Any way to unbundle Office from this weekend's Studio 17 deal?

I suppose there's not, but I'm once again being tempted by this weekend's Studio 17 deal. With the new 5% off coupon it's close in price to last weekend without it...but I have to get Student & Teacher Office with it. I don't suppose there's a way to unbundle that...?

I've already got a copy of Office 2007 (from a Microsoft promotion a couple years back...never actually used it), and even if I did get another copy of Office, I need one with Outlook in it, I guess.

Dang it, I wish Dell would just launch their new systems already or throw an LED backlight on the 1730 or something The Studio 17 is about what I need, but I'd rather have a much better GPU...

 

The thing with the deals is that you can't remove some of the things that it comes with. Office 2007 isnt as bad has the inclusion of a free "150 dollar value" of Verizon's wireless broadband card.

Thats why I tend to prefer the good 25% off coupon. Or the one config paper_wastage discovered on Dell EPP.

 

That's true about the Verizon wireless card!

What's the "one config paper_wastage" thing? I'm actually ordering from the EPP site, so if there's some decent deal I'd love to know about it!

 

Call them. They would have to cancel and resubmit your order though.

 

I haven't ordered, I'm just wondering if I could get this Studio 17 a bit cheaper

I was hoping for maybe at least $100 less than last weekend since I've got a 5% off coupon I didn't have then, but it's still coming out to the same price (actually a bit more) because you can't unselect Office this time.

(This weekend sale they've done three weeks in a row now is sort of strange...I mean why only offer a discount on the 1735 on the weekends?)

(And why do they call the LED backlighting "WLED" on the Studio models? Hopefully it really is LED and not some scamtastic name for CCFL )

 

the config in my signature..

but its xps M1330 and M1530, not studio17

lemme see if i can find a good deal for you

what is ur current budget, ideal specs and current best config u can find for studio 17?

 

Oh! Sorry, I didn't realize "Paper wastage" was a person, I thought it was the name of a deal or something!

I just went through the 1530 deal in your sig, and it is better than anything I can find through the EPP store on my own right now! Better by several HUNDRED dollars in fact (puts it about $80 more than the best Studio 17 config I can find).

I've been configuring the Studio 17 on the EPP store through the 3 day/weekend sale link which is $588 off.

I've got it configured as:
Radeon 3650
Core 2 T9300 (ie 2.5Ghz/6MB cache)
4GB RAM (don't actually care how much it comes with)
LED backlit screen
Blu Ray drive
Office 2007 Student/Teacher (don't want it, can't unselect it)
X-Fi Express card (I figure if the audio is low quality I can just use this)
Spare AC adapter
USB Modem
Dell's 'N' wifi card
4 year warranty with complete care

That's coming to $1603 after the 5% coupon, and before taxes or the $70 store credit.

I don't really have a budget limit, but I feel like I'm compromising on this system quite a lot because of that GPU. I'd actually *like* the XPS 1730, but it dosen't offer an LED backlit screen, which is mandatory for me (and of course at this point I'd like it bumped up to the 9800GTX, but that's a moot point )

 

Just put your activation key in the trial version to make it a full functioning one. No need to uninstall and install your copy.

 

Oh, thanks but I was really wondering if there was a way I could order this system without Office on it to save some money. I'm not really worried about having to reinstall, since I plan on buying a separate drive and just reinstall everything from scratch (including my copy of Office since I need Outlook).

 

Office trial is part of the bundled software.. aka bloatware. Just delete it from add/remove programs in control panel.

 

Lol then he has neither Office nor money...

I would call Dell and see if you can return the Office. Sometimes they let you like with warranties. But if they do not you can just turn around and Ebay it. I sold a copy of Office Basic online from my Gateway laptop for a bit over $100. They ship Office in a separate sealed package.

 

look here for studio 17

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=354428&t=891721

 

MS Office is optional when you order. It's not part of a bundled software. You'll get MS Office if you specifically wanted it. Otherwise it's installed as a trial basis.

 

With this particular deal it was bundled, not optional. I was hoping there was some way to unbundle it to get the deal cheaper.

Paper_Wastage's XPS 1530 deal is close enough in price that it's probably a better deal for me...except then I'm back to wanting to wait for Dell's new hardware

 

I guess for you it was at least something nice to pass the time.

 

The eternal wait continues!

I'm starting to wonder now if they're not going to release/update anything this month-just leave things as is until the "back to school" season starts.

 

Im guessing not. They will probably just rake in the sales from the Studio and the Mini Inspiron lines for the back to school, then right after its over, launch the XPS in September or October just so that it will get all the ones that they missed for the back to school sales and convince people who purchased a Mini Inspiron or other system to consider purchasing an XPS as well.

 

I wouldn't ever let a piece of software be a deal breaker for me. It is much more annoying, and permanent, to have to pay for hardware that you are not going to use. Seriously, I would go for it.

 

The thing is I'm having to pay for it, so the deal wasn't as good of a deal.

 

Doh! The deal's back...again. And Office is bundled with it...again. If I could knock off that $89 even it would be a bit more tempting.

I'm not even 100% sure if you can force ATi's reference drivers to install the way you can with Nvidia's on their mobile parts.

 

but do u want nVidia problems? i would stay with ATI atm

 

I'm not super concerned about those GPU issues (I'd assume they'd have them fixed by now? But if not, hey, I'm getting a 4-year complete care warranty)

I'm not clear if regular reference drivers will (force) install on mobile ATi hardware though. I've asked around, and no one seems to know (probably because most people who game on laptops have Nvidia GPUs).

I hate this, because the Studio 17 probably meets my needs fine, and the price is decent, but I just keep wondering if Dell's going to do a 1740 or whatever that's exactly the hardware I want.

EDIT: Also I know for sure I can force install Nvidia reference drivers on their mobile hardware, and that Blu Ray will still work, but I'm not 100% sure if that's the case with ATi hardware (probably, but...)

 

Installed the latest Vista Catalyst driver on my Studio1735 w/o modding and am still able to play bluray via Nero Showtime...as far as i can tell the stock 32-bit Vista driver is operating 100%!

 

Oh wow, thank you so much! That's exactly what I wanted to know!

Do you happen to have any experience running games on it? Any idea how it performs? Should be very solid, on paper at least. I'm thinking more and more I should just go for it. Just hate to be disappointed in a month when Dell releases some magical perfect system

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3772248

 

Thanks. Sounds fairly solid, and at least I know ahead of time it's DDR2.