can you beat this deal?

[papaschtroumpf]

My kid's high school has a program where they required students to purchase a laptop for classwork, they bring it into class. 5GHz Eifi (802.11a) is a requirement unfortunately (makes sense to achieve coverage density required when every student uses their laptop at once).

It's been very difficult to find a cheap laptop with 5GHz Wi-Fi. The model from Dell below can be ordered with a 802.11a compatible card but for a price of $499 (price gouge!)

http://www.dell.com/us/k-12/p/vostro-1440/pd?layoutvariation=MasterPageFileVariation2

Is there any similar/better deal around?

specs must include:
- 802.11a compatibe Wi-Fi
- 2G RAM min
- external VGA output
- built in webcam highly preferred
- decent battery life


I do *not* want an external 802.11a adapter, we're talking highschool kids carrying their laptop in their backpack, external adapters will get snapped off or lost.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Wow, it's $100 just to upgrade the wifi card? Geez.

What's your budget?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Could you get the Vostro w/o the wifi card you want and just replace it with an off-the-shelf MiniPCI-E component?

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-802-11n-.../dp/B0036BJN12

I mean, that'd work with pretty much any laptop. Provided it's internal wifi is PCI-E.

 

[papaschtroumpf]

hmm, not sure how to check if it's internal PCI-E but definitely an option to consider.

I'd like to keep the budget in the $500 range, preferably under, I don't want to be out too much money if the kid drops/losses the laptop.

Is the Dell extended protection any good? will it truly replace it if you drop it, etc...? might be worth the extra $50.

 

[papaschtroumpf]

do the PCI-E upgrade cards require multiple external antennas (one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz)? if so wouldn;t I have a problem where the laptop would have only one wi-fi antenna built in?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

hmm, not sure how to check if it's internal PCI-E but definitely an option to consider.

I'd like to keep the budget in the $500 range, preferably under, I don't want to be out too much money if the kid drops/losses the laptop.

Is the Dell extended protection any good? will it truly replace it if you drop it, etc...? might be worth the extra $50.

Google says the Vostro 1440 uses an internal mPCI-E.

Dell is one of the only companies that offers user-abuse (accidental damage, if you want to be PC) insurance. Check with your homeowners policy too. But those are basically your choices.

Being used in a school, I would say yes, get the extra coverage. Your homeowners policy may also cover things like theft though. (Accidental damage and theft are the two big laptop killers in schools, in my experience.)

Your other option if you're willing to tinker in the things guts a bit is to get a used/refurb through Dell Financial Services Factory Refurb store. (all offlease stuff.)

dfsdirectsales.com

A D630 is a largeish laptop, but it's a brick. They last forever, and they have internal Mini-PCI-E. So you could get one, add some RAM, buy a second battery, upgrade the Wifi card, and still be well inside your budget.

 

[DaveSimmons]

What about adding a USB wifi adapter to some other laptop? $400 laptop + $60 adapter?

$60 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122459
$38 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833168044
$45 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156321
....

 

[paperwastage]

keep in mind that some manufacturers (i remember HP and toshiba) whitelist their mPCIe slots for wifi cards, so you can't just grab a 3rd party brand mPCIe wifi card to work

do some searching to ensure that the laptop you buy and wifi card are compatible

 

[AlexAL]

Just throwing this out there without even a google, but:

Expresscard wifi?

 

[Selenium_Glow]

hmm, not sure how to check if it's internal PCI-E but definitely an option to consider.

I'd like to keep the budget in the $500 range, preferably under, I don't want to be out too much money if the kid drops/losses the laptop.

Is the Dell extended protection any good? will it truly replace it if you drop it, etc...? might be worth the extra $50.

Dell Extended protection is actually good. When I was still in college, Dell was "the brand of laptops to get" because of this. Boys had their whole screens replaced because they cracked it (dropped from the hand, bus, hit by a cricket ball), whole mother boards replaced (spilled beer), keyboard (burned because of cigarettes, spilled beer, damaged keys due to rough use), and speakers (spilled beer, dropped from a bus).

Also, the slot DVD drives in my friend's Dell Studio 15 was replaced every 3 months by Dell support. He even had his "Designer Lid" changed because some drunk guy put scratches on it.

BTW, all this happened in India. Dunno about this level of support in your country, but it shouldn't be any different.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

What about adding a USB wifi adapter to some other laptop? $400 laptop + $60 adapter?

$60 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122459
$38 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833168044
$45 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833156321
....

I do *not* want an external 802.11a adapter, we're talking highschool kids carrying their laptop in their backpack, external adapters will get snapped off or lost.

I have a hard time believing they're not going to have a lot of kids showing up with a 2.4 GHz card.

Did the school have any model recommendations?

 

[sm625]

There is no way that school is going to get every student to show up with a notebook that contains a wifi card that is above and beyond the typical wifi card that comes with any notebook that you'd buy from Best Buy. No way jose. If you bring a 802.11b/g/n notebook in there it is surely going to work. Government training camps are run by ridiculously stupid people, but they cannot possibly be that stupid. They are just hoping to get most at 5GHz so they wont run into problems.

 

[papaschtroumpf]

I'm a wireless professional and understand the technical constraints. the school also has 2.4GHz coverage but you can only have 3 overlapping channels and they're pretty slow so you have too many people sharing the bandwidth, it will mostly work but will be slow and can have connection dropping off often.


the school does have recommendations, the vostro listed above (with the $100 premium for the upgrade of the wireless card) or a Samsung 5 that is twice expensive, or a macbook that is 3 times as expensive.

I think I'm going to go the dell route (either this vostro or something similar) and upgrade the wireless myself