which notebook would you rather have?

[FreshPrince]

Old lady at work asked me to help her buy a lappy for home...here are the 3 options I picked out for her, which one would you recommend?

Dell Inspiron 6400 $959:

PROCESSOR Intel® Core? 2 Duo T5300 (2MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Professional
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife?(glossy)
MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
HARD DRIVE Size: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
VIDEO CARD 256MB ATI MOBILITY? RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory?
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1 Yr Ltd Warranty, 1 Yr On-site Service, and 1 Yr Tech Support

Dell Latitude 520 $963: REMOVED

PROCESSOR Intel® Core? 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz) 2M L2 Cache, 667Mhz Dual Core
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows XP Professional, SP2, with media
LCD PANEL 15 inch XGA LCD Panel
MEMORY 2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
HARD DRIVE 80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW w/Sonic Digital Media? and Cyberlink Power DVD?
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless? 1390 802.11g Mini Card
6 Cell Primary Battery
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year NBD On-Site Service

Dell Inspiron 9400 $998:

PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium® dual-core T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows XP Professional
LCD PANEL 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ TFT Display with TrueLife?(glossy)
MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
HARD DRIVE Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
VIDEO CARD 256MB ATI MOBILITY? RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1 Yr Ltd Warranty, 1 Yr Mail-in Service, and 1 Yr Tech Support

right now I'm leaning towards the Inspiron 6400 as it combines the best overall specs and support. The 9400 is a beast too, but it is somewhat lacking in processor speed...

 

[Fraggable]

Depends on what size she wants and how portable it's going to be. For a desktop replacement and no games or anything are going to be involved, the 9400's CPU will be fine. If you've got 2GB of memory and at least a 5400 RPM drive you'd be surprised how little the CPU has to do with web browsing and Office stuff.

If it's going to be moved fairly often, the 17" screen will be a pain and the 6400 is your best choice.

 

[FreshPrince]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
Depends on what size she wants and how portable it's going to be. For a desktop replacement and no games or anything are going to be involved, the 9400's CPU will be fine. If you've got 2GB of memory and at least a 5400 RPM drive you'd be surprised how little the CPU has to do with web browsing and Office stuff.

If it's going to be moved fairly often, the 17" screen will be a pain and the 6400 is your best choice.

she's an old lady so she will not be playing any games. I asked her abou the size of the 17" as another co-worker has one and she does not mind it's size either. She says this will be a desktop replacement and the only time she will move it is if she visits her parents in Ohio. Considering her eye sight, I think the 17" won't hurt

the latitude has been removed from selection

 

[HermDogg]

Why the hell is she getting 2GB of RAM? Is she going to be doing simultaneous photoshopping/video editing on this sucker? Also, I don't know if I'd go for TruLife especially if she's got bad eyesight. The glare off of those can be murder.

Seriously, what is she going to be doing with it? Unless it's process-intensive work, there's no reason to grab what you have listed. How about getting her an Inspiron 1501 w/ 1 GB of RAM, 15" display, 1.6ghz AMD64X2 proc and an 80 gig HD for $660? Your choices sound like massive overkill

 

[FreshPrince]

Originally posted by: HermDogg
Why the hell is she getting 2GB of RAM? Is she going to be doing simultaneous photoshopping/video editing on this sucker? Also, I don't know if I'd go for TruLife especially if she's got bad eyesight. The glare off of those can be murder.

Seriously, what is she going to be doing with it? Unless it's process-intensive work, there's no reason to grab what you have listed. How about getting her an Inspiron 1501 w/ 1 GB of RAM, 15" display, 1.6ghz AMD64X2 proc and an 80 gig HD for $660? Your choices sound like massive overkill

she wanted a machine that will be fast with Vista, Office 2007, and her DVD editor so that she can make movies of her grandkids.

shoot, with vista alone, you'd need 2GB

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: FreshPrince

Originally posted by: HermDogg
Why the hell is she getting 2GB of RAM? Is she going to be doing simultaneous photoshopping/video editing on this sucker? Also, I don't know if I'd go for TruLife especially if she's got bad eyesight. The glare off of those can be murder.

Seriously, what is she going to be doing with it? Unless it's process-intensive work, there's no reason to grab what you have listed. How about getting her an Inspiron 1501 w/ 1 GB of RAM, 15" display, 1.6ghz AMD64X2 proc and an 80 gig HD for $660? Your choices sound like massive overkill

she wanted a machine that will be fast with Vista, Office 2007, and her DVD editor so that she can make movies of her grandkids.

shoot, with vista alone, you'd need 2GB

You should be able to get something like that (with a slower CPU but 2GB+ RAM) for around $800 maybe even less.
I would buy the RAM seperately too ... much cheaper.

 

[zig3695]

17" laptops are not very portable. hell the dell 15" laptops are pretty big when compared to lenovo's. that inspiron 6400 is my choice all the way, she would love it.