaha! Look how big the battery is! OMG! OMG! WOWW! Look at stupid daughterboard HEHE OMG!
-signed
Agreed!!
This laptop was my dream computer back in high school. I ran through the Dell configurator and put together a sick setup that would have only cost a whopping $10k!
Also, fun fact, this laptop was featured in Iron Man, when Pepper Potts was copying the files off of Obadiah Stane's Dell XPS m2010.
Damn, 15 years ago in movies feels super recent, while 15 years ago in tech feels like the ancient past.
@@rhodiumthunderbird yeah,that's real
What would an updated one even look like? Lmao. With that much space and todays silicon it could literally have a threadripper and a 4090 if you wanted.
Just opened up the movie (happened to get to that scene with a single click, I might add, haha), and yup, there it is! Whole monitor shown, might be a bit of product placement lol. Best view is when he comes over and sees the screensaver. Thanks for sharing!
@@hudsonsabal8695 There wouldn't really be a need to add a Disk Drive, and even if one is added, they are quite compact now.
Also cooling solution would be a lot better as well with that amount of space saved from the disk drive.
IO would be great as well, with possibility of inbuilt 4K capture cards.
Weight would be reduced as well, because of lighter panel's.
I was working at Dell when these came out. They were hell in the lab, because the keyboards and mice would happily connect with ANY XPS in the lab in preference to the closest one. You'd try to set one up, and suddenly someone across the lab is typing on your screen. Fortunately you could hard-wire the keyboards and use a wired mouse, but it was a pain.
BT multipair , even when it wasnt popular yet lol
@@sargera1 If ONLY! Them pairing to your machine would shut YOU out!
I have similar issues with the wireless Logitech mice I got secondhand a few years ago. Both of them automatically pair with both dongles, with no obvious way to disable it. Maybe if I install the proprietary software I'll get some options, but that doesn't help me when one of the computers I want to use it with runs Linux.
how does one pait those though? i've got this weird "lap cinder block" and everything else is working quite fine but never got the keyboard to connect. referred manuals and forums but so far no avail.
@@MusicVideoMakerPro In the Dell lab we used wired keyboards and mice on them. We didn't have the time to mess around with the highly sketchy pairing and we certainly didn't need our keyboards and mice going away in the middle of a testing cycle. It's likely that a 3rd-party BT keyboard/mouse might work better than stock, but I have no experience with that.
I worked at Dell when these were released. The bluetooth was notorious for breaking. We were also strictly forbidden from referring to these as laptops so people wouldn't hurt themselves and then sue.
I worked at Office Depot when this was released. I remember the endcap designed for this, and how it was specifically billed as a “Portable Workstation”.
The fact that this was my first pc amaze everyone but it had a reason it was a gift given to me by my late uncle
edit -I broke it in 2011 I guess and just gave it to someone for repair and no one could do it
@@AdamWolphe when u only move it to work sites 1 x a week yes, deffo not a mobile laptop lol
but the idea sticks on, hell even Razer eventually make a keyboard thick as this one ( like a micropc +keyboard)
I was on the REC team at the time. I can't count how many of these that I captured and repaired in-house due to the bluetooth pairing issues. But those JBL speakers were awesome!
@@vardaan6704 Dad's always give you the thing you want. Uncles always give you the thing you didn't ask for x10 - usually turns out to be low key amazing.
They were 17 years ahead of their time. I was literally talking about this yesterday. A desktop PC that is portable now that people are working from home and the office. It literally saves each employee needing 2 workstations.
I feel like it would work much better in the form of a PC case with an integrated display, keyboard, touchpad, etc kinda like a modern Compaq Portable
my ideal would probably be sort of like two really thick AIOs that hinge in the middle as a dual monitor that folds together into a briefcase form factor. one half has the computer, the other has a compartment in the back with the mouse and keyboard and such.
@@badlydrawncars6460 small form factor pc case and displays at the office workplaces. Or.....a laptop. A lot of jobs don't need a lot more power than most modern laptops can offer and are nice for when working while on the go without having access to a desk.
We just use laptops and provide monitors for both locations. Less than 1% of our employees need anything stronger than standard HP business grade gear, especially in a world where 4-8 core CPUs with solid onboard graphics are a dime a dozen. We’d have riots if we asked employees to lug a monstrosity like this back and forth.
@@lexievv nailed it
I'm not gonna lie. I really want an updated version
Same, and a modern version would be thinner and lighter, which would make it less of a pain to lug around even at that screen size.
I want to see them upgrade every possible component on this thing to see what it's like.
@@haphazard1342 Yes, this!! An ssd, some more ram, win 10.
@@mcborge1 I would not exactly want it terribly thinner and lighter
Prefer not to go flexing a 20" screen closing the lid etc.
Instead of thinner and lighter, id rather put a sick modern tech lithium battery solution in it that is like 400,000wh
which might be doable given the smaller size of a lot of modern components and the now lack of need for express card and 30 in 2 card readers, 2.5 inch HDD's, the fact no one uses optical drives much anymore and some other things.
Could probably get one battery in the lid itself and one in the base?
And a monster cooling setup
Be neat to make one that is some insane intel/nvidia combo, with kinda no regard for battery life
just to say you have a i9 24 core RTX 4090 gaming laptop that kills 400k wh in 2 hours or less :)
And then do one based on AMD with a low watt cpu and some kind of mobile GPU based off the RX 6600
with reduced power draw, get a combined cpu and gpu draw of under 100 watts maybe
Kind of go for a game as long as possible on the battery scenario.
Walking into a LAN party, and setting down your laptop for everyone to feel the table go thud and the floor shake
would be hilarious.
@@wiesshund-games Just shaving 10% off the thickness of the base and using newer screen tech and meterials would still make it lighter without sacrificing rigidity and you could easily get two modern thinner (and lighter), higher capacity batteries in a base of that size and still have room for a decent cooling system. It could still have the over engineered hinge system and you could easily add any extra io to the back of the screen lid so it's positioned underneath the screen when it's in the open position, that way you would keep most of the weight in or near the base making it less top heavy.
