Help me decide on a Dell laptop

[SmackdownHotel]

Hey guys, I'm headed to medical school soon and I'm a first-time laptop buyer. I've got a Dell GC so I wanted to shop there. I've been looking at the Inspiron 9300 and 6000, but the former seems a little too big to lug around campus. Im looking for something in the ~$1000 range, dunno how much gaming or multi-media I'll be doing but for the money I'd like something with some "umph." I don't mind if it's a little on the large side since this is going to be my primary computer in all aspects AND I don't know how many times a week I'll take it to school.

 

[fbrdphreak]

An Inspiron 6000 sounds about right for you.
The only possible problem is gaming: do you intend to game on it?

If not, here is what I came up with. For $1911 before coupon:
Pentium M 2GHz
WUXGA screen
256MB RAM
40GB HDD
3 year warranty w/accidental damage coverage
DVDRW
64MB X300
Intel b/g wifi
6-cell & 9-cell battery

Wait for one of those $750 off $1899 purchase coupons and BAM, you've got one kickass laptop. Put in either $50 for 512MB or $100 for 1GB of aftermarket memory and if you want, a diff hard drive. I selected the base drive here 'cuz all the drives they offer (other than the 60GB 7200RPM) are 4200RPM and dirt slow. I would put in a 60-80GB 5400RPM personally. If you don't much care, you could always up the hard drive and take away from something else in the config.
Also, they usually offer coupons for less amount off a smaller purchase, which might get you closer to your $1000; but this is ONE helluva machine w/a 3 year cover everything warranty w/on-site service :Q

 

[microAmp]

I agrfee with fbrdphreak that the 6000 sounds what you would like.

Hot Deal
right now Dell has a $750 off on $1799 laptop. You could congfigure a $1800 laptop, use the Dell Prefered Card (easy to sign up) and get an instant $750 rebate off it. Laptop would cost you about $1100. $100 over your budget.

Only problem with that deal, it expires TODAY! 6/15

If you can't order today and can wait a bit, Dell might have another $750 off $1500 laptops again, but need to keep an eye out in the Hot Deals section. They usually start at 8:00AM CST/9:00 EST and limited to 10,000 laptops. When I jumped on the deal, it sold out in 1-2 hours time.

June 7th was the last time they ran a $750 off $1500 laptops.

 

[Laughter]

Hi Guys!

Hope that the codes below might be helpful. ~Laughter


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Use link above and configure any laptop. Apply Dell coupons below in cart at checkout (only one per order).
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$750 Off $1,899 or more Dell Coupon: 1$RM$82?PZZT26 - Expires: 6.16.05 (7 AM EST)
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Up to 25% Off Laptops Dell Coupon: Activate Offer - Expires: 6.16.05 (7:00 AM EST)
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[microAmp]

Laughter, coupon codes aren't allowed on this site, FYI. You need to edit your post to remove them

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: microAmp
Laughter, coupon codes aren't allowed on this site, FYI. You need to edit your post to remove them

Thank you for the thought in posting them though

 

[SmackdownHotel]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I was close to ordering that 6000, but I actually checked and our school (Ohio State) is providing us with Thinkpad T43s at a discount.

https://www-03.ibm.com/lenovo/shop/...s.cfm?category=7607&featured_display=Template

 

[trikster2]

Originally posted by: SmackdownHotel
Thanks for all the advice, guys. I was close to ordering that 6000, but I actually checked and our school (Ohio State) is providing us with Thinkpad T43s at a discount.

https://www-03.ibm.com/lenovo/shop/personalpages/public/public/search/dsp_product_features.cfm?category=7607&featured_display=Template

With the exception of the price (double what you stated you are looking for) the T43 on the site you are linking(1871C1U) to would be a good fit for your requirements. While some schools have great discounts, if that is the price they are charing you ($2279) it's nothing special. I would not base my decision on that "bargain".

Do they have any other models? The 1871C1U is even weaker on the graphics than your average thinkpad. If you are not into modern games its not an issue and the battery life and portability should outweigh those factors, plus if you are in med school you don't have time for games anyway.

