Dell Vostro 1500 Outdated?

I will be starting college in the fall and need a notebook to last all 4 years of college. I keep hearing good things about the Dell Vostro notebooks and it seems the 1500 series will fit my needs. My question is will it be up to date and not be this old, slow notebook in 4 years? The Vostros I'm looking at are similar to this one- http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Dell-Vostro...goryZ177QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Will this notebook be considered decent in 4 years or should I look elsewhere?

 

The one you're looking at has a very low end dual core processor and integrated graphics but as long as you don't game, do photoshop, video editing or other such things you should be fine. It's good enough for office, watching movies etc. It all depends on what you're planning to do with that laptop. Other than that, build quality of the Vostro 1500 is amazing. My sister has had one for almost a year and she couldn't be happier with it.

 

New Flash !

Any notebook you buy today will be outdated within 1 year. In 4 years we'll probably be dealing with Windows 7.

If you need something now buy it within your current needs and budget. I own a Vostro 1500 and 1700 and they are great laptops at a great price. My recent purchase was a Vostro 1500 and I bought it at a great price.

 

technology moves so fast that if you buy something today,then it is going to be outdated tomorrow..im waiting for my xps m1530 and im not sure i'll be getting it.my sister wants to offer me a good lappy to last for the 3years of university..i 'm urging her to buy and she keeps on saying "what's the point of buying it now when we both know that montenevia is coming in july.instead of buying that xps,you could wait for the new generation which will be coming out in october."..just to point out that technology is moving so fast that you can buy a new lappy today and boast about your beast and another model comes out in the next couple of months.your lappy is then outdated even though it's only months old.. take my advice: buy it now and don't regret it afterwards..the vostro 1500 is a nice budget laptop and will last you through college(except that the battery may get used up)..my vostro 1700 can be used to kill somebody bevause its so tough!!! take the plunge.

 

I would not buy it on Ebay. You can get the same price on that one direct from Dell at the same price and free shipping. Also, consider a 3 year warranty with accidental coverage to protect against damages at school.

To increase the useful longevity of the laptop, upgrade the processor and increase the size of the hard drive. You might also consider a dedicated video card instead of the integrated video. These will increase the effective life of the machine in the future. If you spend a little more now, it will save you from having to spend another $600 in 2 years.

You should be able to get at least 4-5 years out of a laptop if you get a better than entry level machine when you purchase it.

Yes, technology improves changes very rapidly on computers, but that does not mean that you need a cutting edge machine every six months--unless you always want to have the latest and greatest machine to play the hottest new games at the highest levels.

 

I never like to let people think that they can make a laptop last over 4 years. Can it happen, yes, but its likely to need parts being replaced over that time. Sure you could spend several hundred dollars on a 4 year warranty, but i think the best way is to buy a cheap laptop today, use it for 2 years, sell it and buy a new cheap one for the remaining two years. Why do this? Well, you will be less likely to have parts fail. You get a new faster computer in two years and overall cost difference should be about the same as having the one old laptop with a 4 year warranty.

 

That is assuming that there is a salvage value in the machine at the end of 2 years. You would have to determine what residual value that there may be after 2 years.

It is kind of like buying a new car versus a used one. You can save a lot of money by buying a used one and keeping it rather that buying a new one every 2 years. Yes, you can have increased maintenance costs, but usually they will be dwarfed by the savings on depreciation.

I usually get 4 years on a laptop and then give it away or junk it. We do the same at work, but there, the tax savings weigh in by considering it a depreciated asset.

In experience, machines will fail within the first several months (initial failure) and then they will usually not have problems after that, assuming proper maintenance. Yes, sometimes a hard drive will fail, but the newer machines have proven to have more longevity than 5 years ago.

 

That's exactly how I buy my laptops. My Vostro 1500 was purchased with the bare minimum. I got it cause Dell was offering a free upgrade for the 8400m GS. Final cost $515 plus tax, free shipping.

My Vostro 1700 was a little different because I had to price it at $1299 so as to get $500 off. I upgraded the CPU, HDD, 8600 GT, DVD re-writable, carrying bag and a Microsoft Wireless mouse. Final cost $803 plus tax.

The less you spend now the more you are inclined to get something else that's more powerful than what you previously bought for maybe around the same price. That's if it starts to give you problems or you outgrow the machine.

 

depends on what you do. at my work, they still use computers with P4 using Windows 2000. All we do is excel, word and internet browsing. still does it job beautifully. if you want to play games in four years, then hahahaah not gonna happen. as long as you have practical expectations for your laptop, it will last.

 

I'm not much of a gamer at all. I do like to do some minor photo editing, but nothing as extensive that would require photoshop. Do all the Ebay Vostro 1500's have the low end dual core processor? Could someone link me to a overall solid machine for under $650?

 

Why buy from ebay when you can get a brand new machine from Dell with free shipping for less money and a 21 day guarantee???

Here's a link to the Vostro 1500's $589 will get you this:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bqdwksd&s=bsd

 

You can even knock another 40 by going to the 160gb hard drive from the 250 and another 25 by going to the celeron over c2d...making dells brand new price 524.

 

I agree with the previous posters, Buy it directly from dell, and configure it the way you want it. Buy the fastest you can afford too, since it will extend the useful life of it.

 

Browsing Dell Outlet, I see many Vostoro's within my budget. I know I need atleast 2GB of ram and atleast 160GB hard drive. The processor is where I'm unsure. Even though I will be using this for daily computing, I want more than just the bare minimum processor. I want something better in case I do push my machine at times, I want it to be able to handle the task with no problems. Will an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 do the job?

 

Yes, for most everything.

It also depends on the video card for games.