DoLFaN Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 Alright, well, I need a laptop for college. I've been going back and forth between dell, sony, and toshiba. I've decided on dell becuase it's the easiest and has the most options...i'm a customize guy, I don't like being told what I have to buy.Anyways, I've decided on the Dell Inspiron 9300. I want power! The laptop I configured was...well...expensive and well out of my range. My dad said he would pay for 1500 and then get me a new one after a year, year and half, two, somthing like that. He said he would do 2000 but it would have to last for quite some time. He said whatever after that I would have to pay for on my own. I would say 500$ out of my pocket MAX, maybe a little leeway.Well, with the Inspiron 9300, these are the specs I came up with...Inspiron 9300 ---------------------Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 (2 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)Operating System ----------------Microsoft® Windows® XP Home EditionDisplay -----------------------------17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™Memory ----------------------------1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 DimmVideo Card ------------------------256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800Sound Card -----------------------PCMCIA Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS Notebook sound cardHard Drive -------------------------60GB 7200rpm Hard DriveNetwork Card ---------------------Integrated 10/100 Network Card and ModemAdobe Software ------------------Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0CD/DVD Drives --------------------8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capabilityWireless Networking Card ------Intel® PRO 2915 and Dell 350 Bluetooth Internal Wireless CardsWireless Router -------------------NETGEAR WGT624 802.11b/g 108Mbps Super-G Wireless Broadband RouterSecurity Software -----------------No Security Subscription (why pay?)Digital Music ------------------------Musicmatch® Jukebox Basic (no choice to not select...free)Primary Battery --------------------9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (80 WHr)Office Productivity Software------No productivity suite - Corel WordPerfect word processor only (why pay?)Printer -------------------------------Dell Photo All-in-One Printer 942Warranty ----------------------------Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr Technical Supportall of this comes to...with all coupons factored in...$2,492.00Not bad when you think about it. But what don't I need? What can I really cut back on? Should I go for the XPS Inspiron and get the 2.13 chip? Do I actually not need the 2.0 chip and get a lesser one for cheaper? Do I not need the truebright screen? Should I scrap out the sound card? Get a diferent wireless card (i'm getting bluetooth tho no matter what).Thanks for the advice in advance. The sooner the better with this becuase well...this thing needs to ship and I need to get to my university...lol.So yea, for $2,492 i get the computer, the warranty, and the printer. What should I change to make cheaper?!?!?!?!?! AHHH!Haha, thanks-----edit: with this link you can see all the options. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 you could...change to the 1.86GHz CPU - saves $160, you probably couldn't even tell the difference any ways :Pi'd also go with the 80gb HDD, the other maybe faster but i think space is more important (saves another $120 too)go a step down on the networking card (2200), router (d-link), 54Mb/sec sounds fast enough for me :Pi got it down to $2,153...could probably cut back on a few more things tho... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 10, 2005 Author Share Posted August 10, 2005 Hmmm, like what else could I cut down on? Any more opinionsbtw, nsane, thanks for the quick reply my man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 what soundcard is in the original package, could save $100 not getting the soundblaster card? :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 10, 2005 Author Share Posted August 10, 2005 i would say just your standard piece of crap laptop sound card. Actually, that's a lie. No card, just prob an on board sound setup with the chip board would be my guess.You're standard crap. But...becuase laptop speakers are such shit anyways, maybe the better sound card wouldn't matter? What do you think?edit: i would just like to add somthing about the hard drive. I really want speed...obviously. And i hate slow hard drives. But is 7200 really a big deal over the 5400 rpm? But for extra space...will i really need the extra 20 GB? I'm only using 46GB right now on my 60GB machine...and I could easily delete a lot of shit with out thinking twice.So what do u think on that issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 i'm think the optional soundcard is just for hooking your laptop up to a surround sound system :lol: i just spliced my regular speaker wire to an A/V cord, plugged it into a regular amp, and 600w of boom fom the pc. the basic pc speaker wire is actually 3 wires, if you splice it open there should 1 big wire with no skin and 2 smaller wires you'll need to splice seperately. A/V wires have 2 wire