Do Dell have a January sale?

Manaris

Does anyone know whether or not Dell will have a January sale? I am getting a new laptop, and have pretty much decided on an Inspiron 9300. Problem is, they currently have a very good deal (€200 off, free delivery and free printer), but it ends tomorrow.
I don't want to rush into buying my laptop only to see it even cheaper next week (or a better machine for same money), but by the same token I don't want to miss the current offer if there isn't going to be a better one next week!

I know that Dell always have an offer of some description going on, I'm just wondering do they generally do something special for the post-christmas sales, or will it be business as usual?

Cheers.

Capt'n Midnight

Dell ALWAYS have a sale. Almost always something free. Double memory or processor upgrade or something. Moores law means that silicon chips are falling in price by about 1% a week and lots of the deals are to get you to buy now.

Will stuff be cheaper next month, almost always.
Will they have more of a sale than usual , that I'd doubt.

ButtermilkJack

Manaris wrote:

Does anyone know whether or not Dell will have a January sale? I am getting a new laptop, and have pretty much decided on an Inspiron 9300. Problem is, they currently have a very good deal (€200 off, free delivery and free printer), but it ends tomorrow.
I don't want to rush into buying my laptop only to see it even cheaper next week (or a better machine for same money), but by the same token I don't want to miss the current offer if there isn't going to be a better one next week!

I know that Dell always have an offer of some description going on, I'm just wondering do they generally do something special for the post-christmas sales, or will it be business as usual?

Cheers.

D**L are con-artists!! Sorry to be so negative but I was researching laptops a few months back before I bought mine and they are pure 'cheats' when it comes to pricing. I priced a laptop with 'FREE' printer and 'FREE' delivery, and a month later, the laptop had gone up in price, and they were offering 'FREE' Double memory. This process went on for about 3 months or more until it finally dawned on me that they just keep raising and lowering the price of their machines for each 'FREE' offer they have so that, in truth, you always end up paying them the same (no matter what the offer).

Sorry to rain on your party but 'there's no such thing as a free lunch'...

Having said that, they are relatively inexpensive. All I'm saying is, if they're offering you something for free, they're making it back somewhere else. If you like their machines, pick a 'budget' for yourself and get on the phone. Tell them what you want and they should build you a machine for your money. Forget the gimmicks, tell them you want a faster processor rather than a free inkjet printer, and so on...

Karoma

Rule of thumb for Dell purchases: Decide on what you want.. keep watching for ~3 weeks...

optiplexgx270

ButtermilkJack wrote:

D**L are con-artists!! Sorry to be so negative but I was researching laptops a few months back before I bought mine and they are pure 'cheats' when it comes to pricing. I priced a laptop with 'FREE' printer and 'FREE' delivery, and a month later, the laptop had gone up in price, and they were offering 'FREE' Double memory. This process went on for about 3 months or more until it finally dawned on me that they just keep raising and lowering the price of their machines for each 'FREE' offer they have so that, in truth, you always end up paying them the same (no matter what the offer).

Sorry to rain on your party but 'there's no such thing as a free lunch'...

Having said that, they are relatively inexpensive. All I'm saying is, if they're offering you something for free, they're making it back somewhere else. If you like their machines, pick a 'budget' for yourself and get on the phone. Tell them what you want and they should build you a machine for your money. Forget the gimmicks, tell them you want a faster processor rather than a free inkjet printer, and so on...

True but afaik the prices do fall in jan and anyways if the deal isnt so good the 200€ "off" deal will roll round again in 4-6weeks. They just rotate the "Sales" each week.

RichyX

Karoma wrote:

Rule of thumb for Dell purchases: Decide on what you want.. keep watching for ~3 weeks...

Solid advice.

That's what I did and ended up with just about the best deal currently possible on an Inspiron 6000.

Free printer is the biggest p*ss take as it's a rubbish rebranded Lexmark with only demo cartridges and not even a damn USB CABLE!!!

Dell have bargains but know your sh*t before buying.

nl

Im after just getting a Inspiron 6000 aswell. I couldnt for the life of me find a better deal anywhere else. Here's the specs:
1.83GHz Pentium M, 2MB L2 cache
1024MB 533MHz DDR2 RAM
crappy integrated 128MB Intel graphics accelerator
60GB hard drive
8x DVD +/- RW
nice laptop backpack

The whole lot came to 940 euro Ex VAT (for the family business :-)
Was that the best I could do?? Dell do seam to be very good when it comes to laptop value for money.

