Frickin Dell... they're about to lose a sale over $25

Yes, it's a fully loaded e1505 configuration, and I'm already getting a pretty good deal, but decided i want the 2 gig 667mhz ram to match the 2.0's 667mhz bus speed, which puts the price 25 bucks over my credit limit.

Supposedly the kiosk guys are going to escalate the matter to their regional manager today to see if he'll agree to knock it off... we'll see.

I know I can buy the ram elsewhere later on, but already compared that situation to just buying it through Dell, and I'm saving 5-10 dollars after selling the old ram for a fair price (based off other similarly spec'd ram). That is not worth it to me.

Don't know what will happen, hopefully they make it work... I may just cancel the order because if I went ahead with the "lesser" 533mhz ram, I would probably return it anyway knowing that it wasn't what I truly wanted. This sucks, because I was excited about getting my first notebook.

 

Actually, the 533 ram runs just as fast as the 667 ram because the latencies on the 667 kill any speed advantage the ram has. We have a big thread on it somewhere around here, but 95% of the benchmarks tied.

Once lower latency ram is available it will be a different story, but 533 vs. 667 ram really isn't a big deal like a lot of people think.

 

They let down my wife when she was buying for a school account. So she went gateway LOL. She asked them why where the computers more if she bought them threw the school link? They gave her some lame excuse and she said a school discount shouldn't be more. They then said we don't care we sell most of our computers to home users LOL.
So they lost out on two full computer lab upgrades LOL.

 

You should buy it with the 533, or get the cheapest ram config you can and purchase elsewhere. Where did you look for aftermarket ram? You should save MUCH more than $5-$10. Heres a link for a quality 2GB kit 2x1GB 667 for $159. Dell charges $285 to upgrade from 1GB to 2GB 667. Thats almost double a 2 GB kit, its $100 less for 533. Those prices are insane.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231116

 

As noted above, I did a search for these 533 vs 667 RAM threads, and most of them are older (well the end of last year and older mostly) Interesting reads...

One question though, I will be using this notebook more for graphics applications (Adobe and Macromedia suites) than games... I might load the Sims 2 game on it for the wife and maybe an older racing game for myself, but that's about it for games...

So which is better for graphics applications and the normal ms office, web surfing activities between the two different versions of ram? Most of the threads I read were filled with gamers' opinions (no offense to gamers or anything), I did read one person's post that said Photoshop was a bit better with the 667 ram... but that was about the only posting I saw geared toward us "computer graphics" people.

Also I just did another "build your system" on dell's site and when I added the 667 mhz ram the price was cheaper than when I ordered this last monday???

So I guess it boils down to which is better for my situation...

Thank you for any advice!

(EDIT: now reading all the posts above this one, I guess I shouldn't have walked away during posting this)

 

That's how their business works. It's high volume, low margin. So they don't need to worry about losing one or two sales. Whether you buy the notebook or not doesn't really affect their profit much.

 

You wont see any perceptible difference between 533 and 667 in any real world application, the only difference will be in synthetic benchmarks, and even then its slight.

Games may not be what your into, but high end games put more stress and strain on a systems components most noteably RAM cpu and vid card than pretty much anything else in the average home user market. So generally speaking, if its good enough for a gamer, it will be more than good enough for a non gamer.

 

Iceman0124, I just noticed in your sig you have 667 in your 1210, does your ram have a better latency?

what made you choose it over 533?

 

I would think the 667 would be better just for the simple fact that it isn't labeled as "shared'

from Dell's site:
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
or
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM

they are probably both shared I guess, because both the Ati and Nvidia are shared video cards and not dedicated.

 

I could not agree more. A lot of times, such small & incremental speed jumps are crippled by other bottlenecks in a system.

 

Exactly..........

 

I got the only choice 667mhz. But it may not be the real advantage I think. I bought it because my M1210 shares RAM with video card go 7400. I have to say it is pretty fast no tests but it is also in with a T7600 4MB cache. Latency does make a difference but surely by now they have found a fix for that I hope?????

 

I got my system through Dell outlet, outlet systems have set configs. When all was said and done I got the system for just under $900 US shipped.

Shared memory has nothing to do with speed, I'm not sure why Dell marks it like that, more than likely to sucker people into to paying the extra $100. I personally think your best bet is to get the cheapest ram setup you can, and order a kit like the one I linked in the post. Its $285 for a one GB 667 upgrade from Dell(2x1GB total) , vs $159 for 2 one GB 667 matched sticks, you'll save a bundle even if you dont sell the old ram.

 

Take a look at this thread, and there are many more other articles & forum threads which will show you that right now there is no point in paying more for 667Mhz, especially if it is $50+.
After market upgrades are the cheapest

 

I think Dell is getting a little tighter on negotiating...

I bought my e1505, had it for a week and dumped Vista so I called them and told them I was going to send it back if they didn't swap my Vista install disks for XP install disks. The said no and gave me an RMA number.. called me Wed. to ask me for the tracking number.

So my second try was to do the same thing to just get a freakin Dell drivers disk... same answer. No. And that one don't even cost them anything... Go figure. They'd dump a $1500 sale over sending me a stupid XP driver disk. They had no problem sending me a Vista driver disk... but XP, absolutely not.

 

All of those drivers can be download online though...you didn't need the driver disc.

 

They cant just issue an operating system license, you would have had to return the laptop and gotten a new one. The system shipped with Vista, once a system has been issued a COA, its stuck with it and it cant be changed. You can install XP on the system, you will however need to obtain a valid license for it though, the license issued by Dell for your system is vista only and cant be used for any other OS.

 

Yes Iceman is right.
It is not a matter of getting your Vista installation back and sending you a copy of XP.

I think you are being little unreasonable here. OEM Windows copies are more tightly bound to the notebook than you think.

Besides, why don't you want Vista ? Vista may have few performance and compatibility issues right now, but they will be fixed and it will certainly replace XP soon enough. If you give up Vista now and switch to XP you may regret it later.

 

I have to agree with this.

Possibly. But Dell is always anxious to make a sale...it's like selling cars, every sale is important, especially if they can get you to do it over the phone.

I guess a lot of people don't know this. Good point here.