Dell Bargains/Discount Code thread

Allyall

Dell seem to be constantly releasing offers and coupon codes, and every time they start a new offer, it seems to be the start of a new thread. I thought it might be easier to have a thread for them all, especially if they are going to continue..

Anyway, latest offer is:
Save 10% on smart selection Inspiron and XPS PCs. Use the coupon code FC5FRNMJ5DFLTK. Red Hot Deals end 20 Apr. 2015.




This could be a very good offer if they come back in stock - Inspiron 14 3000-Series

P_Cash

extended to 27 Apr

eamon234

Avoid the Inspiron 3000 at any price. It's terrible. Awful screen and trackpad, flimsy build and judging by the Pentium version I'd hate to see how slow the Celeron one is.

quad_red

Anyone got any up to date codes?

bidiots

I tried out the Inspiron 5000 17 last week, had it for a few days before sending it back. It had the latest i7 with 8gig ram and standard hdd.
Not very impressed with the build quality at all, trackpad was terrible, viewing angles on the 17 inch screen were not great at all.
Performance wise, atrocious compared to an older AMD chip laptop I have, I really couldn't believe how bad it was.
On the other hand I have a Venue Pro which is a great piece of kit for relatively small money...Dell confuses me, either buy an XPS or go cheap with a Venue.

beauf

bidiots wrote: »

...the latest i7.... compared to an older AMD chip laptop

That is a meaningless comparison.

The best i7 I can see on the Inspirion 5000 17" laptop seems to be the 5th Gen i7-5500U. Its a ULV (ultra low voltage) dual-core which the primary aim is increased battery life not performance. There are almost a 100 different types of i7 cpus for laptops over the years. Rating them on CPU benchmark this one is the 67th fastest. It not even a quad core.

Comparing the fastest i7 to this is as follows

Intel Core i7-5500U @ 2.40GHz CPU Mark 4,007
Intel Core i7-4980HQ @ 2.80GHz CPU Mark 10,179

Fastest AMD laptop cpu was this
AMD FX-7600P APU with AMD Radeon R7 Graphics 4,627


My point being you need to compare the specific processor model for it to have any meaning.

Also the speed of the laptop is often constrained by other factors like the hard drive or SSD, or RAM or internet connection.

beauf

bidiots wrote: »

...
Not very impressed with the build quality at all, trackpad was terrible, viewing angles on the 17 inch screen were not great at all. ..

But I thank you for this. So many people just look at specs whereas for me screen quality, keyboard, track pad quality are more important. The budget models tend to suffer in this regard.

Insprion is the budget line. You have to look at their other ranges, to get better build quality, screens, and better processors.

bidiots

Apologies, I intended to say '5 year old laptop that has an AMD chip'....

My old toshy had 4gig of ram, standard hdd and AMD chip that I can't remember the Hz. Threw Win8 on it and it was like a new machine
This brand new i7, with 8gig ram was actually sluggish compared to the toshy, nuts really!

quad_red

Aw man. I didn't realize that.

Can Ye recommend a well made Dell laptop with decent looks (doesn't need to be ultrabook swish) and good performance for a grand or less??

balfe1990

quad_red wrote: »

Aw man. I didn't realize that.

Can Ye recommend a well made Dell laptop with decent looks (doesn't need to be ultrabook swish) and good performance for a grand or less??

I just bought a new XPS 13 for 1099 euro.

Almost bezeless screen, 8 gigs of Ram, some model of i5 and a full HD 13.3 screen.

Its really light and thin and just zips along so far. It also fits into thr body of a much smaller laptop because of the lack of bezel on the screen

bidiots

As beauf said, the inspiron is middle of the road so don't be disheartened


The XPS 13 seems to be the dogs nuts. With your budget, the options should include Asus and Lenovo and Toshiba for comparison.
Just list what you need and compare, gaming? touchscreen? dedicated graphics?
The default should be SSD, loads of Ram, fast chip(ask beauf)
Some nice options out there....

Don't forget to try refurbs, Argos have an eBay store for these.

