Dell Inspiron E1705

Hey everyone I am in the process of getting a laptop for college and looking for some opinions on my choice. I have done research and I decided to stick with a 17" because I am going to only be using it mostly for typing papers, research, internet, and some gaming. I am trying to stay on a budget between $1700-2200 and I was looking at the Dell Inspiron E1705. I tried a build on what I wanted and here is what I came up with:

My Components
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)

OPERATING SYSTEM FREE Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with 1GB of memory

LCD PANEL 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™

MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz

HARD DRIVE FREE! 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

OPTICAL DRIVE 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS

SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition

My Accessories
BATTERY OPTIONS 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

WIRELESS CARDS Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N

BLUETOOTH OPTIONS Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)

My Software
PRODUCTIVITY No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD



ANTI-VIRUS & SECURITY McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 36-months

PHOTOS, MUSIC & MORE! Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo

My Service
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 3Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service



ACCIDENT AND THEFT PROTECTION Add Accidental Damage and LoJack Theft Protection to 3Yr Warr.

GETTING-STARTED HELP Dell On Call, 30day, Getting started Assistance, unlimited incidents

DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS 6 Months of America Online Membership Included

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0

Miscellaneous Award Winning Service and Support

Processor Branding Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor

Labels Windows Vista™ Premium


This is what I have decided on so far and I would like your opinions if you would change anything. I mostly play games like bf2 or Company of Heroes so I don't need a top notch Gaming Laptop because I already built my own desktop computer. Some questions that I have are:
With the LCD screen is it worth it to go to the UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife rather then the Wide Screen XGA+ TFT Display with TrueLife™(glossy)?

I was unsure about what type of wireless card to get:
Dell Wireless 1390b/g (54Mbps)
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g add $29
W1500" class='opt_desc_cell'>Hi-Speed: Dell Wireless 1500 Wireless-N add $49

Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N add $59



Other than that I plan on the 3 year warranty and I appologize for the long post but I would like to hear all of your guys opinions and if you have any other ideas on different computers I would appreciate to hear what you guys have to say and thanks again!

Jeff

 

I just got a 1705 and a 1505 last week.

The 1705 has the Ultrasharp Truelife and the 1505 has the xga+ Truelife. Compared side by side the Ultrasharp is superior. Much crisper and clearer. The Ultrasharp text is hard to read on the original settings but it is easy to increase the dpi when you need to. I also bought a Logitech cordless laser mouse with a zoom button which also helps increase the display size when you need it.

The 1705 came with the Dell Wireless 1390b/g and the 1505 came with the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g. I bought a Linksys router and both systems were a breeze to set up. I can not see any difference between the two cards as far as speed and connection. The both seem to perform the same at any point in my house.

I upgraded the 1705 RAM to 2GB 667Mhz. From what I understand it is better to match the FSB speeds to reduce bottlenecking.

I also got two 9 cell batteries for each system. I travel a lot and want the longest run times. So far I am getting about 2:45-3:00 hrs on the 1705. Not bad for a big laptop.

In my past experience with Dell (an Inspiron 8100 I got in Dec. 2000) I used the warranty more as the system got older. I was glad I got the 4 yr warranty with that system. I chose the 4 yr. premium warranty bundle for the 1705....better safe than sorry. Plus I got employee pricing so it wasn't that much more to upgrade.

At the time I purchased the systems the 160GB 5400 HD was the standard choice so I went with it rather than the 100GB 7200 for more money.

Overall I love my 1705. I have had a little adventure today trying to do a clean install of Vista Ultimate but I think I have solved all my issues...no thanks to Dell's foreign tech support. Trial and error eventually worked for me. The nice thing about Vista is that you can restore the factory settings quickly if you make a mistake.

I think you will be happy with what you are configuring.

Hope this helps you!

 

So I take it the give you the OS cd with your purchase? I thought I read somewhere that you had to pay $10 extra to get the cd but I never see that option when customizing. Is it the 32 bit version or 64 bit?

I was thinking the computer hardware can handle 64 bit OS so I was really wanting that option.

 

I would get rid of the anti-virus subscription and download avg for free. I would also get rid of the Audigy sound software. You could use those savings and upgrade to a 7200rpm hard drive...

 

Hey guys I appreciate all the posts....I think I am going to stay with the UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife to get that best viewing display and I think I may look into that upgrading to the 4yr warranty. I do have a few questions about some of the replies you posted:

Seven Lima,
I was wondering if you think its worth it to make the upgrade to the 7,200 RPM hard drive rather then the 5,400 one because is it really worth it in the difference?

Doozie,
Why should I get rid of the Audigy sound software, is it not worth the money or is there something else wrong with it? Is there anything else do you recommend for it or things to avoid?

I really appreciate all the help and I can't wait until I get this thing! Finally, is there any coupons that are avalable anywhere for making the purchase online beacause I thought I saw somewhere that there was?

Thanks!

 

Just personal preference from what I could learn when I bought my own E1705... didn't seem necessary but I could be wrong. I would seriously consider not paying for the anti-virus though, you could save the money and put it into the hard drive. you could read this recent thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=108142
it has some discussion regarding other options which are free and use less resources, such as avg, avast etc

 

From what I have read the only difference between the 5400 and 7200 HD speeds is when you are starting up and loading. I went for the larger capacity over speed. I really don't care if it takes a few seconds longer to load something. I would probably not even notice the difference anyway....
This system is very fast compared to my old 8100.

I don't know if you can call going from 120 or 160 GB to 100 GB an upgrade even if it is slightly faster but I guess faster is better?

Check this site for coupon codes. Look at the tabs on the top. One says "Dell Coupons".

The Audigy works with Vista now but it is just software. I am not sure it is a necessity....

 

I would buy a Gateway or MacBook if I were you. My E1705 came defective and has been in and out of repair. Sent to depot 3 times and still not working . I have only used it about 3 hours since Christmas. I am ready to kill.

 

I bought almost that same exact configuration (I got the 7200rpm drive and no audigy software). And for $1964, I thought it was quite a bargain.
Hardware-wise, it's a great laptop, but unfortunately I am sending it back to Dell for a refund due to the poor screen quality. And I did get the UXGA Ultrasharp Truelife. It was the SHARP (the company) version, and it shimmered like crazy. It looked like it had film grain on the screen. Very not crisp. And it was very dim next to even my wife's 3 year old Sony laptop. Plus, some of the keys on the keyboard were faulty.
If the screen is an important factor for you, it is hit or miss with the 1705.
I'm thinking of a Clevo/Sager with the nice LG screen.

 

How bad is a miss on the E1705 screen? I'm not picky but I don't want a ton of light leakage or anything.