About to pull trigger on m1210 need help!!

Ok I was undecided between the 1330 and m1210 but after talkin with a dell sales person and getting some prices lowered I'm leaning towards the m1210. Its basically got everything I want the only thing I will upgrade is the memory and the hard drive. Its as follows from dell:
m1210
7200 cpu
1gig ram
256 7400 gfx
80g 5400 rpm hard drive
wireless n
bluetooth

I was upset that they no longer have the AV option but I dont do webcam chats or anything of the such and if I decide to I can opt to buy one later. I will upgrade the memory myself and upgrade the hard drive to a 100gig plus 7200 rpm drive. My question is should I do it and if I do should I get 1 stick of 2gig memory or get the 1gig x 2 set? Not sure if windows premium vista supports 4gig of memory anyway. Any help or swaying either way is appreciated. This site is very helpful. Also is that waterfield sleeve anygood I was also looking at a built NY one in black its neoprene anyway thats besides the point. Thanks again.

Dan

 

Definitely do the upgrades yourself; you'll save a lot of cash. Go for the 2 sticks of 1 GB each. The m1210 supports dual channel, so the 2 sticks will actually run faster than a single 2 GB stick. Vista will support 4 GB of ram, so that is a consideration, but 2 GB is plenty for this machine, IMO. (I've got 2 gig in my m1210, and I've never felt like I needed more.) As for the sleeve, I don't know. I bought a neoprene-like sleeve on ebay that I've been very happy with.

 

I was under the impression that the 32bit version of Vista (which will come with your m1210) will only recognize 3 GB or RAM, and not the full 4. You would need to upgrade to the x64 version of Vista, but unfortunately because its an OEM version of Vista that comes packaged with the Dell, Microsoft wont upgrade you to the 64 bit version for free, you'd have to purchase it yourself You might want to see if anyone can verify what I'm saying before making your final decision.

Id have to agree with the previous poster though-- 2 GB has been more than sufficient for my computing needs, and the 2x 1 GB setup would def be the best way to configure the system (as opposed to the 1x 2 GB) Hope this helps!

 

yep the vista dell ships is only 32 bit, which only supports 3.2GB of ram at most. and yes if you want to support 4GB you need the 64 bit where you would have to buy your own separte version of vista, where you would get it with the box (ultimate) or where you have to mail your cd key to microsoft online (rest of them)... then they'll mail you a disk for free (but you have to pay for shipping)...

 

try the outlet damn nice deals in there. i just got xps 1210, 7400, 9cell, BT, intel wifi for 800$

 

Yeah I was looking at the outlet but the price between the outlet and a new one is hardly anything now. Is there any down side by going with the outlet ones? Shorter warranty? Scratches? If its only refurbished not scratch and dent is it basically almost new in appearance just played with a little. I may have to lean that way ill check it out.

Dan

 

I just got 2 m1210's (haha for the price of 1 spec'd out m1330) and looked around a while for the sleeve. I ended up going with this one because it was the best I could find at only 16 bucks at new egg.

http://www.caselogic.com/13_laptop_shuttle/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=70111

I got it in black and it is a lovely red on the inside. With the 9 cell it fits snuggly, and with the 6 cell its a little loose... but i'd rather have it that way the the other way around... No one really makes 12 inch widescreen cases so this is about the best you can do. I went for it cause the pocket is big enough to carry the 9 cell battery and a small wireless mouse. Perfect!

Its a little tight to get the power adapter in there. But I considered getting the dell slim adapter, that thing is SMALL and perfect for that pocket.

Yea evidently vista 32bit CAN address 4gb of ram, but the bios/motherboard combination on the m1210 can only address 3.25. Oh well, 2gb upgrade from outpost was good enough for me. Also the larger 5400 drives (120+) are about on par with the 7200 speeds on the smaller drivers, so keep that in mind.

Hope you enjoy your m1210, Im sure you will. I have been elated with mine, it really is the best deal in computing right now I think.