A few recommendations:
1) Price the same Dell configuration between their Home Office and Small Business stores, they both offer different specials. Get whichever gives you the most bang for your buck. For me that's usually Small Business since OR has no sales tax. If you're a state which charges sales tax it appears Dell Home Office may offer the best deal. Don't forget to use the $50 off coupon (search Google.com for Dell.com coupon codes - trust me you'll find it)
2) Since you're investing a lot of money into your laptop, I'd recommend upgrading to at least:
3Yr Ltd. Warranty- 3Yrs Mail-In Service + 3Yrs Phone Support
3) Get the 8X Max Variable DVD drive. You already have a desktop machine, right? It would be more advantageous to buy a cheap $50 24x CD-RW drive for your desktop and burn CD's there instead of burning them on your laptop. Besides wouldn't you rather watch movies on long trips? I think the combo DVD/CD-RW drive is nice but only if you have money to throw away.
4) Don't forget to buy the Notebook Surge Protector ($30 - click CONTINUE) to protect your laptop.
5) Definitely get an additional battery, make sure they are both 59 WHr
LI-ION 2nd Primary Battery
Here's what I would get:
Dell Inspiron 8100 Notebooks: Special! Take $50 OFF! Intel® PIII 1 GHz-M 15in UXGA Display, you pay P100UHX [461-3236]
Memory: Special! 256MB,SDRAM,2DIMM,for the price of 128MB,SDRAM,2DIMM 256M2DD [461-6894]
Video Card: 64MB 4X AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 M764MB [320-0159]
Primary Hard Drive: 20GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive 20GB [340-3074]
Floppy Drive: Modular Floppy Drive FD [340-6353]
Operating System Software: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition WHXP [313-0837] [420-0271]
Modem: 10/100 + 56K Capable V.90 NIC/Modem, Internal Mini-PCI PCI1010 [313-9795]
Fixed CD/DVD Drives: 8X Max Variable DVD 8XDVD [313-0833] [313-8109]
Bundled Software: Microsoft®Works Suite 2002 with Money 2002 Standard IWORKS [412-0134]
Norton Antivirus®: Norton Antivirus® 2002, 90-day introductory offer NAV2002 [412-5623]
Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MusicMatch 6.0 for XP JUKEXP [412-3809]
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 1Yr Ltd. Warranty- 1Yr Mail-In Service + 1Yr Phone Support SI111RR [902-0070] [950-3337] [950-9057]
Internet Access Options: 6 Months of America Online Membership Included AOLDHSX [412-3887]
Digital Imaging Software: Image Expert®2000 for XP,Dell Edition DPSXP [412-3807]
Power Protection: Notebook Surge Protector NBSURGE [114242]
Additional Battery: LI-ION 2nd Primary Battery LIION [312-0030]
$1,786 base price as configured above
-$50 off Dell Inspiron 8100 coupon
-2% off if you order through eBates.com
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$1,701.28