M1730 resale value?

Hi,

Quick question:

Im considering buying a M1730 right now fully spec (X9000) that would come out to about $4500. I would really prefer to wait until this Fall when the mobile quad's and probably the 9800's show up in Dell's but I really am in a position that I need a laptop now. I have considered Sager but the form factor of the Dell and style is much more my taste. I usually like to keep my laptop's 3 years or so and im afraid by year 3 the 1730 is going to be performing much poorer in quad games (possibly even this year with some quad games like Fear coming and I have seen benchmarks of some quad games showing 30-40% increase over dual) and I have a feeling if I could get the quad+9800 I would be pretty set.

What do you guys think I could fetch for the M1730 as is on Ebay 12 months or so down the line? If I could probably get $3000 plus back then I'll probably go with this. I would probably remove the 2x200gb hard drives for privacy issues... would this decrease the value a great deal? If I woulden't be able to get much back, maybe the Vostro around $1300 is a better choice to hold me over.

 

Mobile Core 2 Quad's won't come out for laptops untill 2009.
The NVIDIA 9800M series probably won't be here till next year also.
You can get a Desktop Quad Core in a notebook+ 8800 SLI with the Sager NP 9692.
In 1 year, your M1730 should still be worth at least $2500.

 

Now quad core and sli are thorny technologies. If the game supprts them, they're great. If they don't, they're a waste. Since you're in a bit of a "I need a notebook now" issue. I would buy a dual-core single card notebook with an 8800gtx (or even gts) with the whole intent of dumping it after a year or so when the notebook you really want comes out.

If like you say quad cores and 9800m comes by the end of the year then I have no clue what it should be worth. It all depends on the effectiveness of the new products. If the increase is substantial then expect your notebook's worth to be far less than what you paid. If the new upgrades aren't all that great of an increase you could probably get 2500 - 3000 for it in good condition. Mostly because of the gpus and processor. The case is a bit polarizing and the fact that it's a dell gives it more of a basic image. If no upgrades come out for a while then you might be able to squeeze almost 3500 out of it at the end of the year. Maybe as a christmas present for someone.

 

get a Sager Np9262 and then order xtoxic pc to paint it for you, it saved you A LOT!!! and you get better performance