101 ways to spend €1800 on a dell

PoleStar · 2007-11-26 21:49:34

Hi. I am by no means computer illiterate, but its been a couple of years since I have bought a laptop. I have a budget of €1800 to spend. I find looking at the dell website very confusing as you cant just look up a list of all their laptops, you must click on a subset eg home etc and that subgroup lists a subset only of…

26-11-2007 10:49PM

#1

PoleStar

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Hi. I am by no means computer illiterate, but its been a couple of years since I have bought a laptop. I have a budget of €1800 to spend. I find looking at the dell website very confusing as you cant just look up a list of all their laptops, you must click on a subset eg home etc and that subgroup lists a subset only of laptops available.

Having looked a good bit it does seem there are lots of ways to make a system.

Im still confused.

I need performance on the go to run applications like photoshop and SPSS.

Anyone any recommendations or you need more info from me?

Thanks!

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#2 26-11-2007 10:54PM

AlmightyCushion

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Do you plan to play any games on the laptop? If not then you won't have to spend the €1800. You could get one with the fastest processor you can afford and then buy a 4GB kit off shop4memory.ie for around €200 and install that yourself.

What warranty would you like with it? What size are you looking for, as small as possible or do you want one with a big screen?

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#3 26-11-2007 11:05PM

PoleStar

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Hi

Thanks for replying so quick!

Looking for 12-13 inch screen maybe, ie portable. But good performance. What about something like the XPS 1330?

Or should I skip the whole dell thing and maybe go for an IBM or alienware!

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#4 26-11-2007 11:20PM

majiktripp

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The XPS 1330 would suit you quite well as would a Latitude model laptop too, its hard to suggest one particular model for your as you have quite a good budget to get one.
As recommended above,if you do go the Dell route, never slect a ram upgrade on their website as this is where they make a huge markup as regular joes don't know the true price you would pay for memory.
You mention IBM/Lenovo which I would highly recommend to, you could take a look on (can't believe I'm recommending them...) laptopsdirect.ie and see what they have to offer.
Take your time though, unless this *has* to be done by christmas, theres no real need to rush into buying something straight away. Just browse the websites and weigh up the pro's and cons of each one, even copy and paste the spec's of any laptops you have in mind into this thread and we can offer some better advice.

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#5 26-11-2007 11:22PM

AlmightyCushion

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PoleStar wrote: »

Hi

Thanks for replying so quick!

Looking for 12-13 inch screen maybe, ie portable. But good performance. What about something like the XPS 1330?

Here's the specs.

I'd definitely go with the m1330. You can get this one for €1170.

BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7250 (2.00 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support) edit
COLOUR CHOICE Tuxedo Black & 2.0 mega pixel Camera for CCFL Display edit
LCD 13.3" UltraSharp™ WXGA (1280x800) CCFL Display (220nits) with TrueLife™ edit
BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION No Biometric Fingerprint Reader edit
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load Drive, including SW edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr) edit
MODEM No Modem edit

You can upgrade the screen to one with an led backlight for €80. This will make the laptop a bit lighter and should give you better battery life.

Also you can upgrade the cpu to the T7500 for an extra €110. Whether you would get much benefit from this is debatable. If you plan on using photoshop a lot then you probably would but the T7250 is still a great cpu and you'd probably be better off saving the money.

You could also upgrade the ram to 4GBs by buying it off shop4memory.ie and installing it yourself. It may sound daunting but it's actually pretty easy. I don't think you need the 4GBs unless you use photoshop a lot and are editing really big images.

PoleStar wrote: »

Or should I skip the whole dell thing and maybe go for an IBM or alienware!

You could but boards members have a 10% discount with dell for the next week (hopefully it will be permanent but for now it is temporary, see sticky at the top of the page for details) and the m1330 is a great laptop.

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#6 26-11-2007 11:25PM

padraig_f

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There's a special offer of €145 off all computers in Dell Outlet at the moment, I bought an M1330 through it the other day. See: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055188662

Make sure you actually select the discount option though, it's not automatically applied and easy to miss.

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