Prior to buying Alienware in 2006, Dell's "XPS" was their gaming and premium PC line. Dell wanted to bridge the gap between laptop and desktop usage and this was born from their efforts. The goal was to provide the biggest gaming monitor possible along with desktop horsepower while still being portable enough to lug around like a laptop(-ish). Last time I saw this was in Iron Man (2008), when Pepper was going through Tony's computer.
Holy shit good memory! Although I think it's obidiah's laptop
Jesus Christ... The first Iron Man movie is 16 years old...
It sad that Alienware has been so downgrade compared to the quality they were known for before Dell purchased them.
We had these in the company I worked for in 2006. They were awesome at the time. They were basically desktop replacements and we used them for working from home and for working in the office. Which was on a 3/2 day home/office split. They were ridiculously heavy to lug around though.
This thing was an awesome beast and very few that still run. Those who had it fought hard to have one repaired and not replaced but there was no parts available for it anymore. It was built for a show piece and got such a demand it was released publicly. I know this as I worked for Dell Hardware Support and we were told the entire story of it's creation. It was never meant to be sold to the public just a demo of what could be done but demand was so high it got released.
That explains the machined aluminium.
@@igameidoresearchtoo6511 Dell XPS machines of the time (at least the big ones) had *absurd* build quality, with very little sacrificed for cost. I had an XPS M1710 (same era as this, but their 17" gaming machine), and the entire chassis was machined out of a single piece of magnesium alloy. It was ridiculous how rigid and strong it still felt even when you had it stripped down all the way (and you could access the RAM with one screw and tear the whole thing down with 15 or 20 screws - so much easier than modern machines).
@@clapanse Yeah, but their prices were unfortunate to say the least however.
Plastic is both a curse and a blessing.
@@igameidoresearchtoo6511 Yeah, they were not cheap machines. You could definitely get a faster gaming machine for the same price at the time, but not at that build quality and with even more bulk and atrocious battery life (not that the M1710 battery life was anything to write home about anyways).
they dont really use computers, they just pose next to them and take pictures. Thats why they say everything is stupid except iphones, which they cant figure out either.
I used to work for a recycling firm that handled pallets of dell returns. I managed to build an entire m2010 including the optional extras like Blu-ray drive. In 2007! Mostly all new parts too.
You are my hero. I too have gained favor of the dump gods for many computing gems.
That explains the machined aluminium.
you're talking to the only nerds alive who might be marginally entertained by that story.
Do you have an extra lcd panel laying around? I broke mine years ago and would like to make it fully functional again.
There is a guy who has been using this DAILY at a coffee shop in Raleigh. He's STILL using it. He lugs it in and sits in the same chair every day. He recently started bringing a second 32" screen. He's a "writer" - and pretty crazy
Bringing in second screen shows his dedication on using it as his daily use.
A modern version of this would be wild! You could fit so much battery, crazy sound and just epic parts in a formfactor like this today to make an actaully useful computer. Maybe nobody needs anything like that today since laptops are so good anyway but still. Just imagine how awesome a modern version of this could be.
Ikr.
The closest analog imo is a foldable laptop, 16 to 17 inch foldable display that folds down into a 12 inch standard laptop or completely closed.
battery life wouldnt be that good sadly. laptop makers are limited on battery size by the FAA if they want them to be able to travel on a plane
So…. A desktop lol
and it would weigh sooooo much less
Please keep making these retrospective videos! This is such an insane nostalgia hit for me right now. I vividly remember looking up articles and browsing Dell's website for this laptop back when I was in high school at the time it was released. You should see if you can find a listing somewhere for some of the old Voodoo PC laptops just so you can see why HP wanted to buy them out to turn them into their gaming laptop division before ultimately scrapping the name of the brand in favor of retaining the product line name instead. The Dell Adamo from around the same era was also an amazing example of a company trying to one-up Apple at their own game. Then they made the Adamo XPS and ruined everything in their endeavor to have the thinnest laptop.
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
Crossover with LGR when.
I was gonna watch this video, but Linus said I might as well just read the comments.
@@Emira_75 It's still an interesting video in its own right. That laptop was just insane to a degree that you rarely see in production laptops these days.
This is the coolest video you've done in a while, what an epic laptop! More obscure tech please! Also felt the perfect length and not a rushed shoot like some videos have felt recently.
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
Given how good the screen is and speaker setup, i'd be interested what internals they could put inside or outright replace to make a "modern take" on it.
Use the chassis (with minor modifications), bang in a new Mobo, M.2, Li-on pack etc etc so make a sleeper PC.
The XPS M2010 was on Tony Stark's desk in the original Iron Man film.
The second Mini PCIe slot is for an optional 3G Cellular card. Back then you had to pick your carrier and Dell didn't have cards available for every US carrier at the time.
The top panel cover I'm pretty sure is a die-cast alloy part and not machined. Hence the rough appearance. I never got to work on one when I was a warranty tech for Dell, but I did have to go over the service manual and take their little certification test on it.
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
@@iowatheother4986 You can only use software/drivers from the company that made the hardware. But you can physically change the wifi module usually for something else: ex. Atheros to a Intel Wifi 6 card.
@@natsukage3960 but doesn't the software itself send out a signal to pick up wifi?
It was also in 2 and a Half Men in the background!
@@iowatheother4986 Not really. The software/drivers sends activation signal yes, and then "translates" the data sent from the hardware itself, for windows. Without the correct driver, you cannot communicate correctly with the hardware.
