E1705 with $200 to $500 rebates at costco.com... is it a good deal??

Hi guys-
I've been hoping for a good coupon from Dell since the beginning of December in order to get the 9300 model... was waiting for the $750 off $1999 coupon for a while hoping that it might appear after the holidays or at the end of their quarter ... so far, nothing nada... just when I was thinking of using the $650 off coupon, I heard that Dell was switching the 9300 to the E1705 model.... after weeks of research, I finally settled on that model because I tend to keep stuff for a long time... my current desktop pc was bought in 1999 so, you see what I mean!! I like to hang on to it for years and so, I get something with lots of options for expanding, right??!! Anyway, so I figured that I better wait a bit longer to get Dual Core right with the Vistas coming out next year or so... but Dell coupons have been *so-so* lately... at Costco.com, they currently have the entire line of Dell notebooks with an instant rebates ranging from $200 to $500 ... granted it's not an amazing deal like the $750 off $1999 coupon from Dell but I wonder what you guys think of these :
Online price $1,699.99
Less coupon
-$200.00
YOUR COST
$1,499.99

FOR E1705
Intel® Core Duo T2400 Processor at 1.83GHz
Centrino™ Technology
2MB L2 cache
667MHz Front Side Bus
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 Shared 533MHz SDRAM (2 x 512MB)
100GB Serial ATA 5400RPM Hard Drive
8x DVD+/-RW, DVD & CD Burner Drive4
17" WXGA+ display; up to 1440 x 900 pixels
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Intel® PRO/ Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless(802.11a/g, 54Mbps)
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Internal 56K V.92 fax modem5
Integrated Stereo Sound
Integrated Subwoofer
I/O Ports:
IEEE 1394 integrated port (1394 cable and software sold separately)
6-USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) compliant 4-pin connectors
5-in-1 removable memory card reader
Video: 15-pin monitor connector
Digital Video Interface (DVI)
S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector
Slots:
5-in-1 combo card connector
One ExpressCard slot 54mm 1.5 V and 3.3 V. Supports ExpressCard 34mm and 54mm
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005
Battery: 6-cell 'smart' Lithium-Ion battery, 53Whr6

OR
Online price
$2599.99
Less coupon
-$ 500.00
YOUR COST
$ 2099.99

Intel® Core Duo T2500 Processor at 2.0GHz
Centrino™ Technology
2MB L2 cache
667MHz Front Side Bus
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 Shared 533MHz SDRAM (2 x 512MB)
100GB Serial ATA 5400RPM Hard Drive
8x DVD+/-RW, DVD & CD Burner Drive4
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
256MB DDR NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 7800
USB TV Tuner with remote control
Intel® PRO/ Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless(802.11a/g, 54Mbps)
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Internal 56K V.92 fax modem5
Integrated Stereo Sound
Integrated Subwoofer
I/O Ports:
IEEE 1394 integrated port (1394 cable and software sold separately)
6-USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) compliant 4-pin connectors
5-in-1 removable memory card reader
Video: 15-pin monitor connector
Digital Video Interface (DVI)
S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector
Slots:
5-in-1 combo card connector
One ExpressCard slot 54mm 1.5 V and 3.3 V. Supports ExpressCard 34mm and 54mm
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005
Microsoft® Works Suite 2006:
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery6

And, if the prices are decent, I am having a hard time deciding between the 2... I tend to lean toward the one for $2099 because it has a longer battery, TV tuner and the better video card (GE Forge 7800)... although, I don't do any gaming... I figure I need a good video card for viewing DVD, right??! btw, the True Life screen doesn't do much for me as I get a bit bothered by the glare though I'm sure I could learn to live with it... anyway, if you have any thoughts on those deals or as to which particular one you might recommend, let me know
Thanks ++
Sonia

 

Well most of the Dell deals out now are going to end on the 15th. So who knows... maybe they will put out some good coupons on thursday.

The Intel 950 should be enough for DVD viewing... however because you plan on getting Vista, it will be nice to have the nvidia. Vitsa is going to have some pretty fancy visual effects, so you will need a good GPU if you want to use the.