Please give me reasons to convince myself to buy a $2200 laptop

Hi, I'm planning to buy the new XPS 17 3D and I somehow configured it to around $2200 with tax. And that is the configuration I want. I'll most likely stick with this laptop for at least 4 yrs while I'm in college. Right now I'm using a 7 yrs old dell laptop that is dieing.

Here are the reason why I've been stuck on the payment page for 2 hours LOL :/ and I need reasons to counter these.
1. I know I can buy this laptop with the same configuration for few hundred bucks less after 1 year.
2. $2200 is too expensive for me.

Thank you in advance.

Spec:

Module Description Show Details
XPS 17 XPS 17
Operating System Genuine Windows® Home Premium, 64-Bit, English
Processor 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz
Memory 12GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard - English
LCD 17.3" FHD (1080p) 3D Display with 2.0MP HD Webcam
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics
Hard Drive 640GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Color Elemental Silver Aluminum
Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9
CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray Load Blu-ray® Triple Writer (reads and writes CDs, DVDs, BDs)
Sound JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3 + Creative SoundBlaster X-FI MB 1.2
Wireless Plus Bluetooth Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 and Bluetooth 3.0
Battery 92 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Hardware Support Services 1 Year Basic Service Plan
Recovery Tools Recovery DVD for Windows® 7 Home Premium OS, 64bit, English

ACCESSORIES
NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses (1 pair) Qty 1
Dell Part# 331-1417 Unit Price $149.00
Estimated Delivery Date 3/23/2011
TOTAL: $2,069.99

 

Slowly and calmly just close the browser window you are on.

But in all seriousness, buy what you need with what you have.

 

Hurry! Click "Confirm Order"!!!

The configuration and price sitting in front of you is not going anywhere soon. Sleep on it and make sure you are buying what you need and within your means. Also, remember that when buying from dell, they overprice their hard drives and memory upgrades. Don't upgrade those. Buy any memory or hard drive upgrades from newegg or the like. You will get a better price, quality, and warranty on those parts.

 

is it worth it though? part of me is telling myself I'm crazy. sigh..

 

Only you can decide that. The question you have to answer comes down to "Is this system going to provide me with all that I need for the amount of time I expect to own it, and does the price warrant this?"

 

If you're really going to use it for 4 years, why not! But if it's one of those things where you want to trash it as soon as something new and better comes out, it might not be such a good idea.

I still think you should get it

 

What are the specs that you ordered?

 

Post the specs of it.
Also, did you go through Dell University? You may be able to get it for a little less, at the minimum for the same price they will most likely have a bigger HD or more RAM.

 

Updated the post with spec.
Problem is I'm not in college yet. I'm still a senior in high school and this will be the laptop I used throughout my whole undergrad which is at least 4 years.
And I'm using the money I saved not my parents.

 

If you don't have to lose your housing or cut down your food supply after buying it, get it!

 

You are overdoing it. You don't need an i7, and you won't get optimus with it. Get an i5. 12GB of memory. Way overdoing it. 4GB works really well for most people including myself. You can save a ton of money if you get reasonable with your needs and you will still love your laptop just as much. Want to increase your speed in a couple of years? Add an SSD then. Add more memory later if you need it.

 

Also, are you gaming? Do you need a 3GB graphics card?

 

Dang, 12gb memory? I have 6gb, even when working with images in CS5 that can reach 1gb, with iTunes running, and FFox, I still have around 2gb left. I can guarantee you won't need more than 8gb.
You sure you need 3d? I really don't see it catching on too much with PCs (unless you like buying $30 BluRays) in the next couple years. Even if you buy a game that does support it, the graphics card really isn't top notch enough to crank it out.
The i7, not a bad choice, I like mine. Depends on what you do though if you would absolutely need it, as the top end i5 dual cores are pretty quick and can hold their own.
However software is heading in the multi-core direction and quads will be more future proof.

 

just get the base 500GB HDD, you can add another later for cheaper.
Dont get the 12GB ram, just get minimum and add your own later for cheaper
dont get creative soundblaster, its only software and not worth the money

configured like this it comes to $1814.99

 

the newer sandybridge i7 quads support optimus

 

Student Discount? I did not know about this, i ordered my XPS 15 yesterday can i still get the discount???, im currently attending college here in NYC.

 

Given you are going off to college, I would highly suggest 4 year warranty + CompleteCare. Tone down some of the other specs to get in that extended warranty.

 

Alright thank you so much guys for all the help and advice!
I tuned it down to 1800+ with tax 2000 which is 200$ lesser. LOL I changed it to 8GB RAM and 500GB HDD and removed that software for speakers like JKleiss suggested.

 

+1 on that. If you plan to keep this laptop for a long time then extended warranty is must.

 

One thing to remember when buying from dell. You will always get a better deal going through a sales rep over the phone. What kind of deal is not known. For example, I got an extra $100 off the system in my sig by calling over the phone and haggling with the sales rep. Let them know you are ready to buy NOW, over the phone with them and haggle them down on the price. You could get money off, free upgrades, or at the least get free overnight shipping etc....