Another option is to buy a refurb macbook :0)

bmm

eamon234 wrote: »

Avoid the Inspiron 3000 at any price. It's terrible. Awful screen and trackpad, flimsy build and judging by the Pentium version I'd hate to see how slow the Celeron one is.

I have the celeron version n2830, and its flying, i agree that the screen is pretty dreadful but the trackpad is fixable and i find the build is sturdy bar the screen frame/back cover ) Total cost €180 , these are not apple ipad prices !!

Remember to remove McAfee the minute you get a dell, replace with avast. McAfee, i found, has a hugely negative effect on performance!

quad_red

Does the XPS13 not feature a similarly hobbled low power i5?

And the €1,099 version has only 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.

Is there a premium option that maintains the build quality but sacrifices size for more grunt? Want great screen (no need for touch), will take a fast HDD if SSD not affordable. Screen size 13 to 15 inches.

While the majority of use will be standard (MS office, Photoshop) I would like the option of doing some video editing (video of kids etc).

balfe1990

quad_red wrote: »

Does the XPS13 not feature a similarly hobbled low power i5?

And the €1,099 version has only 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.

Is there a premium option that maintains the build quality but sacrifices size for more grunt?

While the majority of use will be standard (MS office, Photoshop) I would like the option of doing some video editing (video of kids etc).

Any laptop i5 that you buy will be hobbled, theyre MUCH less capable than most CPUs you can put in a desktop.

Mine definitely has a 256Gb SSD and definitely has 8 gigs of RAM and I paid 1099.

There's higher end models that retain the same quantity of RAM but up the screen res to QHD, 512GB SSD and it changes to an i7.

There's actually about 7 or 8 SKUs if I remember right, all the way up to about 1600 euro.

Edit: Higher end models also include touch.

beauf

bidiots wrote: »

Apologies, I intended to say '5 year old laptop that has an AMD chip'....

My old toshy had 4gig of ram, standard hdd and AMD chip that I can't remember the Hz. Threw Win8 on it and it was like a new machine
This brand new i7, with 8gig ram was actually sluggish compared to the toshy, nuts really!

Again you're comparing a fresh install with the bloated mess you get pre installed. Not the same at all.

bidiots

Doesn't matter a jot what bloatware may be on a new pc(there was none,i got rid)
A brand new laptop should not be outperformed by a 5year old one.

quad_red

balfe1990 wrote: »

Any laptop i5 that you buy will be hobbled, theyre MUCH less capable than most CPUs you can put in a desktop.

Mine definitely has a 256Gb SSD and definitely has 8 gigs of RAM and I paid 1099.

There's higher end models that retain the same quantity of RAM but up the screen res to QHD, 512GB SSD and it changes to an i7.

There's actually about 7 or 8 SKUs if I remember right, all the way up to about 1600 euro.

Edit: Higher end models also include touch.

You got a great deal then cos the 8GB/256GB XP13 is definitely €1,200 now.

Tried to join the VIP club for discounts over the last week but it just says the club is down for maintenance but existing vouchers will be honored.

beauf

quad_red wrote: »

Aw man. I didn't realize that.

Can Ye recommend a well made Dell laptop with decent looks (doesn't need to be ultrabook swish) and good performance for a grand or less??

Hard to do that unless you see then in the flesh. With buying from the web you can return it within the period. I've seen the 7000 ones and they seem decent. I'm not going to recommend any specifically as I haven't seen many to judge them.

bidiots

quad_red wrote: »

You got a great deal then cos the 8GB/256GB XP13 is definitely €1,200 now.

Tried to join the VIP club for discounts over the last week but it just says the club is down for maintenance but existing vouchers will be honored.

Ring them, tell them you have VIP code but can't add it. Ask them for a quote and they will email it out to you....

balfe1990

quad_red wrote: »

You got a great deal then cos the 8GB/256GB XP13 is definitely €1,200 now.

Tried to join the VIP club for discounts over the last week but it just says the club is down for maintenance but existing vouchers will be honored.

