The Benefits of Purchasing a New HD and RAM for M1330 and M1530?

I'm in the process of looking for a laptop for myself and my friend. I am looking at the M1530 for me and the M1330 for her, though I have yet to decide. If I go with these choices, I am wondering how beneficial it would be for us to get the cheapest HD, RAM, and battery options and replace them after we receive them? It seems that some people feel that the better HD and battery options offered by Dell are overpriced and end up upgrading on their own. As for the RAM, it seems like people prefer to use another brand than Dell brand RAM (it is Dell brand, right?). My question is: are their feelings justified, and should I pursue this option? Performance is important to me, so this is something I would be willing to do.

 

You should go with the HD and battery size you think is suitable for you at the time of purchase, since upgrading afterwards doesn't really give a price benefit. However, you should stick with the minimum RAM configuration provided because they overcharge for it and can easily be upgraded afterwards.

 

RAM definitely. Battery, not so much - I wouldn't trust a 3rd party battery, though prices are inflated these days because of the factory fire. HDD is a toss up. Just look at the market first.

 

Dell is getting alot better with there HDs and Ram prices. I got my 1330 with 3GB ram and a 320GB 5400RPM drive. Price was good at the time and both are plenty to drive Vista.

 

sorry to hijack your thread, but have a quick question...

this is the type of RAM I would buy to add with the 2GB of RAM I have in my Dell XPS M1530 right?

http://www.ncix.com/products/index....6672G&manufacture=OCZ Technology&promoid=1008

also, I assume that CL5-5-5-15 is the latency used by the RAM Dell offers?

 

My "Dell RAM" is actually a Samsung and yes it's CL 5-5-5-15

Anyway, some people do that -- buy the basic config and upgrade themselves. While it can save you some money, I personally prefer buying a laptop without having to upgrade myself [or at most, I'll only have to upgrade RAM]. Besides, aren't those "Dell deals" going on for the XPS? You could at least check them out.

 

When I configured mine, it was at 320GB and 3GB standard.. I upped it to 4GB so I could save an additional 4% since I needed to hit 1600 for the 12% with the EPP as I was short like $30 and didn't know what else to get.

 

I got 4GB of ram thru newegg.com, it was onlyfor $69 with free next day shipping. Just a thought in case you do decided to get a nice HD from Dell and cheapest ram.

 

I went this route. I didn't order the biggest or fastest HD, CPU & memory as I planned after 2-3 months get a bigger HD, faster cpu and max out the memory. Going Aftermarket, not only will prices will be better, but you can get the latests this way too.
On the battery, get Dells 9 cell now as their price is pretty hard to beat for that.

You may check out my personal review on the XPS M1530 in my sig if you like.

 

I ordered the M1330 with the $599 off configuration. The lowest amount of RAM I could get with that configuration was 3GB. 4GB was only $50 more, so I went with that. Dell is charging a lot less for RAM than they used to.