I was a Dell tech back in the day, and my job was to GO TO YOUR HOUSE within 24 hours (4 for some businesses) and fix whatever problem you had. Yes, that's right; a Dell tech would repair your broken laptop screen at your kitchen table while you watched. (I worked on one of those transportables and it was just as awe-inspiring as you might think, *especially* considering I fixed it when it was just a year or two old.) When you worked on one, you had a definite sense that Michael Dell stood behind his engineers with a baseball bat, making sure that they were as easy and fast to repair as possible. (...and yes, *ANYONE* could access the complete instructions on how to replace any part in any(?) Dell computer. You could even skip having a tech pop by if you wanted. You would just put the broken part back in the box the new one came in and call UPS to pick it up.)
Was lucky enough to have one of these and had it serviced just as you described twice! I had nothing but good things to say about Dell in that era
They still do that, So does Lenovo I had a laptop where the wifi stopped working, tech came and took it apart at my kitchen table, said the slot for the wireless card had died and then took the laptop sent it to the company repair facility they put a entire new motherboard in it and replaced the shell and I basically got a brand new laptop and they reset the warranty to the 5 years I had on it. Hands down the best service I ever got in my life.
I had a gaming laptop that was only 1 year old from dell, bought it at start of last year and it had a 4 year warranty and died and dell wont take care of it even if its under warranty cause it caught fire due to a electrical short from poor quality manufacturing.
Yeah, Dell monitors were the best! I even got service on a used one.
Hahaha, do you remember your DCSE number? I think I've forgotten mine. Do remember, though, that before the Alienware acquisition that Dells were horrendous; Michael Dell and his engineers didn't come up with those ideas themselves.
Dell and HP for sure will still send techs out to your house to do repair work. Worldwide Tech Services still handles it, I think.
I really appreciate the length and pacing of this video. It doesn't feel rushed like other videos sometimes do. Too often it feels like Linus is just trying to get done with the video as quickly as possible, without taking time to actually "have fun" with whatever thing they're doing. I've always watched LTT primarily because of the "fun" aspect.
Couldn't agree more 👐
The Blu-ray attempt would've died after the first try normally, keyboard as well 👌
I play Linux at 2x speed always so I don't mind "rushed". Sounds better too at 1.5x or higher, IMO.
@@raylopez99 touch some grass, mate
Watching stuff sped up all the time isn't healthy. Your poor attention span...
I was gonna watch this video, but Linus said I might as well just read the comments.
@@TheZerok666 Say what?
As a Dell field engineer around the time when this was released, when I first encountered this at a client site I experienced a significant medical event.
did these like to spontaneously combust or something? sounds interesting
@@poseidon9948I think the joke is he crushed his legs with it’s immense mass, reports from old employees say they were banned from referring to these as laptops due to the danger of someone hurting themselves by trying to use it on their lap.
I actually had one of these when I was in college, I took it to class sometimes as a joke. It had awful heat problems, I had to get the GPU replaced 2-3 times (all under warranty thankfully) and eventually they had to replace the entire thing because the motherboard died and they didn't have any replacements available. Was definitely a conversation starter for the 3 years I had it though. I also loved seeing it in Iron Man (it's on Tony Stark's desk). Lastly, one time when I called Dell to have it repaired the tech told me the only other person he'd ever known to have one worked for NASA, so that was cool. Anyway, that's my quick story about when I used to own one of these.
I wanted this thing so much when it first came out. If they released an updated version of this I'd probably still be interested.
I did as well, I just couldn't justify it as a laptop for school. so i bought an open box macbook pro, then returned it and got a more normal xps dell, then had some buyers remorse with the dell, ultimately returned it and got a newer macbook pro which I used all through university. now i'm a multi-os house. some mac, some windows, some ios, some android.
Basically you're looking for a Surface Studio 2
DIYPerks on YT has made a lot of these, and they're kind of nice. Love his channel.
@@PhilKnudson dell sucks i dont blame you for the buyers remorse, i experienced using them, about 3 or 4 laptops, experienced their pre builts in all schools jve been in, had a dell prebuilt opened it recently and it sucks just as bad as they do now. lenovo does everything better and im literally not touching anything dell/alienware until they do something revolutionary for themselves.
@@PhilKnudson i think we all had a similar situation in some point of our lives
I would love to see a video where Alex and team attempt to make this a modern sleeper while keeping as many core unique components as possible!
Imagine this shell with framework PC components
Yesssssssssssssssss
It would destroy this fantastic machine!
Just keep it as it is!
None of this is old or unusual to me. Does that make me old? My first laptop was a 386
I *really* would love too see what a “money is no object” upgrade is possible with this machine. In it’s day, this was the pinnacle of upgradable laptops. It would be wonderful to see what the best MXM GPU is and try to replace it. Also neat to investigate if SSDs can be put in the internal slot or just run an optane 2.5 inch SSD. The more stupid, the more fun. I believe 1080 MXM GPUs exist. It would be cool AF to try to get that to work here.
Built in dial up modem actually makes a ton of sense on this thing if it was really meant as a portable workstation that may be used out "in the field" alongside equipment using dialup for small data transfers.
The 2010 was my main machine for many years. Dell offered me money to let it finally die so they wouldn't need to keep sending engineers out to fix it. The RAID 1 configured dual drives save my life twice. My fondest memory was Friday night movies when I dragged this thing into my living room. Put it on the coffee table in front of the sofa, watching movies with my gals with popcorn, with the lights turned out. Proper cozy!
Eyyy, sounds pretty nice!
This looks like it would be pretty fun to try and upgrade since it seems like so many of the parts are replaceable. I wonder what the most ballin' version of this thing would look like.
i don't mind using it too, in fact if they could jam a full PC experience into it, i'll be in heaven.
basically you can bring your desktop pc everywhere
Pimp my Dellcamino
I agree. Let's see an upgrade video.
Would be fun! Try finding a 4K BR player, swap in a modern mainboard with an i7 or i9 and beefy cooling, follow it up with twin or triple modern batteries for hugely improved batterylife.
hmm... maybe fitting a minisforum ryzen base mini pc motherboard in there and if there was an available screen on 20" 4k resolution if possible... maybe?
