Advice on my i8600 Configuration

Hey Guys,

After several months of researching and reading reviews, I've decided to get a Dell Inspirion 8600. Lately, I've been waiting for a good deal to come up and just recently, one has. This week, Dell Canada is offering to double the memory on the system and providing shipping, both for free. It all comes to about $1999 CDN. I am on a budget and I want to save as much money as possible. $1999 CDN is the base price and you can't go any lower than that.

The configuration I'm looking at is as follows:

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 705(1.5GHz), 15.4 WXGA
- I don't know why Dell Canada doesn't offer the P-M 715 chip, so I guess I won't be getting 2MB of L2 cache. Could someone tell me if I'll really know the difference, me being an "average" user, between the Banias and the Dothan? Also, the upgrade to a WSXGA+ screen is $100 CDN. To me, that's considered alot of money. But a screen is a screen and just as long as I'll be able to see what I need to see, it's fine. However, are the quality of the WXGA screens just as good as the WSXGA+ screens in terms of brightness, contrast, response times, etc? And just of the top of your head, does anyone know who makes the WXGA screens for Dell's i8600? Thanks.

1GB,DDR,333MHz 2 Dimms
- This is the special Dell Canada is offering this week. I know Dell over prices their memory upgrades (For example, this particular upgrade is valued at $600 CDN), however; I don't plan on purchasing additional RAM from Crucial or Newegg, nor do I plan to upgrade the laptop in the future. I'm sure 1GB of RAM is enough right?

64MB NVIDIA® GeForceTM FX Go5200 Go
- I'll be going to University next month so I won't be doing alot (if any) gaming. I read around that the GeForce FX 5200 is DirectX 9 compliant so this should be enough for what I want to do.

24XCD-RW/DVD Combo Drive

40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
- I understand that hard drives that aren't 7200rpm in an i8600 are only 4200rpm. I've read around the forums and alot of people are saying that the 7200rpm Hitachi hard drives make alot of difference in terms of performance. But since I have 1GB of RAM, what if I don't make use a "paging file" on my i8600 and just rely on the RAM alone. By eliminating the paging file, do you think there will be some performance increases because now the hard drive is used slightly less? Will that work?

Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 WLAN (802.11b, 11Mbps)
- It's not 802.11g compatible, but I'm sure "g" routers are backwards compatible with "b" wireless cards. Also, my Internet connection is only 3Mbps; thus, I don't think I'll need a "g" card. Intel's Pro Wireless card is somewhat comparable to Dell's Internal Wireless card in terms of performance, range, and reliabilty right? Because to upgrade to a Dell Wireless miniPCI card is $99 CDN and I don't think it's really worth it.

Lastly, I'm unsure whether to buy the Dell Nylon Carrying Case or whether to go look somewhere else. Has anyone purchased this case? If so, how do you like it overall? It's $50 CDN and I'm not sure if it's worth it to purchase this item off Dell.

I want to find the best deal as possible. Would it be wise to order my laptop online; or is it possible to negotiate further and get better deals by picking up my phone and calling Dell (and tell them how much you love their company). Any help is appreciated because I've been waiting for quite awhile to get my hands on a Dell.

Thanks alot! [ ][ ][ ]

 

Dont worry about Banias VS Dothan, as the "average" user does not need dothan

WXGA VS WSXGA: WSXGA can support higher resolutions (more on screen at once, but smaller font sizes)

1gig of ram is enough; anymore would be overkill for average user

I have an intel pro wireless card and it is great.

Dont forge the possiblity of laptop backpacks.

I would say order online. They wont give you a better deal for "sucking up" [ ].

Hope this helps.

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Fujitsu S6210: 1.6Ghz PM ~ 768MB RAM ~ 60GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
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Hey! Thanks for your help!

Yeah I didn't the difference would be noticable. I think the Pentium-M 705 should be good enough. Also, anyone know anything about paging files and how they're used? I was thinking maybe if I eliminated the paging file, the OS would use the 4200rpm (slowness) a little less increasing system performance as it would mostly be assessing my RAM. Would that work?

I've heard that by calling Dell, sometimes the service representatives give better deals (sometimes). I'll try and give them a call anyway just to try my luck. It doesn't hurt to try, after all, you'll be getting the same deal (if not, better).

Ya, laptop backpacks, for sure. I just hope I can put my school books and textbooks in the backpack along with the laptop. Would it not be too crowded? Also, by getting a backpack, if I use it for everything, will the laptop get crushed with all the other things I put in it?

Thanks again!