Maybe I got a discount of some kind, but it doesn't say it on the order sheet. Weird.

bidiots

There has been a few weeks of promotions up until May, maybe they're finished

beauf

bidiots wrote: »

Doesn't matter a jot what bloatware may be on a new pc(there was none,i got rid)
A brand new laptop should not be outperformed by a 5year old one.

Age has nothing to do with it.

bidiots

beauf wrote: »

Age has nothing to do with it.

ok....

I'm out.

fletch

Yeh the price has gone up. I got the FHD/8GB RAM/256GB SSD for €989.10 (including Dell VIP Discount - the site has been down a few weeks now so just ring them instead)

quad_red

fletch wrote: »

Yeh the price has gone up. I got the FHD/8GB RAM/256GB SSD for €989.10 (including Dell VIP Discount - the site has been down a few weeks now so just ring them instead)

Holy crap. Was that after a VIP discount or before it?

fletch

quad_red wrote: »

Holy crap. Was that after a VIP discount or before it?

After the discount...it was €1,099 before the discount.

Edit - I'm waiting for mine to be delivered today

quad_red

fletch wrote: »

After the discount...it was €1,099 before the discount.

Edit - I'm waiting for mine to be delivered today

Jammy!

What date did you order it?

fletch

quad_red wrote: »

Jammy!

What date did you order it?

April 23rd....can't wait as my current laptop is an 8yo Dell Insprion 6400 :eek:

quad_red

fletch wrote: »

April 23rd....can't wait as my current laptop is an 8yo Dell Insprion 6400 :eek:

I try to tell my wife that working on a six year old laptop is equivalent to crawling over glass - she doesn't buy it.

quad_red

Tried there - the best they will do is €1,128.

'Special managers discount' blah blah blah

The VIP website remains down. I emailed them on Monday with no response. Tried to get them to put me through to them on the phone there and they said the VIP club wasn't available to Ireland at this time.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Lads I need a decent laptop to run Photoshop, and probably some video editing and web editing software, I've always been using bargain budget laptops but I need more power now (screaming at the screen a lot these days).

What should I be looking at most importantly - processor, RAM?

Any recommendations?

bidiots

Budget?
Graphics card, ssd, ram and screen size/quality are what you need to focus on. Photoshop - which version? check compatibility with graphics card and this program, same with Premier Pro. Rendering will be a huge thing for you.

Depending on budget, consider a refurb macbook, seriously;)

balfe1990

fletch wrote: »

April 23rd....can't wait as my current laptop is an 8yo Dell Insprion 6400 :eek:

Enjoy it, it's a great machine(who'd have thought I'd be saying that about Dell again)

First order of business, remove as much of the bloatware as possible, uninstall the virus that is McAfee and download "classic shell" if you're not a fan of Windows 8's start screen.

quad_red

I've tried about a hundred discount codes to no avail.

Kinda blows how many more discounts the US store gets compared to us!

bidiots

Keep badgering them on the phone, tell them your colleague got it last week for 1099 and you would like to get the same deal....annoy them until they break:p

unkel

fletch wrote: »

can't wait as my current laptop is an 8yo Dell Insprion 6400 :eek:

You and me both

Mine is running W8.1 and has an SSD. It's flying along nicely for basic use like browsing / word / etc.

Will probably do me for another 5 years or so

quad_red

bidiots wrote: »

Keep badgering them on the phone, tell them your colleague got it last week for 1099 and you would like to get the same deal....annoy them until they break:p

Oh, I tried. Was on the phone for 25 minutes. He wasn't having it. Lots of 'talking to his manager' but he would go no further down that €1,128.78.

Dunno why the .78 but he was very specific!

I'd even have bought with the VIP 10% discount thing but they refused flat out. Said both the discount to €1,099 and the VIP discounts now longer applied.

Furzy

bidiots wrote: »

Budget?
Graphics card, ssd, ram and screen size/quality are what you need to focus on. Photoshop - which version? check compatibility with graphics card and this program, same with Premier Pro. Rendering will be a huge thing for you.