That thing is AWESOME!! Could you imagine what something like that could be nowadays with modern day parts. So cool. More videos of weird tech like this PLEASE!
Watch DIY perks latest video it's sick. He did what you said
Ultimate LAN rig?
After Linus said 17 years later I now feel old. And I’m only 19. I can’t believe windows vista is that old
My friend has this thing in college! 😂 A rich parents gamer boi that one, had his fully specced out and was playing games on it pretty much all the time. He took it to classes on occasion, basically it’s own suitcase with that grab handle, but he still needed a separate bag for the power brick which was a literal brick being so comically large, like 4x the size of anyone else’s charger. It had plenty of issues too! Of course my friend had sprung for Dell’s premium warranty extension service and a tech guy once had to come to our dorms in the middle of nowhere to fix it for him. At some point while still under warranty it broke beyond repair, and since it had been discontinued dell instead replaced it with a more reasonable (lol) 17 inch Alienware gaming laptop.
How did Dell go from this level of repairability to where they're at now? This is incredible
They lost repairability to get them as thin as Macbook because that's "what consumers wanted"
The repairability of their mid 2000s latitudes were insane.
Two screws, replace the sata drive. Want to hot swap the drive bay to a spare battery that fits in the drive slot? No problem. want to swap the main battery to a fresh one? Two tabs and drop a fresh one.
Dell used to design for repairability in the IT department realm. Then the race to the bottom happened for thin and light designs and the fact that they could cheap out on manufacturing parallel to this was another plus.
Edit: and I forgot about the monitor! The display was so easy to replace - flip up the tabs just above the keyboard to get at the display connector, undo the hinge mounts through two screws on each side (back and bottom) and away it comes
@@kady5991 The D800 had the best one: two screws on the bottom to remove the fan. Compared to other laptops where you need to take the thing half apart to clean it's a huge improvement.
thin and light to meet the needs of common businessman in their bags and students in their backpacks.
Even cpus were replacable in old notebooks.
I used to see this laptop at a shop at an extremely high price. I loved how stupid it was I really wanted one. I even looked for it recently but didn't find it anywhere. I had no idea what the model number was and all I knew was it was from Dell. I'm glad there is an LTT video about it ❤
ANYONE: IS THERE A WEBSITE OR ANYWHERE I CAN TYPE IN MY COMPUTER TYPE, THEN IT SEARCHES FOR ALL COMPATIBLE DRIVES SOFTWARW ETC LISTING ALL BRANDS IN ONE APP???? ex: I have a realtek hardware in my computer but I want intel software for wifi. I also have AMD but I want to see if my laptop is compatible with newer versions or other brands. THANKS IN ADVANCED.
@@iowatheother4986 You don't want to use all in one driver software. It's common for them to install incorrect drivers or misconfigure them, making stuff break and also have adware packaged with it. Not sure how to help just letting you know to be careful with those sites since that's what you're looking for. Maybe you're just misunderstanding how drivers work, if you have realtek hardware, you want realtek drivers. Anything else will break...
I think this is actually quite a revolutionary system for its time, it implements futuristic elements and ergonomics with handy features and sleek styling.
As someone who’s looking for a transportable workstation solution, this actually has some appealing features. I’m currently using a laptop and various peripherals and travel monitors, but I love how large the screen is on this thing.
Maybe try the AR tech by the Meta headset
@@Reverae I’ve been looking into AR actually. It sounds like it’ll be the perfect solution in 10 years or so, but at the moment, there are a couple hang ups. The resolution isn’t great for reading lots of text and the pass through cameras aren’t great for actually seeing the letters on the keyboard. That, plus the form factor is a little bulky to keep on your head for long periods. Those are all things that will likely improve as the technology improves though, so I’m def looking forward to what AR is like a few years down the road.
That explains the machined aluminium.
As thin as monitors are nowdays... You could get a dual monitor mounstrosity packed on that format.
Something to thinker about with the Framework guys, perhaps?
good luck finding one
Have you ever considered some kind of interactive museum as part of LTT? You bought some weird tech (huge curved crt monitor...), some you could get as donations (wifi graphics card, passive cooling case...), some things you built (cooling with fire, watercoolled mac...). It would be great to come and try it out.
edit: you could also have row of computers with each of the windows versions for people to try out (starting with DOS). same thing for mac os. you could also have different screen technologies side by side (IPS, LED, plasma, OLED, miniLED, CRT...) playing the same video.
The side-by-side thing would be especially cool at someplace like LTX.
i think a lot of the rigs they have shown are reused, but they could probably pull this off by sinking enough money
if they do this and charge a fee, it could probably give more traction to the company, let sale merch increase if it's on display, and maybe just make money on its own
they would need to sink alot in security though
@@hockypockies that's bad business for a museum in tech. A guided tour of the exhibits would be much more profitable with a gift store for LTT merch. A portion of the space could also be booked out for small tech startups to host events or provide education in technology to those interested in learning. This freemium model would provide working services that induce a fear of missing out on experiences during visits, sentimental value over the experience with items from the gift shop serving as a source of promotion and profits, and a place to feature new businesses LTT and others can profit from. A museum requires a model of passive consumerism to stay afloat if they are to do this at a profit and not a loss.
@@GM-hh2hf ahh i see, i'm not that experienced in that sorta thing, at best my idea was more of a concept. i respect your comment though and theres plenty of ideas to take into consideration!
I really want a modern version of this. Even if it's just a concept idea, I want to see it
I just want to see a modern laptop where they don't put the speakers on the freaking bottom. These '00s laptops had such laughably better sound.
They’d have to shrink the screen down to make it portable… oh wait its called the ultrabook!
Check out the MSI GT Titan line, or the Acer Predator 21X.
@@NormanF62 who cares about portable, when you can have _transportable._
the history of over 20 inch laptops.. remember ASUS ROG Mothership, the 8000euro gaming tablet?
it had 4 speakers in the front because of the tablet design. and unique thermal.
