Laptop Upgrade - Inspiron 1150

[Tony Laubach]

Wanted to run this by everyone to see if I'm getting a decent deal! First of all, I've sold my old laptop (which I paid $950 last summer) for $700, and am purchasing a new Dell with the following..

Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.80GHz, 14.1-in XGA
-Front Side Bus: 533MHz
-Level 2 Cache: 512KB
512MB DDR SDRAM (1 chip)
60gig Hard Drive
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
Dell Wireless 1350 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g, 54Mbps)
Internal 56K Modem
Integrated Network Card
MS Windows XP Home Edition
Premium Service Plan
-3 Year Limited Warrenty
-3 Year At Home Service
-3 Year Telephone Tech Support
3 Year Accidental Complete Care Coverage
-Coverage for spills, drops, etc

...updated Nov 12...

Total Price w/ Shipping $1255.00, which I'll get the $50 shipping back in a rebate later on.

There special is 25% off, so I'm getting this for $402 cheaper than regular price ($1658 w/ shipping).. for those laptop gurus, is this a good deal?

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 8600, and used to have an Inspiron 8100. I think you should drop the 4yr warranty and get the 2 or 3 yr warranty, and opt for just mail-in service if that's an option. I've had a couple of things go wrong in the past several years (hey, computers aren't flawless), and can vouch for their mail-in service. Case in point -- my screen was acting odd last year. I called Dell early Friday morning, and set up a pickup time later that afternoon. DHL picked up the computer late in the afternoon, and I had the computer back again on Tuesday. Yes, they picked it up Friday, and I had it back by Tuesday. For the most part, it's taken 3-4 days from pickup to drop-off, which is incredibly good if you think about it. So, if you can be without a computer for a few days once or twice, I think the money you save by not doing the at-home service is worth it. In addition, I've only had to send my two computers in twice (total). The only other time I needed service was when my hard drive died, but they just shipped me a new one, which I received 2 days after I called.

At any rate... I'd take the money you saved by going to a little lower warranty and put it into one of three possible places -- upgrade to XP Pro, upgrade to the 40 or 60GB HD, or get one 512MB stick instead of 2. Dell Inspiron's only have 2 SODIMM slots, so if you ever want to get more memory (which you probably will in a year or two), you'll have to take out one of the 256mb sticks, which means you'll end up wasting 256mb. Get the single 512MB stick, and then when you want to get more memory, you can just add another stick, and not end up 'wasting' any.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Do you literally mail-in the computer? How exactly does that work? My current laptop I had the 1 year plan, but never had to use it for anything. I'm not exactly sure how that (mail-in) works? And checking back, the only mail-in option comes with the 90 day. I may opt to drop to a 3 year, but I tend to push for it as long as I am still in school. The accidental damage plan would also be nice for rather obvious reasons. I'll probably elect to go with the single RAM chip over the hard drive upgrade seeing as my current lappy hasn't exceed 15gigs of space, including SimCity 4 and a couple other larger games.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Yes, as in physical mail-in the laptop. DHL picks up the laptop, puts it in a well-packed box (designed specifically for laptops, it appears) and takes it away... It's actually pretty nice, so it's not like ur laptop is going to get broken or anything. Depending upon what exactly would need warranty service, some things they'll give you the choice to just send you a new one and you send back (pre-paid) the "broken" item. For example, they sent me a new hard-drive, and I sent them the broken one. I think the fact that this has only happened to me an average of maybe once a year, so it's not a big thing I don' think...

 

[Tony Laubach]

It might also be worth noting that apparently my school here at Metro has a partnership with Dell that enables me from an additional 6% to 12% discount on top of their current promotions! Now that tacks on another $100 in savings. I think I'll use the difference to upgrade the Hard Drive.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Yeah, looks like a good deal... Just stay away from Celeron chips. I got a laptop with the same specs, with a 15.4 (I think) widescreen, dvd+rw, ATI Radeon 9200, firewire ports, built in card reader, for $700 on good ole eBay... Sold my old Apple iBook for $750, so I actually came out $50 on top :lol:

If you ever plan on running any games or any graphics intensive programs, make sure the video card isn't integrated...

 

[Tony Laubach]

The only thing I intend to run game-wise would be Madden 2004 (which I ran on my old Celeron), SimCity4 (which I also ran on the Celeron), and pending the hard drive size (if it's 60gig), may add the Sims to that as well (ya know, for those LONG days). I don't intend to run anything like Doom 3 or other seriously graphic intensive games. I think the video card intergrated in the laptop will be just fine for what I need.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Originally posted by Tony Laubach
The only thing I intend to run game-wise would be Madden 2004 (which I ran on my old Celeron), SimCity4 (which I also ran on the Celeron), and pending the hard drive size (if it's 60gig), may add the Sims to that as well (ya know, for those LONG days). I don't intend to run anything like Doom 3 or other seriously graphic intensive games. I think the video card intergrated in the laptop will be just fine for what I need.

Yeah, it most likely will. I'm not sure, but your laptop should have an ATI Radeon 9200 or better. That actually runs most games, except Doom 3 pretty well, believe it or not. I can run Far Cry on highest resolution with medium settings, which is pretty darn good... But then again, my card is overclocked. Even if your graphics is integrated, for the games you mentioned (Sims, etc.) your system should be more than enough...

 

[Tony Laubach]

I placed my order today for what I have listed above. I found an extra $30 off coupon in a catalog I had buried in some crap, so I ended up shelling out $1225 after shipping, which I'll end up getting back via rebate, so $1176 will be my final price once that comes back. I'm pretty happy, as I managed to get all major upgrades including the 60gig HD and 512MB in 1 chip, so I oughta be set for a while! I also managed to get the 3 year complete coverage warrenty, so that'll be nice to have, too! Now, just have to wait for it to get here!