About to order my E1705

So I'm about to actually submit the order. Final specs are:

Inspiron E1705

Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0ghz / 4MB L2 / 667 FSB)
Vista Home Premium
17" XGA+ display
2GB DDR2 533mhz
GeForce 7900GS
80GB 5400RPM HDD
8x CD/DVD burner
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
Mobile Edge Deluxe Backpack

Final price with 20% off coupon and tax calculated is just over $1600.

Notes on some choices-- I opted for the XGA 1440x900 display over the UXGA 1920x1200 for 2 reasons. One, the UXGA resolution on a 17" would be way too small, and two, I have 2 19" external LCDs that run at 1440x900 so this means I don't have to switch resolutions everytime I hook it up at home. I decided against the 7200RPM HDD upgrade because I wanted to keep the price down and I can just upgrade later from newegg if I want to change it. After reading for like 3 hours I decided the DDR2 667mhz isn't worth it because of the higher CAS latency cancelling out the speed increase over 533. Other than that I think I've gotten everything else more or less maxed out. Any advice/suggestions are welcome! I'll order it in an hour or so.

 

That sounds pretty yummy to me.

 

no, it sounds like you covered everything.
I would definitly upgrade the HD later......and since you mentioned using newegg to upgraded the RAM, here's a quick question:
How much is 2GB 533MHz RAM from newegg?
is it alot cheaper......most of the time it is.
If it is then why not just order you laptop with the cheapest RAM that Dell offers and then go to newegg and order the 2GB of RAM at the same time and save you some money.
other than that, I'd say you have some pretty decent specs there....I hope you enjoy your new laptop.

 

RAM at newegg is only about $8 cheaper than from Dell, so it's not worth messing with. Thanks for the comments so far!

 

one more thing.....the backpack.....would it be cheaper to purchase one elsewhere? or are you really attacked to that specific one?

 

Eh, it saves me time looking for another one.

 

that's what I figured.

 

Let us know how gaming on the Vista is like on that setup.

 

Ok, I finally got it ordered, now that it's 3 am. Their payment page was giving me issues..

Anyways, I ended up getting it under Dell Small Business as a 9400 rather than the Dell Home E1705 because I could use a 25% off coupon (vs. the 20% off that I was going to use). With some of the extra money saved, I went ahead and upgraded the HD to a 120gb 5400 because I saw that it had an 8mb buffer vs. the 2mb buffer on the 80gb HD. Total price was still much cheaper at ~$1550 including a backpack.

The only other difference was that I now only have Vista Home Basic instead of Vista Home Premium, but I could care less. Honestly I can see myself reformatting and putting XP Pro on it if the Vista release goes as I expect (badly). Oh, and I actually got a bit of an upgrade in the customer support deal, but hopefully I won't have to use it.

 

Why the hell would you want a Home Basic on that Monster. You should have get a Home Premium and keep it in the storage till next year. At least, that is what I'm going to do.

 

I'm sorry, but what are you talking about????

Dell charges you $185 to upgrade from 1GB to 2GB, right?
But if you configure the system with 1GB, then buy 2GB from newegg( $170-190), you can sell the 1GB that came with the system for $70-90 on craiglist. So, total spent on ram would be $100, instead of $185.

 

I didn't even want Vista to begin with. I really do see myself reformatting and putting XP Pro on it--the first time some simple thing doesn't work, Vista is gone. I don't have time to troubleshoot another newly-released MS operating system. Also, I have access to Vista Ultimate from my university for free when I decide to permanently switch

You're right, if I wanted to bother with selling it. Though I doubt I could get $85 out of a couple of 512 sticks since most people want 1gb sticks, but if that's the going rate, cool.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the cost for 2GB of ram from Newegg is the same as the UPGRADE to 2GB on the E1705. Meaning you're paying as much for an additional 1GB as you would for a full 2GB from newegg.

 

That's what I did when I recieved my E1705. It came with 1GB memory, bought 2X1GB Kingston kit from FRY's for $160+tax. Listed the 1GB memory in craiglist, and sold it for $75.

 

Nice work... My lappy ran me a lil over 2000 CAD 5 months ago... I never even got the option for the vista upgrade...

 

I just ordered almost identical machine from Dell Home with the 20% coupon. I didn'y know about the 25% coupon for Dell Business, where can I find that ?

Like other people said, Dell overcharges for all the hardware upgrades and accesoories, like disk drive, memory, etc. It's silly to pay for those upgrades more than what the components would cost by themselves. The 2GB memory you can get on a Fry's deal for a lot less than Dell's upgrade price. Same goes for hard disk, and anyway who "upgrades" to a slow 5400 rpm drive ? It's a total waste of money. If you decide to upgrade, go for a 7200 rpm model, and preferable don't buy it from Dell.

The machine I ordered is E1705 with T7200/7900GS/WXGA with the basic 1GB RAM and 80GB 5400 rpm drive (I will upgrade them later). Vista premium is pre-installed. Price was $1250 (before sales tax) with the 20% coupon for Dell Home and free shipping.