Linus should mod this and put all new hardware in it!
Hey! It was sold as a concept. It came fully loaded with a crazy leather rolling travel case, and the tops presentation remote with built-in display so you could pick songs from your playlist. During the day I used it for business presentations and training new hires using the loud bass speakers and presentation remote, then during the night, I tore up my livingroom night after night, doubling as a DJ computer. I had to have it serviced and the Dell tech who came to service it didn't even know what it was. The first ever computer I financed too, I'm pretty sure I ended up paying 6k but I was perfectly happy. My favorite system ever. Sure, it had problems like the keyboard, and the DVD but the pro's far outweighed the cons. This was around when electronic music exploded thanks to Skrillex. So many people thought my system was absolute cray. Speaking about compensation Linus.. in all fairness, I think you should review a video you made 13 years ago compared to a current one without giggling. Other than this simple indiscretion, still love the show. Just had to comment on this video cuz I loved that system so much. Love the show guys. Just take it easy when reviewing tech from us older people's past lol.
Would love to see a recreation of this with modern specs
The DIY guy who looks like Theon Greyjoy built an awesome triple screen laptop like this.
ruclips.net/video/aUKpY0o5tMo/видео.html
Yeah DIY perks literally made basically this with three screens yesterday, it even has a framework laptop inside it
You could probably make it with an ITX motherboard and undervolted components. Would love to see Alex attempt something like that.
AR.
I'd like to see you guys make this into a sleeper monster machine, i mean, imagine rolling up to an Esports tournament and walking in with this absolute unit.
I have a project going right now to make an eSports all in one for lans and travel and stuff. Laptop ergo is usually horrendous for me. I didn't realize Dell had already(kind of) made one lol
It's not that bad to make in to a sleeper
They would have to destroy it's original internals
@@NaddlyC i mean, why keeping same old aging innards when you can Jerryrigeverything with it?
@@baoquoc3710 yeah I know, would be nice to give it some life but I think it wound be a crime to destroy it, it's a piece of history
I remember picking one of these up in 2009 for like £180. Looking back now I wish I still had it!! They could do a rebuild with modern components inside it :D❤
OLED screen, 4K blu ray drive... Ryzen 7, RTX 4090... hell yes
You could probably build a desktop pc with the same form factor today... Almost tempting XD
i had one and i loved working with it. i love big displays and i had a second 21“ screen attached at the office. also the keyboard was great to type on. i threw mine away last year … fully functional … oops! mainly because that fake leather finish turned into that sticky plastic over the years and it was gross to touch it. it also came with a custom fit laptop bag … with wheels and a retractable handle. a truly unique piece of tec … :)
I worked in a laptop repair role for awhile back in the day and this was probably one of my favorite devices to work on because it was so easy to disassemble lol Great video guys!
I had a tech break one that he couldn't find the release for the panels, we both laughed pretty hard when he figured it out.
6:31 That was a pretty common feature in business notebooks back then. The person using the notebook would have one or more spare batteries inside his bag and to see which one is full, it had a button.
Yeah, exactly. I remember my dad had a specific compartment in his laptop bag just for spare batteries. He worked sales and flew all across the US and Canada with, yes, a Dell notebook.
I appreciate you guys for returning to a much slower editing and talking pace as opposed to the videos you released in Q4 last year. It gives me a room to breathe and mind to think.
I hate the tik-tok ADHD fast paced videos they release now
Yes please. However, this style may be short lived as more and more tik tok viewers convert to youtube
You should have upgraded the ram with 8GB and placed the best CPU compatible for that socket/motherboard. Those old CPU's are SUPER CHEAP and sometime a huge upgrade depending on what's already installed. You could make this into one hell of an emulator PC.
I want to see them do a modern version of this, let's see what they can fit in there nowadays, and I imagine that there are many people (like me) who want the ability to just take their main computer with them if they need to but don't want to be stuck using a laptop
With modern components it should weight a lot less or at least hold enough battery for extended usage. Would love bringing this to a Starbucks 🤣
Agree.
On the topic of laptop sound, you should try and get your hands on a Toshiba X205-S9349. It was marketed as a gaming laptop with it's 17" display and Harmon/Kardon speaker system (with subwoofer!). It would be interesting to see a comparison between the two as they are around about the same era when released.
@@TT-zh4oq why does the number of speakers mean the new Mac book has good sound? I'd be interested to hear it but I've never been impressed by their speakers so far.
I own and love this laptop and bought it brand new. I also bought it with the case and the windows media server RF remote control. When this came out you could get it with the windows media center edition version. This wasn't a laptop, it was definitely a portable desktop and the custom-made case the Dell produced was awesome for travel but no doubt, the whole thing wait a ton. The whole idea was that you could conduct business as well as sit in the hotel and have the screen on the far side of the room and the RF remote that ran the media center or the keyboard right next to you. It also shipped with the video capture device and other dongle based hardware. Everything had a place and pouch to store it and use when needed. I still consider it my favorite laptop I've ever owned I pull it out every now and then to run updates. My only complaint was having to replace the video card a few times which would be amazing to find one that doesn't fry.
Super cool to hear from OG owners of these sorts of unusual devices. It certainly seems like the sort of device that would be perfect for someone with just the right mix of unusual needs.
this thing is in Iron Man 1, where Pepper was copying the secret files
Hey linus, great vid! I bought one of these as a project when I was 11 for about $200, really glad to see them getting publicity. Id absolutely love to help you with the drivers and tell you a bit more about it if you like! I also have an acer 9800, the 2nd biggest laptop ever made (also 20 inches)
They found the pair button on the computer. And Linus just paired the keyboard to his phone. AND Linus was gaming on the keyboard at the end of the vid. But I envy you for having these cool things. Now I am starting to want to make something similar myself (probably with ITX motherboard, bare IPS panel and a huge 12V UPS)
@@yuxuanhuang3523 sorry, didnt finish the vid. Thats goof to hear. There are a few things that I could help them with, like the drivers, that Id love to talk to them about as ive owned mine for 6 years now
@@yuxuanhuang3523 also dont envy me, this thing broke so many times and was an absolute nightmare to deal with. Still love it though
@@LWonderchild Is it upgradeable? new gpu cpu?