RichyX

What i got was-
Pentium M 740 1.73Ghz
Gig of RAM
60 Gig HD
64MB ATI X300 graphics
8X DVD +/- RW
Standard LCD 1280x800 max.

came out to 1050€ inc. vat.
You can get almost the same laptop cases in Argos for a tenner less so went there instead.

nl

As a matter of interest, is the Intel Integrated graphics capable of providing any sort of half decient performance in relatively modern games?? Especially if is used alongside a fairly high performance system.
The laptop is actually for my dad but he would be interested in playing games such as Sim City, Civilization, and other strategy based games.

optiplexgx270

nl wrote:

As a matter of interest, is the Intel Integrated graphics capable of providing any sort of half decient performance in relatively modern games?? Especially if is used alongside a fairly high performance system.
The laptop is actually for my dad but he would be interested in playing games such as Sim City, Civilization, and other strategy based games.

no worries for those games..

madramor

I put off buying a dell thinking it would be cheaper after christmas
its now 20% more expensive.

Manaris

ButtermilkJack wrote:

D**L are con-artists!! Sorry to be so negative but I was researching laptops a few months back before I bought mine and they are pure 'cheats' when it comes to pricing. I priced a laptop with 'FREE' printer and 'FREE' delivery, and a month later, the laptop had gone up in price, and they were offering 'FREE' Double memory. This process went on for about 3 months or more until it finally dawned on me that they just keep raising and lowering the price of their machines for each 'FREE' offer they have so that, in truth, you always end up paying them the same (no matter what the offer).

Sorry to rain on your party but 'there's no such thing as a free lunch'...

Having said that, they are relatively inexpensive. All I'm saying is, if they're offering you something for free, they're making it back somewhere else. If you like their machines, pick a 'budget' for yourself and get on the phone. Tell them what you want and they should build you a machine for your money. Forget the gimmicks, tell them you want a faster processor rather than a free inkjet printer, and so on...

I kind of knew that's what they did alright - I actually decided to wait until the new offer came out on Thursday, configured the exact laptop that I had configured under the previous offer, and there was only about €50 in the difference (I got it cheaper by wating, so that was nice!).

Here's what I ordered:
2.0 Ghz Pentium M 760
1 Gig RAM
100GB (7,200 RPM) HD
128MB x300 graphics
WUXGA TrueLife Screen (1920x1200)
8x DVD +/- RW
Bluetooth Module
Carrying Case (It's kind of hard to get 17" cases, so decided to order one from Dell)
Spare Battery (9 cell, 80 Whr)
Logitech wireless mouse.
Free Dell 720 Printer (I didn't even want this, but they wouldn't let me NOT get it!)
XP Pro.

€1,982.04 delivered. (Price includes 7% discount)

The laptop is my engagement present from my fiancee (we got engaged last week), so that makes it even sweeter! Waiting patiently for it to be built/delivered now Anyone any idea how accurate Dell's estimated delivery dates are? My Order confirmation says 6th Jan (next Friday). How likely is it that I will actually get it by then?

zod

watch for the promotion codes on the snail mail they send out and then purchase using http://www.dell.ie/epp :cool:

AnCapaillMor

Wait for the last 2 weeks of january and watch the prices drop, its the end of the financial year so they try to sell as much units as possible.

TempestSabre

Karoma wrote:

Rule of thumb for Dell purchases: Decide on what you want.. keep watching for ~3 weeks...

Best advice. Though don't limit it to just dell. Sony, IBM, Samsung, Siemens all make great laptops, probably even better then the Dell.

Do some reading up on the games you play, see if other people are running them on laptops. Also if you get a low res screen like a 1024x768 the game will run quicker than on a bigger res.

optiplexgx270

TempestSabre wrote:

Best advice. Though don't limit it to just dell. Sony, IBM, Samsung, Siemens all make great laptops, probably even better then the Dell.

Do some reading up on the games you play, see if other people are running them on laptops. Also if you get a low res screen like a 1024x768 the game will run quicker than on a bigger res.

Sorry but getting a low res screen is crap ... get the best res screen you can and if needs be lower the resolution when playing games.

Prob i have with the brands you mention is that they are hard to source / get pricing info on. They prob are better in some cases.

AFAIK:
Sony / IBM = way overpriced but really good build quality/reliability
Samsung = Good alternative
Siemens = Make some crap H/W but also have very good stuff out there too

No way im buying from pc world or the likes.