for each plug, so just twist the corresponding ends together, skinned to skinned and all 3 unskinned wires twist into 1 big thing. now, you have a PC to AV converter ($35 at radio shack) :lol:edit: like this...as for the hdd, i honestly couldn't tell ya how much of a difference there is between 7200 compared to 5400. that's what i have, 5400, and it does it's job just fine. it's really up to you tho, your $120 ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Lite Posted August 10, 2005 Administrator Share Posted August 10, 2005 Hard drive got to be 7200 RPM. A 7200RPM drive is heaps quicker than a 5400 drive. CPU 1.83GHZ, cheaper.Sound card - go for it. When gaming, a good sound card is worth it, backed up some beasty 5.1 speakers.Monitor - get the standard oneNetwork card - screw the bluetooth bullshit, buy a seperate bluetooth adapter (cheaper)Why not look at shops like newegg and tigerdirect too? Acer make nice laptops too. Personally.... i would also be tempted to look for a mobile Athlon64 proccesser system, generally they are better with gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 10, 2005 Author Share Posted August 10, 2005 Well, and I should have stated this originally, I'm not a gamer at all. In fact I gaven't gamed on my PC in over 3 years, and I don't intend to start. BUT, I refuse to rule ANYTHING out. That's just how I am but.But what I will be doing is a lot of adobe work...photoshop, image ready, etc... And a lot of macormedia work...flash, fireworks, etc...On top of that I have a big habbit of running multiple things at once... Making MP3 ringtones while jamin to music while downloading heaps while working on my next photoshop project while chatting to a million people. That's a normal occurence too me, while not often it does happen. Plus I plan on watching movies on my machine.So...with saying that what do and don't I need.But as of right now I'm planning on lowering the CPU to 1.83 (-$168), moving towards the free non all in one printer (-$49) (it's free, just gunna give it to my rents, i'll get an all-in-one seperately. Someone had told me that you have to buy dell printer cartridges...that involves ordering them...*i think*), moving down to the 6 cell battery (-$79), 2200 wireless card (-$16) (still with bluetooth), D-Link router (-$21), no sound card (-$100).Meh, I dunno if it's worth downgrading the cheap things like the wireless card or the router. Actually, the router I can understand, but as long as the D-Link is still good.So now you know what I want to do, what now? Man...computers suck...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 yeah, i'd buy a printer seperately, my friend has a dell and i can confirm you HAVE to order the cartridges from them ;) i still use my old Canon BJC-2000, still running like a champ, even with the broken spooler :lol:i'd also cut back the memory to 512MB, they're charging an extra $140 for the 1GB package! you can get another 512MB chip for like $30 if you look around (newegg.com has some cheap memory prices) :lol:and, like lite said, knock the router down another knotch and buy the bluetooth converter seperately... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 10, 2005 Author Share Posted August 10, 2005 I don't like the idea of small screens, which is why i was shying away from the 12.1 inch 700m. But I decided to try it out. Light may just be the way to go, especially in college. I think I got great results for the price. No truebright or 7200rpm 60GB hard drive, but everything else is...well...good, haha.Inspiron 700m -----------------------Intel® Pentium® M Processor 745 (1.80 GHz/400MHz FSB)12.1-in WXGA (still reall good in my opinion, thats 3.6 P4 powerOperating System -----------------------Microsoft® Windows® XP HomeMemory ----------------------------------1GB DDR SDRAM 2 DimmsHard Drive -------------------------------80 GB Hard Drive (No 60GB 7200...:lol:)Network Adapters -----------------------Integrated Network CardModem -----------------------------------Internal 56K ModemAdobe Software -------------------------Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0 (no choice to not select)CD ROM/DVD ROM ----------------------8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability (still went with the 8x, actually had to to make it cheaper in the long run)Wireless Networking Card --------------Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps) (no bluetooth option for the 700m :lol:)Office Productivity Software ------------No productivity suite - Corel WordPerfect word processor only (why pay?)Security Software -----------------------No Security Subscription (why pay?)Digital Music -----------------------------Musicmatch® Jukebox Basic (no non selection)Primary Battery -------------------------4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (32WHr) (small, but I did the phase move and got the extra battery)Warranty --------------------------------Limited Warranty, Services and Support 3Yr Ltd Warr,At-Home Service,and Tech Support plus Nights and Weekends (see, i even bossted the warranty)Dial-Up Internet Access ----------------6 Months America Online Internet Access IncludedDigital Imaging/Photography ----------Photo Album™ SE Basic (no nonselection)Additional