@@connectionsst171 there are probably space inside to also fit a framework motherboard :P
Always been a huge fan but you guys gained even more of my respect when y'all replaced my buddies screw driver after he lost it in a house fire. That's some true customer care and values from you guys💯
For $70 it better include some insurance! Jk but that is very nice of them 💯
why did that do it
This. Was. Amazing. Did not feel like 27 minutes at all. More stuff like this please, I adored it
Same
LTT and Fawlty Towers was not the crossover that I was expecting.
I remember lusting after this machine after Maximum PC reviewed it in their honest-to-goodness paperback magazine oh so many years ago. Awesome to finally see it come to life through video, guys!
Oh man I remember Maximum PC!
This brings back memories from repairing Dell laptops back in 2010 when I worked in my college IT department. We had lots of older Latitude D620 and D820 laptops from the mid 00's with very similar big chunky daughter boards. I'm not certain but I bet that top cover is probably a powder cast magnesium alloy. Dell started using that in their higher end latitude models in the late 00's and my college laptop was a Latitude E6400 with a magnesium allow case from 2009.
yes, its die casted mangnesium. IBM uses this tech nearly forever in the high end thinkpads.
Linus' historical knowledge of past computer parts is so impressive to me. All Alex had to say was "x1800" and Linus was able to remember the card in only a few seconds.
You didn't? I did lol but I also am Linus' age
@@blankname8553 No I don't really have any desire or need to remember stuff like that
@@christopherrichardd That's fair. I deal with computer hardware on a daily basis and have a lot of older equipment so it's not information archived in the back with cobwebs 🤣
Well, it’s his job…
I was really into building computers around that time. I definitely recalled that card. I had a X800XT. That was around the time ATI was kicking Nvidia's ass, before AMD bought them.
2006 Dells are surprisingly survivable. I got a hand-me-down Inspiron 6000, still have it, still works to this day. I even used it for college a few years ago (still in college right now, btw). It ran really slow, like type a sentence in Word, go get a cup of water, and come back and see it just start to spell out your sentence letter-by-letter slow. One time, it even took a literal hour to open PowerPoint. So I opened it up, and found out *the factory never put thermal paste on the CPU* and it was still running! The die had burn marks! Little dab of thermal paste, and it ran like new. Old game consoles from that time also lacked thermal paste, so if you're repairing them, check on that.
I loved this review! I actually had one of these in my old job and got to use it for a few months. It was an amazing machine when it came out and absolutely hilarious to carry around! One of my coworkers saw it and convinced my boss to let him take it home because he was "having health issues", he retired a few months later and I never saw this amazing machine again. Definately one of the coolest "portable" workstations I've ever used! Thank you for the trip down memory lane!
the comparisons they kept making to modern laptops was astounding. probably the most interesting part of the video, IMO. but what kept sending me back through time was how linus kept remembering how someone else's display always looked better. I remember how this felt back in the early 2000's
Definitely in part due to glossy being king when it comes to display clarity!
And in 2023 I still can't find a good glossy 27" 2560x1440 display to replace my old dying one. It's infuriating.
Note: comparing a 2023 laptop to this thing is like comparing this thing to a i486 computer. Hell, a laptop released in 1989/1990 didn't have fucking Windows
@@ChaplainDMK Keep in mind the comparisons were not for it to be a race. I'm actually incredibly impressed with it's performance compared to the modern laptop. My PC from 2008 wouldn't keep up with it lol
I found the comparisons annoying, to be honest. It felt like they were stating the obvious by going "ohmahgawd, look how this old piece of tech is less powerful/efficient/capable/... than modern-day tech". No shit, Sherlock, of course it got its ass handed to it by modern tech, it's over 15 years old.
The video content (the laptop, the hardware, the disassembly,...) was very interesting, but the comparisons just plain sucked.
And that plastic talk, god damn... How middle-class can someone be to act so shocked at old matte plastic leaking glue and getting sticky?
2 years of effort? Worth it for that chungus.
Amongus
Well, I presume this wasn't working hours ;)
what in god's green hell is that profile pic
@@NICK.... *amogus*
Honestly unpopular opinion here: this might one of the best design I ever seen. You even seen those ports? The full desktop keyboard can be detach from the computer? The screen hovering? Holy shit I’m in love.
It looks incredible. Definitely something I would legitimately buy if I had the money to. DELL were MAD to create such a masterpiece.
No literally just found out abt this machine and im OBSESSED id sell a kidney to get my hands on one of these... I so wish theyd bring that back its such a unique and cool machine
This is by far the best video you guys have done on your main channel in a while imo. Something about when you guys review old tech brings me back to the old days!
A workstation and a workout in one design 💪
OH ITS DELL!!
One year, without any replies!
And it's dell itself!
Yep dell that is true
The microphone is a HUGE upgrade from your studio's microphones! You should use it more often! Keep it up guys can't wait for the next one!
I loved this! I purchased the DEL M2010 new back in 2007 and ordered it with every option Dell offered including the remote and suitcase! If memory serves me correctly, I paid about $7000 back then for it. I used it for two years then put it on a shelf with other relics from my past. I still have it and it still works.
Oh, you gotta do the HP HDX Dragon next. It was even bigger, and packed a beefy GPU for the time (8800GTS) but was aimed to be a combination desktop replacement and entertainment center. It also had a build in remote control, and I don't mean that dinky little card remote - it had a full on remote control indent on the body to hold it.
I may or may not own 3...
I have one too! Can't bring myself to toss it.
