Couple Questions Potential Buyer

Hey guys,

I've been looking at the HP dv6500's for quite some time. However that is before I realized that Dell offered a faster processor (T7500 2.2Ghz), upgraded dedicated gfx card (Nvida Geforce Go 8600 GT), as well as Preminum Edition of Windows for a cheaper price than HP with lower standards (T7300), Nvida (8400 GS), and Vista Home Basic. Anyways now for my questions.

1.) I'm eligible for the Dell University Discount $200 coupon code. Is there ANY other discount (code or not) I can stack on top of that?

2.) How much of a difference will one notice from the Intel t7300 2.0 Ghz to the t7500 2.2 Ghz? Will there be any difference at all?

3.) Does the 9-cell battery stick out of the laptop at all, or at a noticeable weight? About how long of life does it get?

Thanks a lot guys I really appreciate it

My Dell:

SYSTEM COLOR Jet Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows ® Vista Home Premium Edition edit
DISPLAY Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800) edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8600M GT edit
MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz edit
HARD DRIVE Size: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
OPTICAL DRIVE CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive) edit
WIRELESS NETWORKING Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell) edit
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor - Next Business Day

For: $1524 after University Discount So happy

 

1) I don't think you can stack another coupon on top of the university discount.

2) I decided to go with the T7500, but I am one of the very few to do so. I don't see why not, faster is better .

3) The 9-cell does stick out a tiny bit, but its nothing to be worried about. Take a look here. (made by derviskemal)

 

Thanks a lot man, I appreciate the help! I've been custimizing the HP for so long, but now that I can get better specs at a cheaper price, I'm really excited . Do you have any idea what the EEP discount means? I'm kinda confused with how it works, I've been searching on the forums for an answer.

 

larson i went for the T7500 too lol, i agree the faster the better even if it is buy a little bit

 

I think most people on this board will tell you that the difference in speed is very unnoticeable than if you say spend the extra 95 dollars on more RAM or a faster harddrive.

 

Yep . Also, I plan on gaming with the new DX10 games, the extra .2 should help somewhere in there.

 

I don't see how this makes sense... Then why upgrade from the 1.8 to the 2.0, the upgrade from the 2 MB L2 Cache to the 4 MB L2 Cache plays a role, but I think the PCU plays a bigger role that the L2 Cache. So I don't understand how there is no/little performance increase going from the T7300 to the T7500.

 

I think you'd see a reasonable increase when running under load..probably not much of difference with basic apps. Personally i'd consider upgrading to a 7200rpm drive; the 5400RPM might be the performance bottleneck depending on what kind of programs you're running.