Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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crosscourt
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Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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Just did a trade with a friend of mine who wanted a Dell SFF and had a Dell 3330 to trade. We swapped devices and it should be here late next week.
1.5ghz i3 cpu, 4gb of ram and a 500gb hard drive. Nice design as it has a single access door that allows you to reach the ram(2 slots), hard drive and CMOS battery. 13.3 inch size, nice selection of ports and its fabrication date was July of 2014. Ill increase ram to 8gb, add a 240gb SSD and update the bios. Its an ultrabook style with no dvd drive but does have an SD card slot. Will probably end up using it as my work laptop as the really heavy E6420 has become less attractive. Once I was able to purchase some of the ultrabooks like the 7470/7370/7270 you realize just how heavy the 6420/6440 are and frankly thats not what I want. My wife loves the 7370 and I go back and forth between my Chromebook and the 7270.
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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Just finished setting it up. Installed Win10, went to 8gb of ram, added a SSD and updated the bios. Unit is in excellent condition but has the loose lcd hinge issue but thankfully not bad enough to deal with just yet. Hinge replacement on these is a bit of a pain so Ill see how it goes.
Speed of the system is excellent given its a Sandy Bridge i3 1.5ghz cpu. Ill run some more tests including internet speed and and post back.
Battery is in excellent condition which is a rarity these days with used laptops.
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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Was going to replace the wifi card to a faster one but the design of this laptop doesnt lend itself to an easy replacement. Thats always the problem with low end consumer model laptops vs the business models. They figure no one will really care.
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

Post by tlmiller »

Why do you say that? I remember replacing them, they're pretty easy that I remember, pop off the keyboard, pop off the lower plastics, remove the upper plastics (handwrest/keyboard bezel), and it's right there. Basically identical to the old D-series replacements. Am I remembering a different model?
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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The E64xx series you dont have to do much at all as its sitting right there in the same area as the ram. When you buy used laptops, particularly older ones there can be issues with plastic tabs and parts that arent in the best of condition. The ribbon cable in one of my older laptops had a major issue and I really didnt want to spend the cash to fix it as it wasnt worth it. I ruined my Vostro V131 trying to change a wifi card as multiple parts cracked(even though I was trying to use a light touch) and it wouldnt stay together any longer.
As I said parts like the wifi card should be in a place where they can be replaced more easily, safely and quickly.
Love the design of my 7470 and similar laptops as its a snap to replace parts.
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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Ended up using my Panda USB wifi device and more than doubled the speed. Went from 27-30mbps to 60-65 mbps. Much easier than ripping the laptop open only to find stray issues that might not be solved. Generally when Im out and about I rarely get more than 25mbps anyway even with my devices that capable of more speed. Win10 recognizes a wide array of USB wifi devices without me having to install drivers. In this regard Win10 is a lot easier to use with wifi devices versus Linux.
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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Will try an AC wifi dual band adapter once I get it back from a friend of mine to see if the speeds improve further.
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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AC USB adapter just came so Ill post back once I test it.
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Re: Dell Latitude 3330 laptop

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Just tested the AC wifi USB adapter and got 120mbps versus 27mbps with the original wifi adapter. Very pleased as it will make this laptop a lot easier to use on the go.
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