Depending on budget, consider a refurb macbook, seriously;)

Really?? ...... I'd have thought cpu speed and number of cores was the bottleneck for most video editing. Agree that you should have min 8gb ram though.

Furzy

bidiots wrote: »

I tried out the Inspiron 5000 17 last week, had it for a few days before sending it back. It had the latest i7 with 8gig ram and standard hdd.
Not very impressed with the build quality at all, trackpad was terrible, viewing angles on the 17 inch screen were not great at all.
Performance wise, atrocious compared to an older AMD chip laptop I have, I really couldn't believe how bad it was.
On the other hand I have a Venue Pro which is a great piece of kit for relatively small money...Dell confuses me, either buy an XPS or go cheap with a Venue.

Interesting - which Venue Pro are you talking about? I had the Venue 11 Pro with 4th gen i5 which was quite expensive and was by far the most infuriatingly useless laptop/tablet I've ever used. Eventually had it replaced by Dell. I know a lot of others had similar problems but I think the cheaper versions fared better.

bidiots

Furzy wrote: »

Really?? ...... I'd have thought cpu speed and number of cores was the bottleneck for most video editing. Agree that you should have min 8gb ram though.

In the environment I support, super cpu/cores/mb are all obvious necessities but in general, as in standard/good laptops, I've seen that GPU performance and Ram is essential

bidiots

Furzy wrote: »

Interesting - which Venue Pro are you talking about? I had the Venue 11 Pro with 4th gen i5 which was quite expensive and was by far the most infuriatingly useless laptop/tablet I've ever used. Eventually had it replaced by Dell. I know a lot of others had similar problems but I think the cheaper versions fared better.

I have the Venue 8, 2gig ram, 64gig ssd at 150 euros. Compared to various android tabs, an ipad air, win surface rt - its excellent. Would I pay more for something like the Venue 11? Probably not, at that price range I would look for a good refurb ultrabook on Argos ebay.

fletch

quad_red wrote: »

Oh, I tried. Was on the phone for 25 minutes. He wasn't having it. Lots of 'talking to his manager' but he would go no further down that €1,128.78.

Dunno why the .78 but he was very specific!

I'd even have bought with the VIP 10% discount thing but they refused flat out. Said both the discount to €1,099 and the VIP discounts now longer applied.

Had a nightmare day setting up the XPS...wireless kept dropping. After 4 phone calls to Dell, 3 system restores and 2 phone calls to UPC, it turned out to be a problem with UPC. The Horizon box was using WPA and Windows 8.1 has issues with WPA...switched to WPA2 and everything is working perfect.
It is a quality machine...boots insanely fast. Battery life looks like it's going to be excellent. Only gripe so far is the touchpad which isn't as good as the Lenovo touchpad I'm used to but I'm sure I'll adapt to it.

quad_red

fletch wrote: »

Had a nightmare day setting up the XPS...wireless kept dropping. After 4 phone calls to Dell, 3 system restores and 2 phone calls to UPC, it turned out to be a problem with UPC. The Horizon box was using WPA and Windows 8.1 has issues with WPA...switched to WPA2 and everything is working perfect.
It is a quality machine...boots insanely fast. Battery life looks like it's going to be excellent. Only gripe so far is the touchpad which isn't as good as the Lenovo touchpad I'm used to but I'm sure I'll adapt to it.

Picked up the i7 version yesterday and the difference between that and my six year old laptop... eek!

Didn't have any issues with wireless even though my wireless is using WPA?

But +1 on the trackpad.

Jesper

Just rang the VIP 'club' for Dell to avail of the 10% discount.
0044 (0)844 4445683 and press 1.

I was told the site has a technical difficulties but will offer the 10%. I was looking for an XPS and they aren't that customization so ordering over the phone is ok.

Separately I'm looking at the XPS 15 right now - I do a lot of photo editing so the 4k screen would be great. The XPS 15 still uses the 4th Generation processors. Does anyone know when this will be updated to the 5th Generation? The woman on the phone couldn't help.