Batteries ---------------------8-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery (65 WHr) (here's that additional)Miscellaneous ---------------------------Award Winning Service, Support (*cough* bull shit *cough*)Financial Software ----------------------No QuickBooks package selected- Includes limited use trialDell Media Experience ------------------Dell™ Media ExperienceIt lacks a lot of stuff I could really use. Like the graphics card, the 60GB 7200, the blue tooth built in. But hey, it's A LOT cheaper and A LOT lighter.So what do u think of this? Yea it's still going dell...but at least it's a good grand cheaper. Thoughts?Edit...i forgot the price...it was only $1,364. You can configure it here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 sounds good to me, dunno about the 'more power' people ;) no graphics card doesn't mean you'll have shitty graphics, just means you'll have to use your system memory and main cpu a bit more. it won't be like the pics you see on the net or anything, but it won't be complete shit either :lol:like i have no video card atm, emulate 64 games all the time tho (suppost to be really intensize) :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erRor67 Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Edit...i forgot the price...it was only $1,364. You can configure it hereLink doesnt work for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Lite Posted August 10, 2005 Administrator Share Posted August 10, 2005 sounds good to me, dunno about the 'more power' people :lol: no graphics card doesn't mean you'll have shitty graphics, just means you'll have to use your system memory and main cpu a bit more. it won't be like the pics you see on the net or anything, but it won't be complete shit either :lol:It just means your system overall is much slower, games will not have a high framerate, multimedia - might as well forget anything major.A dedicated graphics card is something i would reccomend, unless your just gonna be surfing the net, running office apps or crappy games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 that's all i do really, i have ps2 and gamecube for games. might buy a gfx card some point down the road tho :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 Well, i got the 700m with the specs i gave. I love it!. Perfect size for me, i'm glad i didn't go bigger.But, as usual, there are tons of crap crap crap on it pre-installed. There are some things i may want to keep, others not, but I think the best bet is to just reformat. Right or wrong?If right, I need to know how becuase it didn't come with a bootup disk, so i dunno what to do.It's Windows XP Home SP-2 ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 it doesn't have a restore disk, that's pretty dumb?! ;)any ways, i'd just uninstall the crap (it's what i did any ways) ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Lite Posted August 19, 2005 Administrator Share Posted August 19, 2005 Uhm... you are entitled to a copy (cd or otherwise) of windows XP home, you paid for it ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 well, lol, they didn't give me one.Oh, I know what it is, I think u had to pay 8 bucks for it.Meh w/e...i have a copy of XP pro around here somwhere ;)But yea, i'm just doing that Lite, good old fashion uninstall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 he's right tho, you already paid for it, you shouldn't have to pay $8 for the CD...it's already yours (i'd call and bitch if i were you) ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Lite Posted August 19, 2005 Administrator Share Posted August 19, 2005 Yeh.... complaining rules. Especially with big companies ;)I ordered some stuff online for my freind (a hard drive and some memory). They sent me the correct hard drive, however the wrong memory. So i sent them an email, got to keep the memory and they sent me the correct stuff ;) . I've done it a few times before too... always got a good deal out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 Hmmm, well get this Lite my man...i got my processor right, but, my ram is 598MHz, 0.98 GB of Ram. I ordered two 512MB, should be 1024 right?and my HD was ordered at 80 GB and it shows 70.8.I'm hoping this is normal.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsane Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 it's like i said before, since you don't have a graphics card it's ganna dedicate some of your system ram to use for graphics (~128MB in your case) ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 20, 2005 Author Share Posted August 20, 2005 hey, w/e, .98 or w/e it is i said is good enoughf or me. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Lite Posted August 20, 2005 Administrator Share Posted August 20, 2005 It would come up as 1.00GB of RAM if you had a dedicate graphics processer :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoLFaN Posted August 20, 2005 Author Share Posted August 20, 2005 lol, that 100 MB loss doesn't phase me. My comp should work fine with what it has :rolleyes:I wonder, is there anyway to edit that setting, to dedicate more or less RAM to graphics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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