The Inspirons have the bias voltage to power the mic so it should work. I have 2 mics from Sound Professionals and am satisfied with them. Mine are stereo mics that I use with a minidisk recorder. These mics are very sensitive and can pick up sound from all over the room.

Jim

Here's a really, really cheap version--may be fine for casual use, though I wouldn't rely on it for speech recognition. (I've ordered one--for $2.50 shipped, on special, so why not?--but have not received it yet.)

http://www.axshop.com/details.aspx/sku-1075/

The mic looks like an interesting option, definitely not a big investment.  The one I was looking at above is unidirectional so I am hoping that it won't  pick up as much of the surrounding noise and with the right angle design you can direct it towards yourself.

I'm sure there are other good options out there.  Anyone have any experience with other options?

Curt:smileyhappy:

It seems like a worth while experiment particularly with the minimum investment.  I'll be waiting for your opinions on how it works.  I guess you could always use a stereo extension cable to direct the mic more towards you too.

Somehow I think the $90 microphone will turn out to be significantly higher quality. ;)

They do have some other PC/notebook microphones on their homepage now, though--may be worth checking those out. That said, I'd presume none of them would be as good and what you're considering. OTOH, they are but a tiny, tiny fraction of the price. :)