 

What am I suppose to say? I'm not good at haggling, in fact I nvr haggled.
"I'm ready to buy but I want it for cheaper" ?
Or like "I'm ready to buy but the price is kind of out of my range" ?

 

That should tell you something right there. Surely there is no guarantee the the new one will last 7 years but I would definitely have to at least weigh that into my purchasing choice.

The only thing I see wrong with your order is the warranty. Get all you can get for as long as you can, thats my stance on warranty on laptops and especially Dell's Complete Care. It is worth the cost even though it is expensive.

If this purchase is going to put you in a bind financially speaking, then walk away and keep using your 7 year old laptop until you have no other choice or buy a cheaper laptop. Either way, the ball is in your hands and you are the only one that can make this decision for YOU.

 

Just call them, tell them you are considering purchasing a laptop and that its a little more than you want to spend right now. Ask them if they can configure it and see if they can give you a better price. When they quote you a price, just tell them that its still a little expensive, and ask them if they can give you any better deal. I saved 200 bucks on the last two laptops I purchased, got Microsoft Office for free, and got a free printer.

 

If you have to ask us to convince you to buy it, then you already know what the answer is. If you can't afford it, then you can't afford it. Get what you need, with what you have, not what you want.

Though I agree with the others, if you actually CALL Dell instead of ordering online, there's a good chance you could get a much better deal.

 

The XPS 17 3D does not support Optimus, though nothing you can do about that if you want the FHD screen.

However, I would ask whether you really intend to use the 3d screen enough to warrant getting a pair of 3d glasses right now. The top of the line i5 would be more than enough, but even the top of the line dual core (i7 2620M) should be great-$30 back is $30 back.

And do you really intend to burn Blu-Ray discs? Their only draw is their capacity, plus the discs are more expensive, so consider whether you would really need to burn anything more than DVDs.

Above9000: First take a look at the EPP program for your school (delluniversity.com) and configure it there. Currently it's only a 2% discount vs. regular, at least for me it was, so it might not be worth it. I'd call Dell up and say that you noticed there's a bit of a student discount via the EPP store (since you probably bought yours from the Home store), and see if they can match it. And/or you can say that you'd like to cancel and reorder, and they might offer you $100 off to not cancel.

 

I suggest you consider what I have been doing ever since I've started college all the way to graduate school. I usually buy a new laptop every 1.5-2 years with above mainstream specs for the XPS line. It sounds like a costly lease but the fact is I always manage to sell my previous one for around 50-60% of what I initially paid for. In this way, even though I don't have the top of the line model initially, I experience a "refresh" every here and then at an affordable rate.

 

Thats pretty similar to what I do, never had the same computer for more than 2 years.
Sell the used one on Craigslist and buy a new one with refreshed specs. Bonus is getting the latest version of Windows, brand new battery, new trackpad/keyboard that aren't all worn down, etc.

 

I agree with many of the posters, I think the 3D technology is something fairly useless in a laptop, and I wonder if it isn't just going to be a fad that goes away. I think for college you are far better off with a non-3D machine with the lower RAM, and even the i5 processor. Unless you are in a major where you are doing high amounts of photo/video editing, or other processor intensive tasks, you will see little difference in between the i5 and i7, especially since the new i5 is a true quad core. I would encourage you to get the 1920x1080 screen if you go with a regular non-3D model.

 

I agree with most of your post, but I wish people would stop saying that. There are no quad-core mobile sandy bridge i5s. They are all dual-cores, just like the i7 2620 is also still a dual-core, just like the last generation. The only quad-core i5s are in the desktop line.

 

That's the problem. There is currently no non-3D 1080p option on the new XPS 17.

 

Thanks, I thought the mobile i5 Sandy Bridge was a quad core also. I appreciate the correction.

 

You are a student, spend less on this machine and think of all the extra Beer and Pot Noodles you could buy. You also don't need 3D pornographic material at college as there is plenty of the real thing to go round.

Students nowadays just aint what they used to be

 

You will be disappointed with the 17, especially once you start carrying it around to all of your classes. The 14 or 15 would have been a better choice.

I mean seriously, what are you going to school for? Something that will require autocad or heavy video editing/3d rendering?

Take a look at my sig, I know what it's like to carry around a 17 inch and an 18.4 laptop with a backpack full of books as well, it's not fun.

 

I bought a 2k laptop for school 2 years ago. It was pretty high end back in the day and I loved to show off by running 10s of tabs and multiple games on high at the same time. But honestly, the weight of a 17in (and more importantly the powerbrick) was a pretty big pain for mobility. Ultimately I highly don't recommend getting such an expansive laptop unless you have legit reasons to get it such as autocad or running a pixar in your dorm. No one really needs more than 4 gigs of ram, the GPU in the xps aren't good enough to be legitimate gaming machines, and the CPUs are unlikely to be the bottleneck of any graphics heavy applications esp as more and more get GPU support.

 

Have you considered a business model? You can pick up a nice refurbished Precision M6500 with the nice 1920x1200 WUXGA screen that has 100% user selectable color gamut AND it comes with a standard 3 year warranty.