Did I make the right decision - 1705e?

I ordered a 1705e w/

E1705,Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5200 (2MB/1.6GHz/533MHz) $1512.91
17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA, for Inspiron 9400/E1705 $0.00
2GB, DDR2, 533MHz 2 Dimm, for Inspiron 9400/E1705 $0.00
256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X 1400 HyperMemory, for Inspiron9400/E1705 $0.00
120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive for Inspiron 6400/E1505 $0.00
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English
8X DVD+/-RW Drive, for Inspiron 9400/E1705 $0.00
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps), for Inspiron 9400/E1705 $0.00
Primary Battery, for Inspiron 9400/E1705
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR), Vista,


I do not play games, just lots of photo-editing (photoshop/coreldraw/picasa), internet stuff & burning dvds/cds. It might be overkill but I need to replace the i5200 thats 5yrs old and missing the keyboard. Did I do okay?

 

That should be sufficient for your needs and considering it has the X1400, although it is a lower end GPU, you could play newer games just at a lower res/set. As for burning dvd and using photoshop you shouldnt have any problems because its loaded with RAM. The price is decent but you could have looked at the dell outlet and found on for a lot cheaper. www.dell.com/outlet/

 

seems to me ok if you're not gaming hard!
but maybe, IMO if you're looking for some cheaper system, you might find other 17" models under $1,499

 

I didn't look at other machines, I have been more than happy with the old dells I have had. Take'em part and put them back together w/o worrying about voiding warranties. I've had Toshibas, Sonys and imbs, the dell is the only one still worth running. I have spilled coffee, water and soda +times on the 5200 and the sucker is still chugging. I'm hard on machines, multiple firefox windows, picasa, photoshop and publisher open at the same time. Anyways my husband will not touch anything MS, so I'm on my own when I need to fix it. No I do not want to go the unix/linux/freebsd/etc route BTDT no fun for the graphic designer in me. THanks for the advise, just needed some conformation that the machine is suitable for me needs.
stacey

 

You're getting a very good general purpose machine. If you need battery life, consider downgrading the graphics card to the Intel integration option. That will give you an hour or two extra, without any real loss for 2D stuff.

 

actualy the configuration is ok as it is presented. i don't think someone with a 17" is looking for battery saving ! are you gonna use it while riding trains/plains Stacey ?
if downgrading to Intel card, some CAD or graphing apps may suffer !

 

You probabably should have gotten a faster CPU, maybe one with 4mb cache.

Mike.

 

is it worth $200 -$300 extra for his tasks ?