With these specs...which would you choose?

[taisingera]

Dell E1505
Core 2 Duo T5600
Vista Home Premium
15.4" WXGA
2 GB DDR2 533MHz
120GB 5400rpm SATA
8x DVD+-RW DL
Radeon Mobility X1300 128MB Hypermemory
6-cell battery
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g
2 year warranty

$1252

OR

HP dv6000t
everything the same as the Dell except Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 256MB
$1362

The person I'm getting this for really doesn't game, but how is the build quality on these models?

BTW, upgrading from a P4 2GHz Northwood FSB400, 512MB, Mobility 7500

 

[Brainonska511]

Either would be fine. IMO, the HPs are a little higher quality than the Inspirons.

If you don't game, how about considering a notebook with integrated graphics? It might save you a few bucks and you could get something smaller and more portable.

 

[Commodus]

HP dv6000t without question. The extra video performance will help with Vista, and the dv6000t is much slicker and generally better-built.

 

[ShellGuy]

My questin would be is the dell comming with 2gb or are you haveing dell add that? I would add the ram my self, have you though about dell auction or a referbed dell? Would save ya some cash and allow you to upgrade the ram "& battery. The other quesiton that wasn't asked is what are you going to be doing with said laptop?



Will G.

 

[taisingera]

With the Dell it comes with 2GB of RAM. The laptop isn't for me, it's for my mom and she generally surfs the web, does office apps, into music and some video. I'm pretty set on the screen size and getting non-Intel graphics even though she doesn't play any games, especially if it comes with Vista. I guess I could save some cash on getting a Core Duo T2250 instead. That should be enough to do what she needs, right?

 

[Brainonska511]

If it is for your mom, get 1GB; it is more than enough for what she is doing. The Core Duo would also be good considering she isn't doing processor intensive work. Have you considered going with a 14" notebook instead of a 15.4"? She may not like the larger size of the 15.4".

 

[taisingera]

Well, on her current laptop, she has a 15" SXGA+ at 1400x1050 and she has problems seeing text, I know you can increase the text size in both web browsers and Windows, but still. Might I also mention that she never really is mobile with the laptop, just uses it as a desktop replacement, so bigger screen size is more important than mobility of a 14.1".

 

[Rockinacoustic]

You could spend half of what you priced out to suffice for your mother's needs.

 

[taisingera]

Last thing I needed to check out was the glossy vs matte LCD. I know what matte is like, and I looked at a glossy at Best Buy. While the colors looked really good, there was way too much reflection of background lights and myself. And considering where she will put the laptop (in front of a patio door, where there is a lot of light, I think I will get her the matte screen. That is what is on the current laptop. The best place for those glossy screens seems to be in total darkness.

 

[alimoalem]

go to dealsea.com. scroll down to the last add for Mar 05, 2007 and you'll see a dell e1501 with a 24" screen for $1068. that may work for her (portability and nice, big screen next to the patio).

there are quite a few sub $700 notebooks on sites like this and in the Hot Deals forum. you basically get the same stuff