That is amazing! Id love one to complete my collection of the 3 big early 2000s 20 inch laptops - i have an M2010 and an acer 9800. Sidenote - the HDX wasnt even bigger, the M2010 was the largest and heaviest of the 3, while the HDX was the lightest. If you are ever selling me one let me know!
What would it take for you to loan one and send it over to LMG 😂
I finally threw away my HDX Dragon about a year ago. It was very hard to get rid of, what an amazing machine.
How do you have three of them? lol
This thing is sick! I would love to see an LTT style modified one. Maybe use a framework main board with modern components in this crazy chassis!
I had one of those a while back, it was an absolutely awesome thing! shame the graphics cards are so prone to dieing :/ it would be cool if someone could put a little micro pc in the case to revive one!
The smallest kid in my 9th grade class brought one of these to school one day. It was hilarious seeing him carry this thing and struggle to keep it from dragging on the ground. He got made fun of about his giant laptop so he never brought it again.
I worked for Dell just as these were being discontinued. During training, we'd regularly have UT2k4 tournements and I always grabbed this computer off the shelf. Sure, it was the slowest of the bunch, but that screen, and the subwoofer... I wanted one so badly.
That top metal panel is probably injection moulded magnesium, or possibly aluminium. This was a common choice for the frame of laptops in ~2000, where the primary concern was being stiff enough whilst also providing enough space for the huge components.
Yep it's magnesium, as in other business notebooks from this era.
Yeah my old Dell Studio 1537 has a similar inside chassis and it’s definitely metal, but not aluminum. Magnesium should be spot on
Definitely magnesium. A lot more brittle (and combustible) than aluminium, but very lightweight and Dell (and Alienware) were using it at the time. I have an Alienware M15x from 2010 (though the model launched in 2009) which is a Magnesium shell and frame.
You can see the "Mg" magnesium recycling mark in the video close to where the stickers are. My 2009 Dell Precision M4400 was the same. Agreed also cast rather than being machined, so not all that expensive.
I remember seeing this on Dell's website back in the day when I was ordering my Inspiron 1525. I still think it looks cool lol.
You guys should retro fit it with a Framework motherboard etc.
These things are rare so retrofitting a fully working one is a bad idea. It would be cool if they find one that's internally damaged and retrofit that
well these are sooo rare everybody can copy the design but not the hardware better try on a beyond repair one
Gotta cram a 4090 in it
I actually got to use one when I was about 10 years old! I went to a small film club mostly aimed at kids, and one day I go and they bring this bad boi out. I have to say I was EXTREMELY impressed haha to me it was the coolest thing ever, briefcase laptop
Watch the new diy perks video
My friend's dad gave me a old Inspiron, which I ended up upgrading and putting an i7 620m, and the old dell service manuals are really well documented and detailed
I love doing upgrades to old hardware. Personally, I'd like to see a Core2Quad, ssd, and as much sodimm memory as possible!
Yeah, i'd love to see them upgrade this thing as much as possible and maybe try to find the rest of it's components.
It seems like a really cool computer, even now!
That's actually a really cool design. Throw in some modern hardware and this would be a cool LAN machine as well. Just look at other custom transportable diy projects for AiO PCs. There probably is more of a market for something like this today then there was back then.
Exactly. The same people (me) who want to buy a thick 17” desktop replacement laptop would absolute by something like this too. I basically want an all in one that is portable (or transportable as the video said).
People keep mentioning this LAN parties, but are those even actually a thing this days? When anyone last time been on one of those?
@@nelapsi. i am going to one in 3 weeks
I actually really like the formfactor for my laptop use cases personally
LTX is coming up in a couple months
16:53 Those speakers are legit. No need for Harman Kardon or B&O tuning or anything, the speakers wiped the floor clean. Even the Macbook lost.
@@aliffsuhaimi1466 I did not expect that 😯😯
I remember back in the DVD burning days, I had a shiny red dell laptop that had a 40GB hard drive. That was only enough for a few 1080p movies. Ahhh, the good ol days.
I started working at Dell in 2011. During my new hire training, we had one of these in the lab and since then I have a thing for unnecessarily large and powerful portable computers. That's one of the reasons why I bought a Toshiba T3200SX. The second reason was the orange plasma screen. I'd still love to find an XPS M2010 though.
I was in Dell's XPS Support team when these were around. I know they were buggy and had weird issues with the DVD drive but I still have a soft spot for weird systems like these.
A Toshiba T3200SX was my first PC, a hand-me-down from my dad. That screen was so funky.
@@richardcoghlan7362 I was in the Alienware support team for UK, Ireland and South Africa :)
Man, this takes me back to my dad’s old Toshiba laptop; 18lbs, 2” thick. Truly amazing history - please make more of these!
17:01 - When the benchmark more modern laptops is completely destroyed by the old sleeper.
a parent of a friend had one of these growing up, they used it for their jewlery business and would bring it with them to trade shows
Holy crap you unlocked a memory for me. I had around the same period this crappy Acer laptop with a sadly onboard Nvidia gpu (the ones that had a recall in 07 or 08) and it had similar stuff, you could swap the cpu very easily and it was EXACTLY the same chip mechanism. I really wish we could still do that with laptops.
socketable laptop cpus lived until intel core 4th gen, I have a gaming laptop from that era with socketable cpu and mxm upgradeable video card
unfortunately a couple extra mm of thickness became unacceptable for most devices and the highest end stuff where it doesn't matter got desktop CPUs
I mean there are Laptops with swappable desktop CPU's.
Maybe framework has got something you'd like?
I want to see that interposer thing from Dell's new memory card tech get used for socketable laptop CPUs.
@@dr.kukary8373even with frameworks the entire motherboard needs to be swapped
This thing was amazing! Ahhhh seeing vista again was a vibe. 2006 was around the time I last saw it. When i was fiddling around downloading any and everything to make XP look like vista or trying to make a separate partition..Even though my basic home edition Dell could CERTAINTLY not handle Vista.
