Getting an Dell I9300 tonight, need final advise

Hi all,

I'm finally ready to order tonight (want to take advantage of $800 off coupon). Definately want the 9300 (need a big screen and desktop replacement), but am unsure about some of the options. I will be using the laptop for everything (will setup my desktop back at home): everyday college stuff, I watch a lot of movies, constantly have about 15 IE windows open, outlook, word, AIM, and maybe one or two more programs. I'm not a big gamer, but I want to capability to play a nice game of NBA Live 05 or Madden 05 a couple of times a month.

Here are my questions:

1- Do I need 1GB RAM or will 512MB suffice? Like I said, I constantly have 15 IE's open, Word, AIM, sometimes Excel too.

2- Can I live without ANY warranty? I absolutely can't afford anything more expensive than the 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr Technical Support, which is $69 and I would love to not even get this, but I have never purchased a laptop. I've had a Dell PC before with no problems whatsoever and never got a warranty on that so I would hate to flush $69 down the drain. I'm on a budget.

3- Will the 1.60 GHz Pent M processor suffice? My only concern is that it is the lowest processor offered. Is it silly to get such a low processor with 1GB RAM?

4- The screen!! Wow, I've read all of the posts here about the 2 displays (Truelife and not) and still have no idea what to get. I'd be very pleased with a great screen, but is it worth the extra $125? Is the base screen (XGA+) impressive enough, or is it just your basic laptop screen?

5- I'm pretty set on the 128mb X300 card. Does anyone have any objections on it being worth the $49 premium over the 64mb?

Ok turned out to have more questions than I intended, but you guys are great, so hopefully it'll be a no-brainer. It's always easier for me to give advice on others' purchases but am totally indecisive when it comes to my own.

I appreciate any and all responses. I really want to order the system tonight to meet the coupon deadline.

Thanks!

 

Hi Dude... I can answer a few of your questions.

1: More RAM is always nice. It can improve your battery life too. However, 512 should suffice, but then upgrading means selling old RAM.

1b: Use Mozilla Firefox. You'll only need one window with 15 tabs. Real powersurfers use tabs.

2: Buy with a Visa card that has warranty manager. It will give you an extra year for free.

3: 1.6 is plenty. Dell charges more than others for CPU upgrades too. There is virtually no subjective difference between 1.6 and 1.8, even 2.0.

4: 1920x1200 is pretty small for a 14.4" wide screen. That's why I got the lower res one. But I have no comparison to give you. I like my screen. Can't say much else.

5: Not too sure...

inspiron 9300
1.6GHz
1GB DDR2
X300 128mb
DVD DL

 

You won't notice much if any dif btwn 64 and 128 vid cards, imo.
More ram is better, but get minimum and buy more from 3rd party vendor cheaper.

750 off coupon comming Wednesday, may take more off in long run depending on how it works versus configurations.

 

Here are the final specs:

Pentium M 730 - 1.6GHz
17inch UXGA w/ TrueLife
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
128MB ATI X300
60GB HD
24x CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
802.11 b/g Wireless card (Better work @ Rutgers U!!!)

Total system cost = 2,150 - 800 = $1,350

Hopefully the video card will be sufficient for me. (I currently have a RADEON 9500 PRO tx on my desktop, will the x300 be much diff?)

if wednesday's deal is better, i could always cancel and do this allll over again i suppose...