If you are doing a lot of papers either the T43 series, or anything else that can do DVI (such as the dell 9300 or lattitude series) are a great option. For $250 or so you can get a decent DVI LCD 19" monitor, put that in portrait mode expanding your desktop and you have a great research paper writing environment.

All that said the school pricing provided in the link you gave is really not that great.

Froogle shows just about everyplace carrying that model for the same price or lower than your school

http://www.google.com/froogle?q=1871C1U&btnG=Search+Froogle

The forums at www.thinkpads.com are a great resource of information on thinkpads, buying them and the care and feeding of them. Give them a once over before jumping in.

You probably already know this but IBM sold the thinkpads to a chinese company called lenovno. They've announced that they will make thinkpads profitable in the near future. Hopefully they can do that without cutting corners that effect the end user....

***** If you know anyone working for IBM the EPP pricing is about the best deal you can get 35% off some models 20% off others.

IF you still want to use the dell GC and you have upped your price to $2000 look at the dell business line, the lattitudes. Solid as a rock and decent performance. The Dell D810 would be the same size as the 6000, but it can do DVI, and has faster graphics if you need that sort of thing. The Lattitude D610 would be similar to the 14" T43 you list. Your school should have access to the dell EPP program which has frequent discounts and a standard 12% off (w. 3+ year waranty) that stacks on top of other discounts.

Whatever you get: Good luck!

 

[fbrdphreak]

I really hope you are not paying $2279 for THAT notebook:
- IBM ThinkPad T43 1871
- Pentium M 750 1.86 GHz
- Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
- RAM 512 MB
- HD 40 GB
- CD-RW / DVD
- Mdm
- LAN EN, Fast EN, Gigabit EN, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g
- Centrino
- 14.1" TFT XGA (1024 x 768)
- academic

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: trikster2
***** If you know anyone working for IBM the EPP pricing is about the best deal you can get 35% off some models 20% off others.

IF you still want to use the dell GC and you have upped your price to $2000 look at the dell business line, the lattitudes. Solid as a rock and decent performance. The Dell D810 would be the same size as the 6000, but it can do DVI, and has faster graphics if you need that sort of thing. The Lattitude D610 would be similar to the 14" T43 you list. Your school should have access to the dell EPP program which has frequent discounts and a standard 12% off (w. 3+ year waranty) that stacks on top of other discounts.

Whatever you get: Good luck!

Other than trikster's usual doubt about Thinkpads & Lenovo (question is does he own one?), he has good points. IBM EPP is the way to go. Heck, even the Visa/Mastercard discounts should do better than that price.
Latitudes are built much better than Inspirons, but (A) the 6000 isn't too bad, I've set one up and the build quality was better than other Inspirons. And (B) there usually aren't coupons for Latitude notebooks.

 

[SmackdownHotel]

No, I'd be paying $1367, which would be part of my tuition.

 

[niggles]

I just bought a 6000 and aside from the Vid card it's fantastic. Even the vid card being integrated is doing more than I thought it would be able to do. The only problem so far is that rather than running certain games at a a slower rate, in some cases it simply crashes to desk top for no apparant reason. It runs BF42 with Ease, but the Desert Combat Mod for BF42 simply crashes. C&C Generals runs perfectly which I was most impressed with.

My last laptop was an IBM A21m and it was great for the first year. Shortly after the warranty ran out it tanked and would shut down about 20 minutes after booting. I took it into IBM who told me that they'd need to replace the mobo at almost the cost of a new one. After that I took it apart quite a few times, replaced the CPU fan, checked the Mobo for cracks etc, and got it somewhat running again, but it runs about the speed of a pentium 133 now. I know some people swear by IBMs, and I think it's because they bought good models. After speaking to many people with the same model I found that this model simply had a bad design. IBM is *not* without issues, be warned.

I can tell you'll be buying the IBM but I just want to say that I'm loving my new Dell.

 

[cheesehead]

I am currently using a Dell laptop, and it's been a pain in the ass. The motherboard has died repeatedly, the screen only works half the time, and it burns your lap if you're not careful. IBM I have relatively little experience with; my previous laptop, an iBook, was great.