TempestSabre

No way will you drive a 1920x1200 screen for games with slow integrated gfx chipset. Switching to a lower res than the native res on a TFT will look dire.

Some screens can switch to other res and still look ok, the Sony's seem to be good at this. However some laptop screens can't and will look woeful in a non native res.

True in Ireland its hard to find decent suppliers for these. But really you have a warranty with the manufacturer. So it doesn't matter who you buy them off.

optiplexgx270

Res issue can be true but generally there is at least one res non native say 960*600 in your example that looks good and im sorry but a screen with a res of 1024*768 outside games will suck big time.

Anyways the games he mentioned will have NO probs running on the spec he has described.

Thing i have against Pc World etc. is the inflated prices and in general the staff with the technical knowhow of an ant. I know the tech savy staff exist as i have overheard them giving customers advice when im browsing but i just always seem to get landed with the dope who out of stupidity lies to your face telling you black is white.

Capt'n Midnight

TempestSabre wrote:

Best advice. Though don't limit it to just dell. Sony, IBM, Samsung, Siemens all make great laptops, probably even better then the Dell.

Do some reading up on the games you play, see if other people are running them on laptops. Also if you get a low res screen like a 1024x768 the game will run quicker than on a bigger res.

Lets not forget Toshiba who have been making consistantly good laptops far longer than anyone else. They have had the odd dud but nowhere near as many as any of the others.

Also 1024x768 - if you don't like small icons and fonts then this is a must. Very high resolutions like 1400 can be tiring on eyes and rules out using an external monitor that cant support that resolution . Yes you can use a lower resolution but it would appear blurred n' stuff. - go in to PC world to look at the screens, waste their time and buy elsewhere.

If you have the cash and aren't worried about portability ALDI and LIDL do large heavy desktop replacements with all the ports you could want.

A lot of people seem to be happy with Acer too.

optiplexgx270

Ok seems older ppl likethe lower res personally i like the higher the better, my work laptop was 1920*1600 and that was a must for working, i like to have as much info onscreen as possable (when coding etc.) and that was paired up with a 15" 1024*768 external TFT which was a bit useless in comarison.

Since i have changed to a desktop for increased processing power but do at times miss the larger screen area of the laptop. Its a 3.4Ghz and i have to say i was expecting a bigger jump in performance over the laptops 1.73Ghz Pentium M (I know they are different and a Pentium M is approx 25%+ better than a P4 @ the same speed.).

I have a 1024*768 dell Latitude X300 at home too and its great for web / some games but if i had to work on it id go mad.

TempestSabre

While I like a higher res for coding, I don't like small fonts and icons. Which is why I run with larger fonts and icons in high res. However better the a high res for coding or working is two monitors.

However that is all off the point. The original poster has bought a 1,920-by-1,200 screen so I'd like to see that at lower res before I'd buy one. I'd also check out how other people find it running the same games. Hes bought it with a x300 which is quite slow. Might be ok for strategy games, but you'd want to check.

Once thing I note about a lot laptops is that they don't have logically arranged keys and have smaller return/backspace keys. Something I would find a problem. The Sony I have has a pretty ordinary layout and thats one of the things I like about it .

Manaris

TempestSabre wrote:

While I like a higher res for coding, I don't like small fonts and icons. Which is why I run with larger fonts and icons in high res. However better the a high res for coding or working is two monitors.

I bought the laptop primarily for doing photoshop/illustrator work while away from my desktops, so tbh, the higher the res the better (more screen real-estate). Small icons don't bother me in the least! Agree about two monitors being better though - Which is why I have two attached to both my desktop machines

TempestSabre wrote:

However that is all off the point. The original poster has bought a 1,920-by-1,200 screen so I'd like to see that at lower res before I'd buy one. I'd also check out how other people find it running the same games. Hes bought it with a x300 which is quite slow. Might be ok for strategy games, but you'd want to check.

As I don't intend gaming on the laptop (that's what my desktop is for), this isn't really an issue for me. A friend has the same screen, so I did see it at lower res before buying (still looks pretty good IMHO)

TempestSabre

Sounds like your all sorted so.

ThunderStorm

Hey Guys,
Comming back to the topic. The free ram upgrade to 1024 is now over. Is it temporary or will they introduce this offer again at the end of this month ?

RichyX

ThunderStorm wrote:

Hey Guys,
Comming back to the topic. The free ram upgrade to 1024 is now over. Is it temporary or will they introduce this offer again at the end of this month ?

The same offer will be there again in a week or two usually.