Dell 6000 vs 510m

raj75

Has anyone got Dell Inspiron 6000?. I am little confused whether to go for 6000 or 510m.
While looking at the product views for 6000, it doesn't seem to have all the port as in 510m, such as

Fast IR (Infrared): sensor compatible with IrDA Standard 1.1 (Fast IR) and IrDA Standard 1.0 (Slow IR)
Parallel port: 25-hole connector
Serial : 9-pin connector

How important are these ports?

-TangleFoot-

Not very important at all; these days they're almost never used. Serial ports are for old mice, keyboards or modems, whilst parallel ports are for old printers.

Infra-red is of little use at all, even with older equipment. The only possible use I could imagine for it is to connect to an IrDa-compatible mobile phone, perhaps for making internet connections on-the-move. That would be prohibitively expensive though.

Most modern keyboards and mice connect to the computer via a PS/2 port, whilst the rest, and indeed, practically all other external peripherals, connect via either USB or Firewire. So, unless you've got some relatively ancient computer equipment lying around that you still want to use, you'll almost certainly never need a system with those almost-but-not-quite obsolete ports.

raj75

-TangleFoot- wrote:

Not very important at all; these days they're almost never used. Serial ports are for old mice, keyboards or modems, whilst

Thanks,

Could you also tell me what NON-POWERED USB Connector means.
Does it mean, I can't connect Web-Cam (or) Digital Camera which requires power from the Laptop.

In Inspiron 6000 specs http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_6000?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=specstab#tabtop, it is mentioned the connectors are non-powered.

-TangleFoot-

raj75 wrote:

Does it mean, I can't connect Web-Cam (or) Digital Camera which requires power from the Laptop

Not at all; it just means that the ports don't supply enough juice to power multiple devices reliably.

Whilst some USB peripherals require so little power that their electrical needs are amply accommodated by the port they're plugged into, others are a little more energy-intensive. The latter however usually have their own power supplied by other means, such as a mains socket or battery.