Owned one of these units. The major drawback for me was the ATI video card and was not compatible with several of the games that was release around late ’06 early ’07 timeframe due to ATI drivers not being updated that often. The case was $250 US and zipped up around the laptop and the hinge on the back side of the screen was used as the carrying handle. Finally ended up giving the laptop away to Salvation Army because the graphics card could not be replaced/upgraded.
Dude. This would be perfect in my line of work. Sometimes I'm in a lab van and want a large screen but can't have clutter.
I remember this came out a year after I started college and probably would have bought this to game on if it weren’t for its insane cost and the fact I already had bought an already chonky Inspiron 9300 in 2005 (I still have it in a closet somewhere). I almost never took my laptop to class, so it wouldn’t have gone anywhere much anyways. The 9300 had a similar subwoofer, but it had a slightly better battery life of a whopping 4 hours (if you were judicious). Great to see you snagged one of these, I remember how insane these things were and was always curious about it. God, I feel old now.
The great grandfather of mobile workstations.
I really like this semi-business bag design. It's almost like the Pelican Case PC, but with Dell's fingerprint all over.
My 14” ultrabook dual core processor mobile workstation is much lighter and more powerful.
Yeah but the M2010 is like, literally Core 2 Duo era.
If you are a big boy engineer/businessman with like, 3D models and/or mathmatical models, you can just lug this around the world, plonk this on the table, and give your demonstration.
My 1st job was as a salesman for Dell in '06. I thought the laptop was awesome & my largest sale was one. Sold it to a guy, no joke, in a white tank top, gold chain, and 2 women on his arms. He laughed when I said he could get it financed for 30% APR. His CC was well under that.
I've just had to wipe a load or drool of my smartphone screen.
I seriously want an updated version of this.
18:21: "Why don't we open it up?"
*A new journey is about to begin*
Perfect!
I was on the fence of buying one of these back in 2007. I ended up with the XPS M1730 with SLI instead. It was damn near as impractical but at least it fit into a bag.
I had a used M1710 back in 2012. I think it was SLI GTX 7950s? I loved that laptop and how cool it looked with the RGB lights. Always wanted the M1730
@@Jimmy-6300 I loved mine but man it was a buggy mess lol.
This should proof to us, that an older Soundsystem doesn't necessarily need to be renewed if it was built somewhat properly in the beginning.
Love it!
sound has been a solved technology in speaker form for the better part of 60 years now, headphones for the better part of 30 years, iems are honestly the only place innovation really happens, everything else is just kind of how to cut costs while maintaining quality.
"Good speakers stay good." Pods, Dank.
yeah fr i have an Atlantic Technology system paired to some sort of Denon receiver, from the 90s and 2000s respectively, and i don't think I'll ever get rid of it. it's perfect.
I use some quality late 70s headphones to watch most of my RUclips and music. I payed 4 dollars for them and I compared them to modern 80$ high end headphones and they sound the same. We figured out high quality sound a long time ago
@@alidan Yep. And the greatest headphones of all time were made in the 80's (Sony MDR-R10). They discontinued them a long time ago, though, because they were too expensive to make. Used ones go for no less than $10,000 these days
That is a computer that I'd totally love to upgrade and daily drive. Checks off all my boxes and boxes I didn't know I wanted.
Looking at how impractical and bulky this is yet interesting. I feel like an updated one would be cool and rather easy to put together, especially 3rd party due to 3-d printing being easily available to the public
I think the biggest problem is getting a large but light screen. I just don't think they exist.
Would be cool if someone put a framework laptop motherboard in one of these.
@@larsolav this is such a genius idea tbh
@@larsolav Like @DIY Perks?
@@dageshi just use a slim desktop screen. they're slimmer with the plastics on them than the screen on this anyway.
Windows Vista, now that’s an OS I haven’t seen in a long time. Still, I’m not sure I could imagine carrying that around.
well to be fair you wouldn't treat it like a laptop
@@NonsensicalSpudz yeah its no less than a transportable pc
Bro why did u accidentaly comment the same comment 40 mins ago with a girl scammer account
@@redsed1925 welcome to youtube my friend, bots are now copying semi-popular comments and liking other bots' posts so that they are higher up in the comment section
@@redsed1925 Something similar happened to me not too long ago, where a scammer copied my comment and used other bots to push themselves further up the algorithm.
Best LTT video in a while, love these nostalgia trips. 😀
I used to have a compaq laptop and the upgrade batteries for it had capacity indicators on them because, among me and my peers anyway, having multiple batteries back then was pretty common and chargers that could charge your battery external to the laptop were a thing I remember a few of us having too lol. Treating your laptop like a power tool "yeah AFK I gotta change my battery" lmao
I totally forgot this thing existed. I worked in IT at a research lab when this thing was released and they had a contract with Dell.
So of course one of the nutty tech loving professors/department heads ordered one. Everyone in the office had to come over and look at it when it was delivered because it was such an insane thing back then. I should really look into maybe acquiring one.
I knew a guy who had one of these when I was in college. Also knew another person who had the HP equivalent, which wasn't as crazy, but was still pretty wild.
the hp hdx dragon.
Oh, that guy might have commented too. Read about a guy who used this in college just a minute ago.
I love this... With today's tech I sure as hell would buy this.
Very few people use their laptop on their lap, and many professional designers, photographers, etc. are currently lugging around tons of extra equipment just to make their mobile setup feel more comfy (e.g secondary displays, mice, audio equipment, etc)... this just makes sense. Plus, it's so much more ergonomic than tilting your head down to look at a laptop on a desk, and the detachable keyboard is awesome.
It's just the size of a damn briefcase, and today this kind of setup can be far lighter.
This NEEDS a Frameworks collab so they can make a full custom rebuild for this bad boy. Also a video of Linus taking this out to the streets to a coffee shop and playing CoD