Laptop advice?

[Isocene]

Im about to buy a laptop. Im studying abroad in Japan in august for a year so im looking for a desktop replacement. I dont care how much it weighs. I think Dell might be the best option for me. They have good customer server and warranty and all that good stuff. Plus they are in Austin, Texas where I am. So here is what ive configured online:

Dell Inspiron 8000 Notebooks: Intel® Pentium®III Processor, 1GHz, 15.0" UltraXGA TFT
Memory: 256MB,SDRAM,2DIMMs
Video Card: 32MB DDR 4X AGP NVIDIA GeForce2 Go?Vid
Primary Hard Drive: 20GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Modem: Internal 56K Capable V.90 + 10/100 Mini-
Fixed CD/DVD Drives: $100 OFF! CD-RW/DVD Internal COMBO Drive

All that is gunna cost me $2885. Quite an amount of money for a poor college student but I think I can manage it. Does anyone have any opinions on Dell laptops or laptops in general. Also, with the Geforce 2, im hoping ill be able to play some games and all that good stuff. Anyone tried out the Geforce 2 on a laptop? Any advice would be appreciate.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[emonkey]

$3k for a laptop. Wow. Well at least you can sell it next year for $800.

That dell is pretty sweet but it weighs a ton. but if you dont care then go for it. Just make sure if youre spending that much you get a geforce in there.

 

[RossMAN]

Drop the RAM to 128MB order it from Crucial.com it's cheaper.

Also consider getting a larger hard drive, do they offer 5400RPM hard drives?

Also save another $100 with Dell's current refer-a-friend program.

 

[Jfur]

I have had 4 Dell systems, including two laptops over the years. One laptop (the 7000) is awesome and completely reliable. The other, a 5000e, is a complete piece of junk and has some strange malady that no one can accurately diagnose or repair, including Dell, even though it still has a 2.5 yr warranty left. It used to be that the service there was the greatest, and I was willing to pay more for it. Now, however, that has not been my experience. I will not go into agonizing detail, but this system is on its 4th HD and 2nd DVD and I have reinstalled Win98 about a dozen times and it is completely unreliable. I have spent (literally) DAYS of my time waiting on hold for tech support and still no relief. The bottom line is most Dell systems are very good, and likely better than most you could buy elsewhere. However, their service has dropped drastically in the past 18 months (not just a few "bad luck calls" either) and is NOT worth extra $$$. It is still probably your best bet for a complete system, though. Just don't assume that its past reputation is still a good indicator of what you will get. I HAVE heard from many people that the 8000s are a great and very stable system.