Buying XPS M1730

Well i myself live outside of UK and my uncle is there and he is going to bring me a DELL XPS M1730

Its my first laptop ever



However i have a 3 question and sorry if i ask it but its my first time that i want to buy something from outside



1_

Well i have customized a XPS M1730 and it costs about 1900 GBP inc VAT from dell.co.uk . i wanted to know will they give back the 17.5% VAT in the airport?



2_

my friend has a DELL XPS M1730 which is brand new and he want to sell. it and has dual 8800MGTX gpu with 4gb ram and 320gb hdd but it has an Intel Core2Duo T7700 CPU, but i havent seen the T7700 option with the M1730, do we have a Dual 8800M GTX M1730 with T7700 or all the 8800MGTX models have Penryn?



3_Is Student discount available in UK?



thanx alot

 

Hey... I can answer one of your questions, at least. Since I'm in the US I'm not sure about your taxation and student discount options, but as far as the processor goes... I _think_ the earlier 1730s have Merom processors and the newer ones have Penryns... my new 1730 has the T7500 in it(FWIW, it is a US model, purchased in January). I think they made the switch to using Penryn processors relatively recently; you can't even get one with a Merom new from Dell.

I personally am not too worried about it; my 1730 with the T7500 and base 8700M GT video card is still pretty flippin' quick; it plays Stalker and Oblivion smoothly at max settings... if you're getting a faster processor with an SLI card attached, you'll get some pretty good results.

 

Not sure about the other 2 questions but i think the VAT issue has to be claimed back through forms etc , they wont just give it back at the airport.
When i sell stuff to the US military (im in the UK) they dont pay VAT as there VAT expempt. They have to provide me with the papers to sell the stuff vat expempt.
Maybe worth checking on the customs website to see the correct procedure

 

And what do u say about the CPU? is it possible that it has a T7700 and Dual 8800M GTX?

 

Yes. AFAIK, the 8800M GTX graphics cards are an option on any M1730. I could put one on mine if I wanted to.

 

well my frind is selling his for 1500 GBP shall i go for it ?

 

i think yes...

 

Got a refurbished unit with T7700 (swapped for an X9000 later) and 2x200GB for £1600.

The only difference of the one your friend offers is the 2x160GB HD's and you save £100.

I would say this is a good deal and you should go for it.

 

is it me or have they not listed any refurbished xps m1730's on the dell US site for a while??

 

They do list them but people with automated scripts pick them up immediately and sell them on Ebay for a profit

 

Well i looked @ SAGER NP9262 and it costs about the same so i think i would go for it instead
what do u think?

 

Dont you think thats kind of illegal??

 

Very interesting... you can swap Penryn processors into a board that has a Merom in it? How's the Extreme handle in your system, anyway? I'm going to have to look into that.

 

There is only one version of the M1730 motherboard. The X9000 works great.

 

In the UK the Sager is much more expensive. Only way to get it for £1500 ($3000) is to import it but including postage and VAT it will still cost much more and you will have to send it to the US if it breaks down.