A tad stuck.

I was looking at 2-4 different Dell laptops and I am just a bit stuck as to which one to get. My budget is $800 so I was looking at either the M115R with the A6 processor or the i5 Inspiron 15r, these two I could definitely afford (I wish to get this laptop by Christmas). If there is a sale and the 15r with 1gb graphics/M115R with A8 comes within $50 of my $800 price-limit then I can get it. Please take note that $850 really is my maximum. Anything over is too expensive. I plan to do some light gaming (Left 4 Dead, Unreal Tournement, Minecraft, Skyrim Etc.) and I can tolerate 15Fps (as long as it doesn't dip below this). Any info is appreciated (but the infamous "it sukz" or "Itsthemostawesomestlaptopever" does not help me). Thanks!

 

How much do you care about battery life? Also what country are you in? Are you limited to purchasing only Dell laptops?

 

Thanks for the prompt reply. I do not care too much about battery life and thus 1-1:30 is ample. I am in Australia and do not mind ordering from overseas. As to brand- I am not restricted to Dell, if there is something in the $800 that fits the bill then feel free to add it.

 

I have the Inspiron 15, 15R, XPS 15 and XPS 15z

I like them all and they seem to be performing great so far, no issues to this point.

if you want to do light gaming my only suggestion if you can fit it into your price range is to get a configuration which comes with the NVIDEA GPU such as the XPS15 with the GT525 or GT540 etc.

The cooling on the XPS15 (L501 L502) is good for a laptop although a cooling pad is always a good ideal with any laptop if you plan on using it allot.

Also the upgrade path on these laptops is limited to CPUs, memory, and Hard drive, and from my experiance the Dual core CPU options with the on board intel GPUs cannot be upgraded to a quad core for example as the quads have a different motherboard.

getting to the hard drives on the XPS 15 was a bit of a pain as it requires a fair bit of dissassembly, but the tear down manauls are there on Dells site to guide you.

Last if you plan on using any laptop for 2 or more years i suggest getting a extended warranty, now usually with Dell you can do so at a later date as long as it is done before the base warranty runs out.

If your comfortable working on laptops then maybe you do your own repairs if it should ever become nesscessary.

Good Luck

 

1) $800? Never spend that much on an Inspiron, it's a waste of $. Inspirons are Dell's budget-line and should never exceed $650*. If you're spending that much, look at different laptops.

*Because there are better options once you start getting to the $700+ price range.

2) You seem to be overlooking the most important spec/upgrade: a 1920x1080 display. 1366x768 is too low of a resolution for a 15" if you're spending this much. 1366x768 resolution in a 15.6" screen makes text onscreen large and limits how many windows you can fit onscreen. Multitasking is made unnecessarily difficult on this resolution. This is the same resolution as a 12-inch laptop. Plus, most 15.6" 1366x768 screens have awful image quality. Make your priority getting a better screen, because it really makes more of a difference than anything else. All the other specs will already be an upgrade from what you had before, but the screen will not, it may even be a downgrade quality-wise.

3) Your best bet would probably be to go an extra $50 and get the Dell XPS 15, with the 1920x1080 B+RGLED display upgrade. You don't need any other upgrades, all the other specs are good, but the 1366x768 screen is terrible and you're going to have to upgrade that. However, the 1920x1080 B+RGLED display happens to be one of the best quality 15.6" displays currently available.
- Go here: Dell Home Computers Store with Home and Home Office Products | Dell
- Pick the cheapest base model ($799)
- Add the 1080p screen upgrade
- Use coupon code 932N$0ZCCHWZB9 to bring the price to $849
It's only an extra $50, but that $50 goes a long way, since alone the difference between a 720p and 1080p screen is already a really big deal, not to mention the better audio quality of the XPS 15.

4) Consider refurbs in the Dell Outlet. Look for an XPS 15 L502x, make sure it's got the 1080p screen (not the 720p screen), and make sure it's cheaper than buying one new in the same configuration with the coupon.

 

Thanks! I just have one question though- I live in Aussie (as I said earlier) and thus the dell.com.au prices are way higher. Do dell.com ship to Australia? If so, what are the shipping costs?