Dell outlet: Reufrbished vs. S&D with slightly better featues

I'm debating between these 2 laptops from the dell outlet:

Scratch & Dent E6400 laptop with a led screen, Quadro card, 160GB 5400 rpm drive, 6 cell battery, 2gb ram, backlit KB and camera, 5300AGN and bluetooth.

VS. a Refurbished laptop with a led screen, Intel 4500mhd, 80gb 7200rpm drive, 9 cell battery, 4GB ram, Camera and 5100AGN.

Both are exactly the same price...

Which one is the better deal? Is there a big difference between refurbished to scratch and dent?

Thanks a million (hope I'm not giving you guys a headache...).

 

I think it varies between a refurbished and a scratch & dent. I heard that someone purchased a scratch & dent which turned out to be in perfect condition, while others have noted heavy scratches on the undercarriage and edges.
I think the E6400 with the quadro card would be a better deal overall, given that the system isn't terribly abused.

 

From my experience with refurbished, both units (A m1530 and M1730), both had problems. Let's face it, most people won't return a custom order laptop unless there is something wrong with it, and I don't trust Dell checks the functionality of these units before they go to resell. Just my .02, but I would be careful with refurb unless you're ready to spend some hours troubleshooting something that maybe wrong with it.

BTW, Dell did repair both of my laptops, but it took ALOT of conversations and sending the unit to Depot to get it right.

 

Refurbished sounds more comforting than Scratched & Dented... and the 9 cell is appealing... on the other hand, a Quadro card and a backlit KB...
What should I do??? I wish I had more money to spare... :confused2:

 

Unless you really need the extra 3D power of the nVida GPU I would point you towards the Intel graphics. There are a few people here who are being troubled by the extra fan noise caused by Dell trying to keep the nVidia GPU cool. The intel GPU will handle two big monitors and HD decoding.

John

 

did someone delete posts from this thread, or am i dreaming?

 

SD is fine usually. If you are not happy with it you can just return it.

 

You are dreaming, or maybe the server sneezed (it's the time of day when the server likes to 404). There was no human intervention.

John

 

:| i thought it was my proxy that was causing me to keep getting 404's. I dint realise it was an issue. What causes it?

nice review of the NC10 btw....

 

404 is an issue with the new server setup. More here. With the old system we used to get time-outs. The new system gives 404 errors instead.

As for NC10 review, it's a bit shorter than my essay on the E6400, but I hope it covers a bit of ground that other NC10 reviews don't.

John